Cutting Through the Noise
December 12, 2007
We are not a big firm and don’t talk to thousands of investors on a daily basis, but Chris, Scott and I do talk to a fair number. From our conversations, there is one theme that recurs constantly. I DON’T ...
Read MoreDecember 10, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 8, 2007 What price-earnings multiple would you put on a company that is growing at 10 per cent, is highly profitable and pays a healthy dividend? A company that has steadily ...
Read MoreDecember 6, 2007
“ As always the key remains to focus on long-term valuations and step aside from the emotional rollercoaster which accompanies it. ” This is an excerpt from a recent interview that Dr. Sandy Nairn, the CEO and founder of Edinburgh ...
Read MoreDecember 4, 2007
Globe and Mail columnist Rob Carrick has recently been pounding the table on the poor investment merit of principal-protected notes (PPNs). In his column in last Saturday’s Report on Business ( A Do-it Yourself Principal Protection Plan ), Rob reiterates ...
Read MoreNovember 30, 2007
It’s the most important moment in one’s investment career - the day they receive their first paycheque. That is the moment that a young person can start a discipline that will last a lifetime - a discipline that will set ...
Read MoreNovember 27, 2007
Research studies have consistently shown that investors do worse than the mutual funds they invest in. And depending on what study you read, the shortfall is sometimes quite substantial. David Sung, from Nicola Wealth Management in Vancouver, has written an ...
Read MoreNovember 26, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published November 24, 2007 Over the last few weeks, I've been spending lots of time speaking with clients and other investors. It's been interesting because while I want to talk about Steadyhand, Steve ...
Read MoreNovember 19, 2007
While in Toronto last week, I spent some time with Christine Montgomery and Cathy Alsop from Edinburgh Partners (EP). One of the reasons Christine and Cathy were in town was to present to a group of clients and other investors ...
Read MoreNovember 12, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published November 10, 2007 As an equity guy, I don't like to admit it, but I recently spent some time with the bond team at Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management. Bondies aren't ...
Read MoreNovember 8, 2007
I don’t know what the market is going to do in the coming months. I do know we will have weak markets at some point (and I suspect they could be quite messy given the extremes we are now experiencing ...
Read MoreNovember 6, 2007
As I caught up on my reading this weekend, I was perusing an advertising feature that the Investment Fund Institute of Canada (IFIC) placed in the papers last week. The lead article was a review of a survey that IFIC ...
Read MoreOctober 30, 2007
After being grounded for five months, I got back on the road last week. Connor, Clark & Lunn was putting on an Investor Day in Toronto for their clients and that was ample reason to get me on a plane ...
Read MoreOctober 29, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published October 27, 2007 My partners and I were bouncing around ideas this week for an advertising program. We weren't coming up with anything too brilliant and even starting to get a little ...
Read MoreOctober 22, 2007
We have recently submitted a comment to the Joint Forum of Financial Regulators on their proposal (National Instrument 81-406) for a point-of-purchase document for mutual and segregated funds. If you have trouble sleeping, we have posted a copy of our ...
Read MoreOctober 17, 2007
On August 13th, we published a piece titled Proud to Shroud II – Claymore Balanced Funds , in which we discussed two new ETFs being offered by Claymore Investments. The new funds prompted us to make two comments. First, these ...
Read MoreSeptember 25, 2007
On efficientfrontier.com , William Bernstein recently published an article titled ‘ Comin’ Around Again? ’ in which he made some comments on the proliferation of ETF offerings in the U.S. I think it serves as a good follow-up to our ...
Read MoreAugust 13, 2007
I’m picking on Claymore Investments again. I don’t have a thing about them, but they’re hard to ignore because they advertise a lot and are releasing a steady stream of new products. They are also an interesting firm in that ...
Read MoreAugust 8, 2007
I wrote a piece in March about the TD Bank double ending an investment banking transaction ( TD Securities Does a Double Ender ). The theme of the posting was how free the investment banks are to operate with huge ...
Read MoreAugust 7, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published August 4, 2007 At some point in the next year or two, it is going to get much harder to be an investment professional. A significant market decline and/or bursting of the ...
Read MoreJuly 31, 2007
I’ve admitted before that I am a Jeremy Grantham junky. He’s not ahead of Steve Nash or Lucinda Williams, but he’s in the running. He’s often accused of being perpetually bearish, as am I, but both of us are able ...
Read MoreJuly 25, 2007
In this podcast, Dr. Sandy Nairn, the chief executive of Edinburgh Partners, discusses his firm's history, investment philosophy, approach to global equity investing, and why "this time it's different" are the four most expensive words in the investing language.
Read MoreJuly 23, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 21, 2007 My first gig in the investment industry in the early eighties was as a conglomerate analyst at Richardson Greenshields. It was while doing that job I first became sensitive ...
Read MoreJuly 19, 2007
Chris, Scott and I have had ample opportunity to see what’s going on out there in investor land as we’ve each had a chance to work with a number of our new clients. We have done enough portfolio reviews and ...
Read MoreJuly 9, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 7, 2007 Avner Mandelman's column in this space last Saturday featured the investment philosophy of Warren Buffett. If you've been reading this column or my blog, it's obvious that I also ...
Read MoreJune 28, 2007
We read in Larry MacDonald’s blog ( Avalanche of New Exchange Traded Funds ) on the Canadian Business site that there have been 18 new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) created this year in Canada. Horizons BetaPro has been the most active ...
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