Cutting Through the Noise
June 25, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 23, 2007 When it comes to distribution, the investment management business is remarkably similar to the media industry. The number of distribution channels is growing rapidly and change is the only ...
Read MoreJune 21, 2007
My wife tells me I can be a real downer at parties. There are lots of reasons why she says that, but one is that I just can’t help myself when people start telling me how well they’ve done on ...
Read MoreJune 18, 2007
Early on in his book Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment , David Swensen talks about market timing and asset allocation. His words reinforce how we feel about the topic. After writing about how market timing has had ...
Read MoreJune 12, 2007
I’ve shown great restraint. It’s been seven months since I wrote specifically about principal-protected notes (PPNs). But I came across two things last week which reinforced that the structured product lunacy (including PPNs) continues unabated in the Canadian wealth management ...
Read MoreJune 11, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published June 9, 2007 One of the reasons I’ve recently focused my career on the individual investor, after years of working with pension clients, is because there is a huge disconnect between their ...
Read MoreJune 6, 2007
Steadyhand has a very definite investment philosophy. We believe our funds should be (1) absolute-return oriented; (2) concentrated on the managers’ best ideas; (3) unconstrained; and (4) have low turnover (i.e. tax efficient). The least understood of these four tenets ...
Read MoreJune 4, 2007
Hewlett Packard’s quarterly earnings came out recently and the firm continues to do well. Profits are rising based on cost reductions and modest revenue growth. Mark Hurd, the President and CEO, is receiving all the credit for HP’s turnaround and ...
Read MoreMay 30, 2007
There is a personal situation that I want to apprise our clients of, as well as investors that are following the progress of Steadyhand. I’ve had a long-standing liver condition called primary schlorosing colengitis (PSC). It goes back to my ...
Read MoreMay 30, 2007
Because of my liver condition , we’ve had to assess how Steadyhand’s business plan will change. The reality of the situation is that (1) I can’t travel outside the province until I get the transplant and (2) after my beeper ...
Read MoreMay 27, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 26, 2007 I started out writing this column about the most overused maxims in the investment business today. I had lots of examples to discuss. “ The massive amounts of capital ...
Read MoreMay 23, 2007
Investment Lunch/Breakfast Tired of high fees? Want to learn more about direct investing? Curious about the Steadyhand funds? Join us for lunch on Thursday, June 7 th , or breakfast on Tuesday, June 12 th , for an intimate and ...
Read MoreMay 23, 2007
Over the last few weeks, a couple of warning flags have popped up that reminded me that with closed-end funds and structured products, it’s ‘ buyer beware ’. The first flag was an announcement that Sceptre Investment Counsel was merging ...
Read MoreMay 22, 2007
At Steadyhand, we couldn’t be more delighted that Bill Holland is continuing to move CI Financial into the banking world. In the Financial Post last Friday, Bill reiterated that “we have to be in most of the business lines the ...
Read MoreMay 18, 2007
In his article in last Saturday’s Report on Business, Rob Carrick dredged up an idea he came up with in 1999 - the ‘Two-minute Portfolio’. It involves investing equal amounts in the two largest stocks in each of the S&P/TSX’s ...
Read MoreMay 15, 2007
We’ve had some good discussions, internally and with clients, about a blog that I posted back in March titled Must-Reads on Investing . The list of books that I compiled covers a fairly broad spectrum of topics, ranging from tips ...
Read MoreMay 14, 2007
Prologue to Globe and Mail Article I wanted to put today’s Globe and Mail article in context with Steadyhand. The process described in the article occurred prior to the decision by Neil and I to go ahead with Steadyhand. Since ...
Read MoreMay 10, 2007
We’ve got an excellent piece from Edinburgh Partners for our Fund Manager’s Corner. As part of his quarterly report, Dr. Sandy Nairn, the founder and President of the firm, provides some excellent background on economic and market cycles. The piece ...
Read MoreMay 7, 2007
One of my favourite investment writers is Jeremy Grantham, who is one of the founders and still a driving force behind GMO, a very successful investment manager. In addition to regularly reading his quarterly piece, I’ve met Jeremy and seen ...
Read MoreMay 4, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published May 4, 2007 Feeling richer? But are you better off? When Lori and I left Toronto to move west in 1991, we kept our summer cottage in the Haliburton. Back then, we ...
Read MoreMay 3, 2007
This week Premier Ed Stelmach said that Alberta is not interested in moving towards a national securities regulator. His government supports the current regime and the improvements that are being made to coordinate efforts amongst Canada’s 13 regulators (Yes, 13). At ...
Read MoreMay 1, 2007
The Glove and Mail, Report on Business Published April 28, 2007 I get grouchy when I see products being offered that are just plain bad for investors. I've been grouchy a lot lately, particularly with all the high-fee, principal-protected products ...
Read MoreApril 23, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published April 20, 2007 Like everyone else, I don’t like seeing corporate Canada get gutted by foreign buyers. I’ve thought for years that we were getting hollowed out, even if study after study ...
Read MoreApril 17, 2007
In this podcast, we sit down with Jay Menning, a member of Connor, Clark & Lunn's fixed income team, to talk about the Steadyhand Income Fund. Jay discusses the Income Fund's strategy and sheds some light on why it isn't a conventional bond fund. Who said bonds are boring?
Read MoreApril 13, 2007
In our self-congratulatory posting about our official opening, we noted what a beautiful day it was in Vancouver on Tuesday. That nice spring weather is also symbolic of what is going on in the pension world these days. Thursday’s papers ...
Read MoreApril 10, 2007
Bono once said, "It's a beautiful day; don't let it get away." So we captured it in digital film. After months of preparation and hard work, it was truly a beautiful day in Vancouver as we opened our doors to ...
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