Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

For Money Managers, Small Can be Beautiful

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 4, 2012

Boyd Erman wrote an article before Christmas titled “Squeeze Is On For Smaller Investment Firms.” When I saw the headline, I shuddered a little. Was he going to talk about firms that don’t have billions of dollars under management? Was he going to burst my...

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Bruce: RRSP & TFSA Contributions

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on February 1, 2012

We last spoke with Bruce in September, when he acted on our counsel to trim his weighting in bonds and add to equities. Bruce and Courtney’s portfolio rose roughly 2% in 2011 (its aggregate value at year-end was approx. 346,500). While Bruce isn’t popping any champagne, he realizes that their portfolio fared quite well considering its bias towards equities (which had a weak year). At the end of December, their asset mix was...

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Balanced Income Portfolio: A Performance Assessment

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 26, 2012

Last week we published a report on how to assess your portfolio’s performance (How is My Portfolio Doing?). Today we’re releasing a supplementary report that uses the framework to assess the performance of the Steadyhand Balanced Income Portfolio...

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Here's to the Geeks

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 25, 2012

I’ve read a few interesting books lately on some of the top technology visionaries of our time. They include Paul Allen (Microsoft), Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google) and Steve Jobs (Apple). The books were all good reads (Idea Man, In the Plex, and Steve Jobs)...

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Your Portfolio Performance Needs a Regular Check-up

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 21, 2012

A meeting I had with a prospective client a few years ago has always stuck with me. She told me her adviser had done well for her in the previous five years, but had been letting her down more recently. After reviewing the data, we discovered the...

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How is Your Portfolio Doing? Version 2.0

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 18, 2012

Early last year we published a report on how to assess your portfolio’s performance. The paper laid out a framework for evaluating your investments, focusing on five areas: gathering the facts, reviewing the market environment, analyzing the numbers...

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ETF Sales - Underwhelming and Disappointing

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 17, 2012

This week the 2011 sales numbers came out for Canadian ETFs (exchange traded funds). For the year, $7.6 billion flowed into ETFs (net of outflows) and total assets in the 200 plus funds finished at $43 billion. While the number of funds exploded in 2011...

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Podcast: 2011 in Review

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 12, 2012

2011 was a great year for bonds and a not-so-great year for stocks. Interest rates declined further (10-year government bond yields ended the year below 2% for the first time in a century) leading to strong price gains in government bonds, and to a lesser extent corporate bonds. Debt concerns in Europe and political lollygagging weighed on investor confidence and most stock markets...

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Bradley's Brief - Q4 2011

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 11, 2012

From our Quarterly Report: It’s a remarkable time to be an investor. After decades of overspending in the Western world, we’re watching Europe melt down and the American empire decline faster than expected. The debt burden is slowing the world economy...

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First Rant of 2012: RRSP Transfers

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 10, 2012

I just finished listening to Chris talk with a client about her RRSP transfer. He told her that the paperwork had been sent to the relinquishing institution and we would be monitoring its progress. Chris tried to set reasonable expectations, “Given our...

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Five Keys to Staying on the Long-term Track

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 7, 2012

My holiday reading included two journal articles that challenge the notion that investing for the long term reduces risk. The message: It’s all well and good to recommend that an investor take the long view and not worry about short-term market dips...

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Not Another Top 10 List

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on January 5, 2012

As we start a fresh new year, there’s no shortage of Top 10 Lists (we’re guilty, too). They can get annoying and repetitive, even for a David Letterman fan. But some are worthy of passing on, even posting on the fridge. Here’s one you should staple to the front...

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