Cutting Through the Noise
May 14, 2009
As I pointed out in a recent post, we all have a tendency to become economists at extreme times like this. Everyone has a view on the economy, the dollar, Ben Bernanke, U.S. consumer debt and Wall Street’s demise. And with our increased focus comes...
Read MoreMay 8, 2009
That’s my answer when asked where the dollar is going. As regular readers know, I’m not short on opinions, nor is it the case that I’m not well informed on the economic and political forces at work. I just think predicting currency movements is impossible...
Read MoreMay 7, 2009
We’ve been advising clients that safety is expensive these days. In other words, investors are getting paid very little for holding low-risk assets such as money market products and government bonds. The counterpoint is that the latter securities...
Read MoreApril 27, 2009
Michael Nairne and his partner (in all respects) Joanne Swystun started a firm called Tacita Capital in 2006. It is a family office for “exceptionally affluent families.” Tacita publishes research pieces from time to time, the latest of which was recently...
Read MoreApril 2, 2009
Nobody likes looking at their account statement these days. No matter where you’re invested, returns are ugly. But beyond the numbers, there’s often a lot to be desired. We’ve had a number of statements come across our desk lately from investors who are looking...
Read MoreMarch 25, 2009
I received an email from a reader who suggested that someone should offer a balanced fund that is more focused on preserving capital. Rather than being stuck on a set asset mix, as most balanced funds are, the fund would have the scope to move between...
Read MoreMarch 20, 2009
In the investment business, valuation comparisons are very important. How one security stacks up against another in terms of price to earnings ratio, cash flow multiple or yield is at the core of what we do. CP Rail is cheaper than CN because it has a lower price...
Read MoreFebruary 19, 2009
We posted a blog in late 2007 ( Edicts from Edinburgh ) that highlighted a few excerpts from an interview that Dr. Sandy Nairn, the CEO and founder of Edinburgh Partners Limited (EPL), did with a U.K. publication, Independent Investor ...
Read MoreFebruary 5, 2009
I’ve written about our home team, Teck Corp., in previous postings. This week Rio Tinto is in the headlines. Its situation is similar in the sense that six months ago it was a leading resource company, perhaps the premier one ...
Read MoreFebruary 3, 2009
Gold was up roughly 1.5% in 2008 (as measured by the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index) - a good year relative to most other investments. If you used a slick new breed of leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs), you could have doubled your exposure...
Read MoreJanuary 15, 2009
I recently re-read a 2004 article from Bernstein Global Wealth Management entitled Taking the Fear out of Entering Equities . It did an excellent job of addressing the issue of whether dollar-cost averaging is the best way to invest new ...
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2009
As regular readers will know, I follow Jeremy Grantham and his colleagues at GMO with great interest. Jeremy’s quarterly missives are always enlightening and the firm, which is based in Boston, has a great long-term track record. One of the ...
Read MoreDecember 18, 2008
I am on a list to receive a daily email advertisement from Advisor.ca. I see a different product from a different company every day. For me, it’s a great way to keep in touch with what products are being pushed ...
Read MoreDecember 12, 2008
This posting is for the bond geeks in the crowd. The manager of our Income Fund, Connor, Clark & Lunn Investment Management, recently did the following analysis on corporate bonds. If you passively buy a portfolio of 5-yr U.S. investment ...
Read MoreDecember 9, 2008
I think it’s a fascinating time for China watchers. What am I saying? It’s always an interesting time to be a China watcher. There has been an underlying assumption in the market that China will grow rapidly forever. Government resources ...
Read MoreDecember 4, 2008
We all love to hate taxes. Especially when it comes to our investments. This explains why some investors are now busy harvesting losses to offset any prior capital gains. It also explains the growing number of investment products on the ...
Read MoreOctober 29, 2008
CAC 40 (France) - down 50.5%. FTSE 100 (UK) - down 51.9%. S&P 500 (U.S.) - down 40.3%. Hang Seng (HK) - down 54.0%. MSCI Emerging Markets - down 62.0%. S&P/TSX Composite Index - down 32.8%. These are year-to-date market returns up ...
Read MoreOctober 24, 2008
There has been a constant theme in this space over the last month or so – hang in there, long-term assets are cheap now, start thinking about the other side of the valley. A friend and fellow entrepreneur, Thane Stenner, ...
Read MoreOctober 9, 2008
A friend and client called me yesterday and floated the idea of selling everything and waiting out the storm. Like everyone, his portfolio is down, although he has been relatively well positioned with a large cash/GIC/money market position. Previously in ...
Read MoreOctober 6, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published October 4, 2008 “Finding the right answers is easy; it's asking the right questions that's difficult.” Tim Price, the director of investment at PFP Wealth Management in London, started a recent blog ...
Read MoreSeptember 21, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published September 20, 2008 I love writing this column, except on weeks like this. I don't generally do time-sensitive stuff (this isn't my day job), but when the markets are melting down, writing ...
Read MoreSeptember 15, 2008
In markets like this, almost everyone is unhappy. Some conservative investors might have done OK if they owned lots of government bonds, but most are down more than they expected and they didn’t expect to be down at all. No ...
Read MoreSeptember 11, 2008
I recently received some thoughtful comments and questions from a client who is weighing the benefits of both the active and passive (indexing) investment approaches. I felt my responses may be helpful to others with the same thoughts/questions. Investor: ...
Read MoreAugust 29, 2008
I’m not much of a tape watcher or television junkie, but I’ve had the Business News Network (BNN) and Bloomberg News turned on more than usual this week. I don’t know why really, because it has been an incredibly slow ...
Read MoreJuly 28, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published July 26, 2008 Since my last column, I've been holidaying at the cottage. Normally I disengage from the investment world for these two weeks every year. The message to my partners and ...
Read More