Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Postings

Podcast: Tom Talks with Larry Lunn

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on October 20, 2009

Tom recently sat down with Larry Lunn, the Chairman and founder of Connor, Clark & Lunn (CC&L), to talk shop. At the front end of the podcast, Larry discusses where we are in the economic recovery and his view on [the hot topic of] inflation. He then addresses...

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BNN Interview - Canada vs Foreign

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on October 18, 2009

Tom was on Business News Network (BNN) on Friday talking about finding a balance between domestic and foreign investments (his Saturday Globe column focuses on the same topic). Canadian investors have an emphasis on Canadian securities...

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If a Country is Too Good to be True...Then Diversify

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 18, 2009

Oh Canada! In the constant debate about whether this rally is for real or not, there is an underlying subtext. It relates to how much emphasis investors should put on Canada. In the discussion, there are many who are asking the question, why bother putting...

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Podcast: Third Quarter Review

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on October 9, 2009

In this podcast, Tom and I review the third quarter of 2009. It was another strong period for equities. U.S. stocks posted their best quarter in a decade, while the TSX and many overseas markets posted double-digit returns. A rising loonie negatively impacted...

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Are Balanced Funds Overrated?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 6, 2009

In her Mutual Fund column in the October MoneySense magazine, Suzane Abboud looked at what balanced funds did through the market crisis, specifically how they managed their asset mix. A big part of the reason for owning a balanced fund is...

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Third-quarter Data Will Expose the Good, Bad and Ugly

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 3, 2009

One of the really fun events on the Street is the “Up the Down Market” dinner held annually in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal in support of the Down Syndrome Research Foundation. The focus of the evening is a game based on a stock market...

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Who's Managing Your Fund?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 2, 2009

In a recent posting (Complacency: A Major Misstep of Mutual Fund Investors), I talked about how commonplace fund mergers and manager changes have become in our industry. I referred to manager changes at Trimark, fund mergers at Ethical and...

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Stuck in the Middle?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 28, 2009

I don’t believe in trying to precisely time the market. For our clients’ portfolios, and my own, I strive to be approximately right, as opposed to exactly wrong. Having said that, last fall and early this year we were as aggressive as we'll ever be in pushing clients...

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Steadyhand - As Seen on TV

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 23, 2009

A Steadyhand advertising campaign is starting today. It’s pretty extensive, but not all of you will see it. That’s because the magazine, newspaper, television and on-line ads are targeted at Southern Ontario (more on that later). I never thought we’d be advertising...

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Pillar #3 - Business Practices

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 21, 2009

In a nutshell, it all comes down to a few self-centered questions. Is this the way we want our money managed? Is this who we want doing it? Is this the way we want to be serviced, charged and communicated to? Call us selfish, but the answers to those...

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Complacency: A Major Misstep of Mutual Fund Investors

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 19, 2009

Individual investors (and their advisers) are far too patient when it comes to dealing with changes in their mutual funds. They're quick to make moves based on short-term trends and performance, but slow to recognize the impact of fundamental shifts in personnel...

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Turn off the Tap

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 16, 2009

I read that the recession is over. Both Ben Bernanke, the U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, and Mark Carney, the Bank of Canada Governor, have said so. I also read that out here on the wet coast, our provincial government has been dragging its...

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