Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Hollow Reassurance

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 22, 2011

The CBC woke me up this morning with rain warnings (Is summer really over?), big stock market declines and the voice of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. The rain and markets didn’t get me too worked up, but I found the minister’s attempt at optimism...

Read More

Stuck Like Glue

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 21, 2011

I was talking with a client last week about portfolio re-balancing and the challenges of volatile markets. I often tell the story of Bob Hager’s shaking hand to illustrate how hard it is to do the right thing when markets are down, but his story is just as good at bringing the...

Read More

Indexing can be Good. So can Active Management

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 19, 2011

The passive (indexing) vs. active management question is a polarizing debate, but it shouldn’t be. The bottom line is that both strategies have merit when they’re done right. As Morningstar USA’s President of Fund Research (Don Phillips) notes, credible...

Read More

Where to Find Sanity Among the Sound Bites

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 17, 2011

“Isn’t it funny when you walk into an investment firm and see the financial advisers watching CNBC. It gives me the same feeling of confidence I would have if I walked into the Mayo Clinic and the doctors were watching General Hospital.” This little...

Read More

Podcast: Talking Stocks with Wil Wutherich

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 15, 2011

Wil Wutherich, the manager of our Small-Cap Equity Fund, is in town this week on a research trip. We booked an afternoon of his time to discuss the fund. Since we've covered his investment process in previous sessions and his philosophy is well documented on our site, Tom sat down with him to talk stocks...

Read More

Perfect Alignment

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 13, 2011

‘skin in the game’ … ‘eating our own cooking’ … ‘co-investment’ … ‘manager-client alignment’ … These are all phrases we use to describe our commitment to clients and the desire to have our interests closely aligned to theirs. This alignment takes many...

Read More

Reminiscing

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 12, 2011

As a kid, my family and I used to go on a summer holiday every year to Savary Island (a small island about 200 km north of Vancouver). It’s a bit of a hidden treasure, with white sand beaches, warm waters and an abundance of shellfish. There was no electricity, few cars and fewer rules (don’t bury your sister and be home for dinner). We loved it. I was back on the Island this summer and few things have...

Read More

Forecasting

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 9, 2011

"The stock market has forecast nine of the last five recessions" - Paul Samuelson (Nobel Economist)

Read More

Heavy Lifting with CGOV

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 7, 2011

We often remind our clients that they don’t need to do much once their portfolios are set up, as our managers do most of the heavy lifting. While it may sound like lip service, it’s a phrase that carries weight. In times of heightened volatility, such as the past two...

Read More

Beyond the Paper Chase: Getting Your Big Break in Finance

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 3, 2011

I got turned on to finance while stumbling through my MBA at the University of Western Ontario. I suddenly found myself reading Report on Business right after the Sports section (go figure). When it came to finding a job, I got lucky. There weren't many...

Read More

Trimming Bonds with Bruce

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 1, 2011

Last month we introduced Bruce, a forty-something investor with a balanced portfolio (tilted towards equities). Bruce spent the last three weeks of August on vacation and tuned out the noise in the markets as best he could. The single malt helped. While catching up on his reading this week, however, he came across two pieces by Tom which encouraged him to make an adjustment to his portfolio (What Now? Part II and When Fear Rules the Market, it's Time to...

Read More

To Hedge Or Not To Hedge

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on August 26, 2011

It was announced this week that Vanguard will start in Canada with 6 ETFs. In response to the news, blogger Michael James expressed disappointment that the 2 foreign equity funds would be hedged back into Canadian dollars. I wholeheartedly agree with his view.

Read More