Blog: Cutting Through the Noise
Globe and Mail Articles
Be Wary of Candy-coated Mutual Funds
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 1, 2009
When you're trick or treating, keep an eye out for mutual funds dressed up as closed-end funds. The latest innovation to take hold in the Canadian wealth management industry is “closed-until-open” funds. There has been a wave of new offerings that...Read More
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...Read More
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...Read More
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...Read More
No One's Cornered the Market on the Best Strategy
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 5, 2009
I feel like I'm really up to speed right now. With the lousy weather in Ontario and Manitoba cottage country, there's been more time for reading. And while I still can't tell you what “quantitative easing” is, I've firmed up my view on all kinds of other topics...Read More
Temperament, not Technique, is Key for Managers
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on August 24, 2009
Being an analyst or portfolio manager means you are destined to make lots of mistakes. They say the great ones are right 60 per cent of the time, which means they're wrong 40 per cent of the time. There aren't too many professions where you're allowed...Read More
Clients Should Take the Reins in Setting Bonus Payments
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on August 9, 2009
It may not be politically correct to admit it, but I have mixed feelings on the billions of dollars worth of bonuses being paid out on Wall Street. I'm always wary of hysterical, highly politicized issues that have only one side to them. But in this case, I've...Read More
Inflation and the Next Market Leaders
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on July 27, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published July 25, 2009. Knowing the right questions to ask is an important and difficult part of any decision-making process. For the last two weeks I've been parked on the edge of Crystal Lake, Ont., where the right...Read More
Five Lessons From the Recession - Relearned
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on July 13, 2009
A lot of thought has been going into the lessons learned from the recession. That's prompted me to think about what has come out of the turmoil in the capital markets. It didn't take long to come up with a list. Here are my top five lessons learned, or should...Read More
Fixed Income Gems Can Still Be Had if You Add a Bit of Risk
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 27, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published June 27, 2009. Over the past nine months, I've talked often in this space about risk being cheap. Investors can't let past losses blind them to the opportunities that have emerged from the banking crisis and...Read More
Hedge Fund Costs Add up to Bad Math
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 14, 2009
I'm not a hedge fund manager, but I find their place in the industry to be forever fascinating. Indeed, this week I went so far as to publicly debate the proposition “Hedge funds are dead” with Toreigh Stuart of Man Investments, a hedge fund conglomerate...Read More
The State of the Canadian Investor
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 30, 2009
As our firm passes the two-year mark, we aren't able to generalize about where our clients are coming from or why they chose us, but we can make some observations about what their previous portfolios looked like, and more broadly, the state of the...Read More
