Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

In Your Face ... book

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 23, 2012

I find the kerfuffle about the Facebook initial public offering (IPO) interesting. I don’t know if anything nefarious went on behind the scenes, but it seems to me that what played out on this overhyped and highly priced IPO (the $38 issue price equates to over 20x revenue) fell within the range of possible outcomes. Facebook is impossible to...

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Federal Government Gets a Failing Grade on Transparency

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

In this space, we talk a lot about transparency, and we try our best to walk the talk. There was a piece by Barrie McKenna in the Globe and Mail this week about the Federal government’s transparency around financial reporting. The conclusion: If the...

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Get More Active

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on May 16, 2012

We don’t spend a lot of money advertising at Steadyhand (at the end of the day, investors pay for it). If we did, you might see something similar to IA Clarington’s latest campaign on Active Mind. But with a Steadyhand spin, of course. As part of their campaign...

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Shades of Gray

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on May 3, 2012

iShares fixed income turns 50. The global leader in exchange traded funds (ETFs) recently launched their 50th U.S.-based fixed income ETF (iShares offers 22 fixed income ETFs in Canada). Investors can access a wide array of products, including 8 different...

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Canadian Real Estate - More Reasons for Caution

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on April 25, 2012

Last Sunday, while flying to the hottest housing market in Canada (Toronto), my airplane reading surfaced a couple more statistics about Canadian housing, both of which point towards caution. In their quarterly report, Mawer Investment Management noted...

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Whose Interests?

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

The investment banking league tables came out this week and they showed that Scotia Capital was at the top of the equity list. BNS was lead underwriter on $2.4 billion worth of deals in the first quarter. What pushed them to the top was a $1.66 billion stock...

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Can I Join the Club?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on March 8, 2012

Early in my career, the banks all looked and behaved alike. They battled for retail market share (cozily) and pursued copycat strategies – for instance, they all bought brokerage firms and trust companies within a few years of each other. At that time, Canada...

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U.S. Housing - Risk or Opportunity?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 29, 2012

I still see a number of strategists and portfolio managers citing the U.S. housing market as a risk for 2012. I don’t get it. The slump is almost six years old. Housing starts are down to an unsustainably low level of 600,000 per year. The U.S. economy is...

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Longleaf versus Fairfax

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 23, 2012

For years I’ve been reading reports published by Southeastern Asset Management. The firm manages the Longleaf mutual funds and is chaired by legendary value investor, Mason Hawkins. The year-end report is interesting for a couple of reasons, the...

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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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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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A Gift From Risky Markets

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on December 29, 2011

Michael Nairne, president of Tacita Capital, wrote a good piece in the Financial Post last weekend, titled A Gift From Risky Markets, which looks at historical stock market returns and valuations (dating back to 1825) and provides some perspective on the...

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