Blog: Cutting Through the Noise
Personal Investing
The Hard Questions - Part II: Inflation and Rising Rates
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 10, 2009
Interest rates have a profound effect on portfolio returns. The level of rates sets a base for on-going income and changes in rates affects security prices. As rates drop, bond prices rise and vice versa. The 25-year bull market for bonds and stocks that...Read More
The Hard Questions - Part I: The U.S. Dollar
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 3, 2009
Chris, Sher and I were out meeting prospective clients last week and there were a few questions/concerns that came up over and over again. For the most part we have discussed them in the blog, but it struck me that we could be more direct in...Read More
Caution Clarified
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 19, 2009
In my recent article, The Party is Rolling Again, so be Cautious, I throw a little cold water on the market rally we’re enjoying. I think it’s important to reiterate how a view like this relates to an investor’s asset mix. The key line in the article is near the end – “I've...Read More
Housing Stocks Make me Squeamish; I'm Glad We've Got a New One
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 4, 2009
Housing stocks make me squeamish. It was painful to watch them fall like a rock over the last couple of years as the U.S. real estate market imploded. A number of companies faced bankruptcy or saw their share prices slashed due to stretched balance sheets...
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A Pop Quiz
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 28, 2009
Quick. It’s February 28th, 2010. The Olympics are just ending and you have to make a last minute RRSP contribution. What would you do? Five seconds. Four. Three. Two. One. Time is up. OK. If you answered: Put it in the Money Market Fund and think about...Read More
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...Read More
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...Read More
Everyone is an Economist III
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on August 27, 2009
In postings on March 31st and May 14th, I mused that the financial crisis and market meltdown had turned everybody into an economist. We all have a view on how deep the recession will be, where the dollar is headed and when the recovery will come...Read More
The Right Questions - An Addendum
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on July 29, 2009
In my last posting, I talked about the questions that money managers should be asking. I focused on three – inflation, the next market leaders and valuation. There is an additional question that individual investors (and their advisors) should be asking...Read More
Re-balancing When Needed
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 8, 2009
Last week Chris and I met with Scott Robertson, a financial planner from Ottawa. Scott is a veteran and has a straight-forward, no-nonsense approach to his craft. That was clear when we asked him when and how often his clients re-balance their portfolios...Read More
Is It Justified?
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 4, 2009
People are having trouble with this rally. Indeed, I admitted to being uneasy about the speed and magnitude of the market’s move in a recent post. What’s spooking people is that it’s happening at a time when the economy is in the dumper and it's not clear...Read More
You Go Girl!
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 28, 2009
“Fess up, fellows: The masters of the universe have turned out to be masters of disaster. No matter which aspect of the financial crisis you consider, there is a man behind it.” This was the opening paragraph of an article recently posted in the Wall Street Journal that reinforces our view that women are great investors, and even better...
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