Blog: Cutting Through the Noise
Personal Investing
Trading Range
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 23, 2009
In 26 years of doing this, one of the phrases I find least useful is, the market “is range bound” or “will stay in a narrow trading range over the next X months”. I don’t have conclusive data on it, but I believe that these types of predictions are almost...Read More
Everyone is an Economist II
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 14, 2009
As I pointed out in a recent post, we all have a tendency to become economists at extreme times like this. Everyone has a view on the economy, the dollar, Ben Bernanke, U.S. consumer debt and Wall Street’s demise. And with our increased focus comes...Read More
"I Don't Know"
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on May 8, 2009
That’s my answer when asked where the dollar is going. As regular readers know, I’m not short on opinions, nor is it the case that I’m not well informed on the economic and political forces at work. I just think predicting currency movements is impossible...Read More
Safety is Expensive
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on May 7, 2009
We’ve been advising clients that safety is expensive these days. In other words, investors are getting paid very little for holding low-risk assets such as money market products and government bonds. The counterpoint is that the latter securities...Read More
Recession or Depression?
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on April 27, 2009
Michael Nairne and his partner (in all respects) Joanne Swystun started a firm called Tacita Capital in 2006. It is a family office for “exceptionally affluent families.” Tacita publishes research pieces from time to time, the latest of which was recently...Read More
Case Study: Pat and Stephanie
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on April 2, 2009
Nobody likes looking at their account statement these days. No matter where you’re invested, returns are ugly. But beyond the numbers, there’s often a lot to be desired. We’ve had a number of statements come across our desk lately from investors who are looking...Read More
Asset Allocation and Hindsight Bias
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on March 25, 2009
I received an email from a reader who suggested that someone should offer a balanced fund that is more focused on preserving capital. Rather than being stuck on a set asset mix, as most balanced funds are, the fund would have the scope to move between...Read More
Relative to What
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on March 20, 2009
In the investment business, valuation comparisons are very important. How one security stacks up against another in terms of price to earnings ratio, cash flow multiple or yield is at the core of what we do. CP Rail is cheaper than CN because it has a lower price...Read More
The Risk Today is Not Buying Cheap Equities
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on February 19, 2009
We posted a blog in late 2007 ( Edicts from Edinburgh ) that highlighted a few excerpts from an interview that Dr. Sandy Nairn, the CEO and founder of Edinburgh Partners Limited (EPL), did with a U.K. publication, Independent Investor ...Read More
Mining for Nuggets
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 5, 2009
I’ve written about our home team, Teck Corp., in previous postings. This week Rio Tinto is in the headlines. Its situation is similar in the sense that six months ago it was a leading resource company, perhaps the premier one ...Read More
Buyer Beware: Leveraged ETFs
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on February 3, 2009
Gold was up roughly 1.5% in 2008 (as measured by the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index) - a good year relative to most other investments. If you used a slick new breed of leveraged exchange traded funds (ETFs), you could have doubled your exposure...
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Jumping in or Averaging in - Which is Best?
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 15, 2009
I recently re-read a 2004 article from Bernstein Global Wealth Management entitled Taking the Fear out of Entering Equities . It did an excellent job of addressing the issue of whether dollar-cost averaging is the best way to invest new ...Read More
