Blog: Cutting Through the Noise
Personal Investing
The ETF Diaries - Part IV: As Splinters Get Thinner, They Get Sharper
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on September 25, 2007
On efficientfrontier.com , William Bernstein recently published an article titled ‘ Comin’ Around Again? ’ in which he made some comments on the proliferation of ETF offerings in the U.S. I think it serves as a good follow-up to our ...Read More
Reverse Mortgages
Excerpt from Chris Stephenson's blog on September 12, 2007
Tom has a thing for Principal Protected Notes. He thinks that most PPN’s don’t benefit investors. I feel the same way about another product, the reverse mortgage. Reverse mortgages are a product targeted towards seniors who are house rich but ...Read More
Immaculate Correction? Maybe, But Times Have Changed
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 4, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published September 1, 2007 Are we experiencing another immaculate correction? That’s how I describe the market corrections we’ve experienced while living under the protective umbrella of U.S. President George W. Bush and former ...Read More
Steadyhand and the Boomer Retiree
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 27, 2007
The following blog was written by Tom just before his surgery, from which he is recovering well. Dan Richards is a name you may be familiar with. He has been in the wealth management industry for years and currently operates ...Read More
Keep Emotions in Check, and Stick to the Plan
Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 20, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published August 18, 2007 Shouldn't I be doing something? In historical terms, volatile markets like we're experiencing now are not unusual, so I don't want to overplay it. I'll admit, however, that I ...Read More
Proud to Shroud II - Claymore Balanced Funds
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on August 13, 2007
I’m picking on Claymore Investments again. I don’t have a thing about them, but they’re hard to ignore because they advertise a lot and are releasing a steady stream of new products. They are also an interesting firm in that ...Read More
Private Equity II - Jeremy Grantham's Buyer's Guide
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on July 31, 2007
I’ve admitted before that I am a Jeremy Grantham junky. He’s not ahead of Steve Nash or Lucinda Williams, but he’s in the running. He’s often accused of being perpetually bearish, as am I, but both of us are able ...Read More
Observations on Client Portfolios
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on July 19, 2007
Chris, Scott and I have had ample opportunity to see what’s going on out there in investor land as we’ve each had a chance to work with a number of our new clients. We have done enough portfolio reviews and ...Read More
The ETF Diaries - Part III
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 28, 2007
We read in Larry MacDonald’s blog ( Avalanche of New Exchange Traded Funds ) on the Canadian Business site that there have been 18 new exchange-traded funds (ETFs) created this year in Canada. Horizons BetaPro has been the most active ...Read More
Become Your Own Hedge Fund Manager. Buy a Home.
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 21, 2007
My wife tells me I can be a real downer at parties. There are lots of reasons why she says that, but one is that I just can’t help myself when people start telling me how well they’ve done on ...Read More
A Recipe for Poor Performance
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 18, 2007
Early on in his book Unconventional Success: A Fundamental Approach to Personal Investment , David Swensen talks about market timing and asset allocation. His words reinforce how we feel about the topic. After writing about how market timing has had ...Read More
PPNs IV: The Lunacy Continues
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on June 12, 2007
I’ve shown great restraint. It’s been seven months since I wrote specifically about principal-protected notes (PPNs). But I came across two things last week which reinforced that the structured product lunacy (including PPNs) continues unabated in the Canadian wealth management ...Read More
