Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Postings

Taking Stock

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 31, 2010

Roger Lowenstein’s latest article in The New York Times is a must-read. In Taking Stock, Lowenstein (a financial author and journalist) draws parallels between the investment environment and mindset of individual investors today to that of the 1970s...

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Book Review: False Economy

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 30, 2010

I recently finished reading False Economy – A Surprising Economic History of the World. Along with its New York Times Bestseller status and praise from all the usual suspects (The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Economist, etc.), I was intrigued...

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Summer Reruns VIII - Foreign Takeovers

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 26, 2010

This week’s rerun comes from April 2007. Foreign buyers were on the hunt for Canadian assets, which was stirring emotions and politics at home. Tom weighed in with some unique perspective on the issue. With Potash Corp. now in play, it's...

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Summer Reruns VII - Too Many Funds

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 18, 2010

Flashback to February 2007. It was the middle of RRSP season and Tom Bradley penned a Globe and Mail article that would, in turn, prompt numerous investors and advisers to share stories of their RRSP nightmares. How many funds do you...

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Summer Reruns VI - 'It Will Sell'

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 12, 2010

This week’s rerun comes from April 2009. The stock market had recently bottomed and investors were particularly fearful of risk. Not surprisingly, investment products with special features that promised certainty or limited downside were gaining...

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Summer Reruns V – Currency Fluctuations

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 3, 2010

In this week’s rerun we flip the calendar back to September 2007. The loonie had recently hit parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time in over 30 years. Predictions were widespread on which direction it was headed next. As for our forecast? (see the last...

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The Back Hand - Stress

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 30, 2010

Investors have learned to deal with a lot of anxiety over the last couple of years, what with a severe credit crisis, major bank failures, derivatives gone bad and gyrating stock markets. Indeed, stress is becoming the new buzz word. Below are some stress-related observations and musings on the week that was. Stress tests: European banks were recently subject to a health check in the form of stress...

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Summer Reruns IV - The U.S. Housing Market

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 27, 2010

This week we look back to the summer of 2006. The U.S. housing market was at a turning point. The consensus view was that it would be a soft landing. Tom disagreed. Four years later, prices are still down 40-50% from their peaks in some markets...

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Something Stincs

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 26, 2010

The latest acronym in the investment world smells a little funny. The STINC countries (Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile) are meant to represent export-oriented nations that have shown good fiscal restraint and infrastructure investment...

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Summer Reruns - Part III

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 20, 2010

In this week’s rerun, we revisit the asset backed commercial paper (ABCP) debacle as a reminder of a key lesson in investing – if you don’t understand what you’re getting into, don’t buy it. Purdy, what were you thinking? Didn't you know how complex and...

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Podcast: Second Quarter Review

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 15, 2010

The second quarter of 2010 was a challenging period for equity markets, as investors focused on the European debt problems and the sustainability of the global economic recovery. In this podcast, we review these issues and highlight some of the key messages from our Quarterly Report. You can subscribe to our podcasts via iTunes...

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Management Fee Deductibility - Clearing the Air

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 8, 2010

In our discussions with investors, we’ve found there are a few misconceptions surrounding the deductibility of investment management fees. The most common misunderstanding is that mutual fund investors are at a disadvantage (from a tax...

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