Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Riding the Pine

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 23, 2009

Recent data out of the U.S. suggests that American retail (individual) investors have been watching the stock market rally from the sidelines. According to a report by Morningstar USA, investors have pulled an estimated $4.4 billion out of U.S. equity funds so far this...

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This Year's Meal Ticket

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 16, 2009

From: jsmith@mega-bank.com. To: NewProductCommittee@mega-bank.com. Date: Mon 11/16/2009 1:08 AM Subject: This Year’s Meal Ticket. Just woke up with a brilliant idea!! I’m putting it in an email while the juices are flowing. Still working on the name...

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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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The Scariest Investments of 2009

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on October 30, 2009

We could’ve had some fun with a list of the scariest Halloween costumes this year. Bernie Madoff, Allen Stanford and Jon & Kate come to mind. But we thought it would be more educational, and just as fun, to highlight some of this year’s scariest investments...

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A Latter-Day Charles Dickens?

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on October 29, 2009

In a recent article written about Steadyhand titled "Mischievous Strangers and a Steadyhand", Karin Mizgala draws a connection between Tom Bradley and Charles Dickens. Very flattering. Especially when compared to some of the other comparisons...

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Podcast: Tom Talks with Larry Lunn

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on October 20, 2009

Tom recently sat down with Larry Lunn, the Chairman and founder of Connor, Clark & Lunn (CC&L), to talk shop. At the front end of the podcast, Larry discusses where we are in the economic recovery and his view on [the hot topic of] inflation. He then addresses...

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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...

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Podcast: Third Quarter Review

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on October 9, 2009

In this podcast, Tom and I review the third quarter of 2009. It was another strong period for equities. U.S. stocks posted their best quarter in a decade, while the TSX and many overseas markets posted double-digit returns. A rising loonie negatively impacted...

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Nokia - The Next Episode

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 15, 2009

Nokia is an interesting story. To many North Americans, the company is viewed as a has-been. While its cell phones may have been all the rage a decade ago, its star has fallen considerably as Apple and RIM have taken over as the market leaders thanks to...

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Correction: Steadyhand Savings Fund Performance

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on September 8, 2009

The Globe and Mail ran an article yesterday on how money market funds are holding up given the historically low interest rate environment (The Best and Worst Places to Park Your Cash). The article highlighted our Savings Fund as the top performing fund...

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Podcast: Wrong for the Right Reasons

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on August 24, 2009

In this podcast, Tom expands on his latest Globe and Mail column, which focuses on the traits that he looks for in a money manager. More specifically, he highlights two things that he watches for and studies very intently: 1) the temperament of the...

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The Credit Crisis 101

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 21, 2009

If you look up the term ‘credit crisis’ on Google, you’ll get close to 50 million results. Over the past year or so, you would be hard pressed to find two more commonly used words in the business world (other than the usual expletives that abound in falling...

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