Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Postings

Summer Reruns - Part I

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on July 6, 2010

Who doesn’t love summer? Sunshine, BBQs, lounging, water sports...it’s all good. And then of course, there’s the other summer ritual – reruns. We thought we’d build on the tradition by re-publishing a blog each week from the Steadyhand archives. For our...

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The Back Hand - Shaking it Up

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 25, 2010

Below are some observations and musings on the week that was – a new feature that we’ve aptly coined The Back Hand. The world’s eyes are on Toronto this week as the G20 Summit nears. While the thought of a weekend of politics and bureaucracy...

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Massively in the Middle

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 24, 2010

In his latest interview with Independent Investor (a U.K. publication), Sandy Nairn, the CEO of Edinburgh Partners (the manager of our Global Equity Fund), provided his views on the global economy and capital markets. After being cautious in late 2007...

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Stewardship Soap Opera?

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 22, 2010

Financial Post journalist Jonathan Chevreau wrote an interesting piece yesterday on Morningstar Canada’s new Stewardship Grades. The article highlights an attempt by the Investment Funds Institute of Canada (IFIC) to discourage Morningstar from...

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Morningstar Stewardship Grades

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 17, 2010

Morningstar Canada, a mutual fund research firm, recently introduced Stewardship Grades for over 25 fund companies. In their words, the Stewardship Grade “goes beyond the usual analysis of strategy, risk and return. It is intended to assess...

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TFSA Over-contribution Nightmares

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 16, 2010

The Globe and Mail recently reported on an issue that all investors who own a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) should be aware of – over-contribution penalties. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has informed 70,000 investors that they may have to...

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Small is the New Beautiful

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 14, 2010

Small funds produce better returns. This is the conclusion of a recent study, titled Pension Fund Performance and Costs: Small is Beautiful, which looked at the performance of U.S. pension funds from 1990-2006. Published by a trio of...

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Know Your Advisor

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 2, 2010

Preet Banerjee is an industry insider who runs a blog titled Where Does All My Money Go? (his blog was ranked Canada’s #1 investing blog by the Globe and Mail last month). Preet recently developed a resource for investors called the Know Your...

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Bad Habits

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on June 1, 2010

I was having dinner with my dad the other night and we got on the topic of credit cards. We both have cards that reward us with air miles (in one form or another) for all our purchases. And importantly, we both pay our cards off each month. Somewhat proudly...

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Podcast: Visit to Edinburgh

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

Tom met with Edinburgh Partners Limited (EPL) on their home turf last week for an annual update on their firm and global equity portfolio. It was also an opportune time to discuss some of the issues currently impacting Europe and get the CEO’s (Sandy Nairn) thoughts on the debt crisis that is overhanging Greece...

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Sugar-Free Economic Lunch

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on May 25, 2010

I recently attended a luncheon hosted by Connor, Clark & Lunn, the manager of our Savings Fund and Income Fund. The session focused on the economy. Larry Lunn, the firm’s chairman and co-founder, was the keynote speaker. Larry is an experienced...

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Submission to the Task Force on Financial Literacy

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on May 17, 2010

The Task Force on Financial Literacy is a federal government initiative aimed at strengthening the financial literacy of Canadians. The Task Force, which is comprised of 13 members, was appointed in June 2009 (as part of the federal budget), and will...

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