Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Caisse a Lesson in Liquidity Woes

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on March 8, 2010

With very few exceptions, the investment managers who did poorly when markets were melting down bounced back with a solid return last year. What didn't work in 2008 worked well in 2009. That wasn't the case, however, for one of Canada's highest...

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Not-so-random Thoughts

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on March 2, 2010

I admit to doing less reading over the last few weeks (which is criminal for an investment professional) due to a minor sporting event being held in Vancouver. But between the spectating, TV viewing and partying, I did manage to catch up on some...

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Trading ETFs - Pro or Con

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 25, 2010

By far the most popular topic in the business press these days is ETFs (exchange-traded funds). Not a day goes by without an article on them (and yes, I am planning to write one in the near future). In all of the commentaries, trading flexibility is put...

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Favourites and Unpredictability

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 22, 2010

Located in Vancouver and being the sports (analogy) junkies that we are, readers would expect us to go crazy with Olympic stuff. Certainly there are obvious connections between Olympics and investing - the value of time; the notion of risk and reward (the topic of...

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Taking Calculated Risks Can Win the Gold Medal

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 20, 2010

Watching the Olympics, the notion of risk is very clear. Athletes need to push it to the limit in order to get to that top spot on the podium. But to obtain the advantage, they risk missing a gate, catching an edge or taking an untimely penalty. They may...

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Reaching Further

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 8, 2010

Call it an interesting juxtaposition. A few pages after my column on reaching for yield a couple of weeks back, there was a back page ad for the MINT Income Fund. Since then, the ad has been running constantly in the national papers. MINT, which is an existing closed...

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In Choosing Managers, Patience is a Virtue

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 6, 2010

A consequence of being a non-benchmark manager and running a transparent shop is that we are asked direct and incisive questions. At a presentation last week, a client asked what criteria I would use for changing a manager on one of our funds...

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Compared to What?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on February 1, 2010

"The lower-hanging fruit is largely gone...but the return profiles are still attractive, relative to the extremely low cost of funding." This innocuous quote from Peter Schoenfeld is very telling. In an article about the outlook for hedge fund strategies in 2010 in Barron’s...

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More Reaching

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 26, 2010

The discipline of writing 800-900 words for the Globe and Mail every two weeks means that stuff gets left on the cutting room floor. But as I’m learning, that’s usually where it belongs. Having said that, I did want to add an addendum to my last installment...

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Don't Let Your Search for Yield Blind You to Risk

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 23, 2010

There's no question about it. The defining feature of the capital markets right now is the search for more yield. Individuals are doing it. Institutions are doing it. And new product development is totally focused on it. I get an e-mail almost every day announcing a...

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Sensitivity Training for Clients

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 9, 2010

A lot is written about how to pick a money manager, but it's also important to know how to be a good client. A manager-client relationship should last a long time and be rooted in confidence, empathy and stability. Both sides are working toward a common...

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How is Your Pension Health?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 7, 2010

Mercer, the pension and benefits consultant, reported this week that the funding status of Canadian pension plans improved dramatically in 2009. Its ‘pension health index’ moved up from 59 to 74, meaning that for a typical plan, 74% of the pension liabilities...

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