Blog: Cutting Through the Noise
Postings
Investing Questions That Need to be Asked
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 7, 2011
“Finding the right answers is easy. Asking the right questions is the hard part.” As we open our calendars on 2011, this old adage has never been more apt. We’re being buffeted with crosswinds and it’s not obvious which ones will affect investment...Read More
Facebook - Friending an Underwriter
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on January 6, 2011
It was reported this week that Goldman Sachs is investing $500 million in Facebook, which is a private company. Goldman’s 470 partners and select clients are also being given an opportunity to buy shares. One report suggested that this investment puts...Read More
Who Knew? Things Investors Wish They Saw Coming
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 24, 2010
Hindsight bias: The inclination to see events that have occurred as being more predictable than they were before they took place. That’s Wikipedia’s definition of a behavioural weakness we all have. We take credit for having seen something...Read More
The (De)Merits of Gold
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 22, 2010
Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management is one of my favourite market analysts. In a letter published last Friday, he takes on the topic of gold. It’s a wonderful piece and a must read for anyone who is interested in the shiny metal. There are too many pearls...Read More
Watch for the Rise of the Independent Money Manager
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 10, 2010
We’re going through another wave of consolidation in the asset management industry. Last summer, Sceptre Investment Counsel merged into Fiera Capital. More recently, CI Financial bought Hartford’s mutual funds, Bank of Nova Scotia made an offer for DundeeWealth...Read More
It's a Real Beauty
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 8, 2010
"We’ve priced this product to do well in the marketplace … it’s the right product for the times …” - Martin Nel, vice-president of personal bank lending and investment products, Bank of Montreal. I’m sure there are readers who wonder why we write so negatively about...Read More
Trends and Truthdom - Running Out of Oil?
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 3, 2010
Is it a long-term trend or an investment truth? In my last Globe and Mail column (Much-maligned Greenback is Looking Increasingly Cheap), I held this question up to a number of economic factors - the declining supply of oil, China’s growth, Japan’s...Read More
Be Like Prem
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 2, 2010
There was a story in the ROB today about how Prem Watsa’s investment acumen has made a huge difference to the Sick Kids Hospital Foundation. By reducing equities to 35% of the portfolio in 2007, the foundation held up well when markets were...Read More
A Blue Streak on the Greenback
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 1, 2010
Here are a few quotes from the comments posted on the Globe and Mail's website following my column on the U.S. dollar: “... with a spendthrift administration and Helicopter Ben clearly willing to throw as much increasingly worthless paper as is...Read More
Much-maligned Greenback is Looking Increasingly Cheap
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 26, 2010
In investing, it’s easy to mistake a transient trend for an eternal verity. Right now, for instance, many investors are tacitly assuming that China will grow at 10 per cent forever. Same goes for the notion that we’re running out of oil, that gold is the best store of...Read More
Underperforming Assets - What to Buy?
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 18, 2010
My posting last week (A Simple Risk Management Tool to Avoid the Next Bubble) garnered lots of comment. In one of the kinder emails, a reader asked what weaker performing assets I would consider to be an attractive balance to the current high flyers...Read More
Buffett on Gold
Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 17, 2010
In response to my post last week, a friend and former partner, Dan Lewin of Lewin Capital Management, sent me a clip on gold. It came from a conversation between Ben Stein and Warren Buffett for Fortune magazine. When asked, "What about gold? Is this a classic bubble or what?", the Oracle of Omaha responded with the following...
Read More
