Cutting Through the Noise
May 1, 2007
The Glove and Mail, Report on Business Published April 28, 2007 I get grouchy when I see products being offered that are just plain bad for investors. I've been grouchy a lot lately, particularly with all the high-fee, principal-protected products ...
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The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published April 20, 2007 Like everyone else, I don’t like seeing corporate Canada get gutted by foreign buyers. I’ve thought for years that we were getting hollowed out, even if study after study ...
Read MoreApril 9, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published April 6, 2007 As we take Steadyhand on the road over the next few weeks, we anticipate that one of the most frequently asked questions we’ll face will be: Why don’t you ...
Read MoreMarch 23, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published March 23, 2007 In the investment industry, I’m what people call a “bottom-up” guy. That means I get my jollies from finding undervalued businesses to invest in, rather than predicting what the ...
Read MoreMarch 13, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published March 12, 2007 It sounds corny to say that investing is a team sport. Of course it is. But sometimes there is too much focus on the individual player and as a ...
Read MoreFebruary 26, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 23, 2007 I’ve always encouraged investing enthusiasts to read more than just the newspaper for ideas and education ( User’s Guide to the Business Media ). If you discover a professional ...
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The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 9, 2007 We were driving to Whistler last weekend and out of the blue my wife Lori said “it's RSP season and you still haven't written that column”. It took me ...
Read MoreJanuary 26, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 26, 2007 Do I follow my favourite manager to a new fund? There are probably a few investors out there who feel like they have a big "L" on their forehead. ...
Read MoreJanuary 12, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 12, 2007 The YWCA that I go to is always busier in the early part of January. This year is no exception. As part of our New Year's resolutions, we all ...
Read MoreJanuary 5, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 29, 2006 I'm not one to make predictions on what the capital markets are going to do in the next year, or three years for that matter. But with my editors ...
Read MoreDecember 18, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 15, 2006 I've been in the investment business since 1983 and I find that with each passing year simplicity becomes more and more appealing. And I don't think I'm alone; it's ...
Read MoreDecember 1, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 1, 2006 I was talking to a friend last weekend about our new mutual fund company. After I took him through the fund lineup, he asked me what our hedging strategy ...
Read MoreNovember 17, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published November 17, 2006 "It's like a spotlight in the darkness... it focuses on what's moving and everything else is blotted in the darkness." Those words came from Eric Sevareid in a PBS ...
Read MoreNovember 6, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published November 3, 2006 Until recently, I'd never heard of Alex Becks. I thought it was because I lived on the left coast and wasn't plugged in enough to the Toronto investment network, ...
Read MoreOctober 21, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published October 21st, 2006 There are plenty of sports analogies that are appropriate to investing, but I find golf provides the most fertile ground. With both golf and investing, it takes only a ...
Read MoreOctober 9, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published October 6, 2006 This column represents an anniversary of sorts. It's the tenth column of my burgeoning writing career with the Report on Business. Of the previous nine, the best reaction I've ...
Read MoreSeptember 22, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published September 22nd, 2006 Because I'm starting a new mutual fund company, I've had the opportunity to sit down and talk to a lot of money managers over the last few months. I've ...
Read MoreSeptember 5, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Guest Column Published September 2nd, 2006 If I had to choose one word to describe the investment industry, I'd pick ‘perverse’. It is like no other industry I know. That word came to ...
Read MoreAugust 3, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Guest Column Published August 1st, 2006 As I contemplate starting a new investment company, I've had to assess what form it will take. Specifically, I've been trying to decide whether the good ol' ...
Read MoreJuly 27, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Guest Column July 21 2006 There are big decisions being made in the resource sector these days, as there are in the housing market, and at their core, the decisions are very similar. ...
Read MoreJuly 27, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Guest Column July 12 2006 In April, 2003, when everyone was felling pretty beaten up after three years of falling stock markets, I wrote an article in the Phillips, Hager & North Quarterly ...
Read MoreJune 28, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Guest Column April 12 2006 A while back, Ira Gluskin recommended the new Barton Biggs book, Hedgehogging , in his column. I've enjoyed reading Mr. Biggs since his days at Morgan Stanley and ...
Read MoreJune 28, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Guest Column March 17 2006 As I sat and watched the Neil Young movie Heart of Gold last week, I was reminded how great it is to be Canadian. Throughout the movie, Neil ...
Read MoreJune 22, 2006
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business, Guest Column February 16, 2006 When I talk to investors, invariably I find myself reminding them that there is no free lunch in investing. If someone is promising you higher returns, then there ...
Read MoreJune 22, 2006
I've always pushed myself to stay current, and now that I'm a newly minted 50-year-old, I work at it even harder. There's no Eagles' Greatest Hits in my music collection. It's the New Pornographers and Metric on my iPod. I use a BlackBerry, a Bosu balance trainer, read blogs and leave my T-shirt untucked.
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