Cutting Through the Noise
November 4, 2010
At the risk of alienating some of our clients and my Bay Street friends, I admit to being happy that the BHP takeover of Potash Corp was turned down. I keep wondering if it’s just my prairie roots (I want desperately for Saskatchewan and Manitoba to have...
Read MoreNovember 3, 2010
Account statements from most Canadian mutual fund companies are so bad that splashing a little colour on the document can propel you to the top of the list. Never mind features that clients are really interested in like performance and fees, just add a little...
Read MoreNovember 2, 2010
In recent years I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Danny Bubis, President and Chief Investment Officer of Winnipeg-based Tetrem Capital Management (anyone from my home town is a great person). Tetrem manages private and institutional...
Read MoreOctober 22, 2010
David Rosenberg, the economist, is bearish on the economy and he’s very persuasive. His view is that we’re heading into a period of subdued growth at best, and another recession at worst. His 2011 earnings estimate for the S&P 500 is $75, well below...
Read MoreOctober 21, 2010
We sent our Director of Business Development, David Toyne, to the Money Show in Toronto yesterday to get a reading on what the competition is pushing and the sentiment among investors right now. With his iPhone in hand, he covertly captured...
Read MoreOctober 20, 2010
In the Canadian House of Commons, “everybody’s trying to get on the National” according to former opposition party leader Preston Manning. Not surprisingly, this creates a temptation to stretch the truth to garner attention. During his address to...
Read MoreOctober 12, 2010
Michael Nairne of Tacita Capital recently published an interesting piece on inflation. He pointed out that the bond market has been a lousy predictor of where inflation is going. He showed that the holders of both long and medium-term bonds failed to...
Read MoreSeptember 29, 2010
Last week, David and I attended the eighth annual Institute of Advance Financial Planners (IAFP) Symposium in Banff. The Symposium was appropriately titled “View from the Summit” as the sights of the Rockies were jaw dropping. Preston Manning...
Read MoreSeptember 23, 2010
ING has a TV ad running right now on their Streetwise mutual funds. I don’t have any issue with ING or the funds (quite the opposite), but I do think the messaging is misleading. Before I go there, I should provide a little background. Since...
Read MoreSeptember 20, 2010
To me, the media coverage on the new banking regulations laid out by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision misses the point (Basel was established in 1974 to improve the quality of banking supervision worldwide). The commentary has focused...
Read MoreSeptember 13, 2010
At Steadyhand, we’re big on client-manager alignment. We think it’s important that investors work with professionals who share their interests. As clients and regular readers know, we walk the walk in this regard. Each year we publish the...
Read MoreSeptember 7, 2010
It was revealed last week that regulators are looking into potential conflicts of interest between the banks and their clients. According to the Globe and Mail, the enforcement division of the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada...
Read MoreAugust 26, 2010
This week’s rerun comes from April 2007. Foreign buyers were on the hunt for Canadian assets, which was stirring emotions and politics at home. Tom weighed in with some unique perspective on the issue. With Potash Corp. now in play, it's...
Read MoreJuly 27, 2010
This week we look back to the summer of 2006. The U.S. housing market was at a turning point. The consensus view was that it would be a soft landing. Tom disagreed. Four years later, prices are still down 40-50% from their peaks in some markets...
Read MoreJuly 26, 2010
The latest acronym in the investment world smells a little funny. The STINC countries (Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia and Chile) are meant to represent export-oriented nations that have shown good fiscal restraint and infrastructure investment...
Read MoreJuly 8, 2010
In our discussions with investors, we’ve found there are a few misconceptions surrounding the deductibility of investment management fees. The most common misunderstanding is that mutual fund investors are at a disadvantage (from a tax...
Read MoreJune 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...
Read MoreJune 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...
Read MoreJune 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...
Read MoreJune 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...
Read MoreJune 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...
Read MoreJune 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...
Read MoreMay 31, 2010
It was announced last week that BMO is adding 8 new ETFs to its lineup. It now offers 30 ETFs, up from zero a year ago. With every new offering, BMO is getting narrower in its focus. The current batch gives the investor specific exposure to junior oil stocks, junior...
Read MoreMay 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...
Read MoreMay 5, 2010
In the media and this blog, it’s been pretty quiet when it comes to principal protected notes (PPNs). Regular readers will know that we have been critical of these bank-issued products and have written about them often. I don’t have a sense of how...
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