Cutting Through the Noise
October 25, 2013
Sports broadcasts usually start with the color commentator providing viewers with the ‘Keys to the Game’. For the Maple Leafs, it might be: (1) contain Crosby, (2) pound the Penguins’ defense and (3) pray. I don’t watch enough sports to be definitive on...
Read MoreOctober 24, 2013
The world’s largest provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is launching its first mutual funds in Canada. BlackRock (the parent of iShares) announced this month a suite of seven balanced funds, the BlackRock Strategic Portfolio Series, which will be built...
Read MoreOctober 21, 2013
Hard assets can be a good source of diversification in a portfolio, as their prices or market values can have a low degree of correlation to stocks or bonds. Commodities like gold and oil can act as a hedge against inflation (although not always). The same goes for...
Read MoreOctober 18, 2013
A lot of the writing Scott and I do is aimed at breaking down common perceptions about economics and investing that are out of date or inaccurate. On that note, my friend Bing Monahan sent me an article from The Atlantic that outlines 10 economic trends...
Read MoreOctober 16, 2013
While the Republicans and Democrats are duking it out in Washington over the debt ceiling, it’s ironic that the Congressional Budget Office is unable to report the fiscal year-end budget numbers (it’s not deemed an essential service and is shut down...
Read MoreOctober 10, 2013
From our Quarterly Report: Five years ago we were right in the middle of it. Lehman Brothers had gone down and the financial crisis was taking hold. It was a period that will be forever fused in my memory, as I suspect it will for our clients. But even with
Read MoreOctober 8, 2013
We've added a number of new features to our statements over the past months, notably the Account (or Portfolio) Activity table and Account (or Portfolio) History chart. While they are generally straightforward, I want to spend a bit of time reviewing some...
Read MoreOctober 4, 2013
Let’s pretend it’s two years ago and we’re having coffee. I ask you to predict how your stock portfolio will do over the next two years, but there’s a twist. I have divine insight and can tell you in advance what September, 2013, will look like. As it happens, we're...
Read MoreOctober 2, 2013
Toronto Stock Exchange runs print ads every six months to celebrate/welcome their new listings. I find it informative to see the mix of businesses that are going public. Certainly, it’s changed significantly from the early days of my career. This month’s...
Read MoreSeptember 27, 2013
This week I’ve been seeing and hearing ads from the Federal government defending their cell phone policies. The ads are in response to the telecom industry’s active campaign to discredit those policies. Seeing my tax dollars used to debate policy with a self...
Read MoreSeptember 26, 2013
We think it’s important to check in periodically with our clients to ensure we are on the right track. Recently, we surveyed about half of them to get their feedback. We thank everyone who took a few minutes to participate. The results are overwhelmingly...
Read MoreSeptember 24, 2013
It’s the 20th anniversary of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) in Canada. In the Report on Business today, Tara Perkins goes through their history, from being a accidental solution to a “disaster” to a thriving part of our capital markets today. It’s...
Read MoreSeptember 23, 2013
Bob Farrell is a legendary Wall Street figure. He was Chief Market Strategist at Merrill Lynch for 25 years. One of the things he is well known for is his '10 Market Rules to Remember'. They’re well worth remembering.
Read MoreSeptember 18, 2013
Last week, Vanguard published an article on active management entitled, 'Success factors for actively managed funds'. While this giant U.S. mutual fund and ETF company is known for being the birth place of indexing, it also has a large portion of its assets in actively...
Read MoreSeptember 16, 2013
I’m pleased to introduce our newest member of the team, Cheryl Shkurhan. Cheryl is taking on the role of Investor Specialist and will work closely with Chris, Scott, David, Sher and me in helping our clients build and manage portfolios. Cheryl holds Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Chartered Investment Manager (CIM) designations and brings a diverse background and skill-set to the firm. She spent the past...
Read MoreSeptember 12, 2013
As we do every year at this time, we’ve updated our figures on co-investment (the practice of investing alongside our clients). We feel there’s no better way to illustrate our commitment to our investment philosophy, approach, and ultimately our clients...
Read MoreSeptember 10, 2013
I wrote last week about Canada’s consumer debt challenge and noted that the scary numbers were a risk to the Canadian economy, but that other factors, including global economic trends, would be more important drivers of our stock market. One...
Read MoreSeptember 9, 2013
One of the things I love about our office is our neighbours. Situated in the diverse Armoury District, we’re surrounded by art galleries, architects & builders, chocolatiers, the best cheese shop and Belgian waffle makers in the city and numerous European luxury car dealerships. The other day a shiny bright-orange Lamborghini was being unloaded off a flatbed truck in front of our office. I couldn’t resist the opportunity...
Read MoreSeptember 6, 2013
In last Friday’s Report on Business, Scott Barlow wrote an article entitled, ‘The Scariest Chart You’ll See all Year’ (it was a price chart showing how the S&P/TSX Composite Index has diverged from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index after tracking it closely...
Read MoreSeptember 4, 2013
In the asset management business, there has to be a balance between the best interests of the clients and those of the shareholders. A manager must make judgments on a number of factors whereby existing clients have different interests than...
Read MoreAugust 29, 2013
Confusing. Frustrating. Ugly. These were the words we used in our Quarterly Report to describe global stock markets in the summer of 2011. It was a challenging time for investors, as the World Index declined 16% in Q3/2011 and the U.S. market dropped...
Read MoreAugust 22, 2013
It’s a sad statement. Glencore Xstrata, the Swiss mining giant, announced that it’s taking a US$7.7 billion writedown on its investment in Xstrata. Writedowns in the resource sector are a daily event right now, but … but … Glencore just bought Xstrata for US$29 billion...
Read MoreAugust 20, 2013
I saw the movie Jobs last night in spite of a number of poor reviews. Just like Apple’s first prototype, I’d say it was just O.K. The flick ended, however, with one of Apple’s great commercials (spoiler alert), the 1997 ‘Think different’ ad: Here’s to the crazy...
Read MoreAugust 13, 2013
Scott and I met with a client recently who owns a number of commercial buildings. He was telling us a story about his first purchase in the early 1980’s. Along with a few partners, he bought a building at a fraction of its value (in his opinion), but had to finance it with...
Read MoreAugust 7, 2013
Catching up on my reading, I came across Warren Buffett's classic analysis of "Mr. Market" in the Berkshire Hathaway's 1987 Annual Report (it was referenced in Michael Price's weekly letter). Here it is (with the emphasis being mine...
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