Cutting Through the Noise
July 2, 2009
“Things will never be quite the same again. Western businesses in particular will be well served by moderating future expectations. That goes for investors too.” - Tim Price, PFP Wealth Management, June 22nd, 2009. I read Tim Price regularly and always...
Read MoreJune 27, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published June 27, 2009. Over the past nine months, I've talked often in this space about risk being cheap. Investors can't let past losses blind them to the opportunities that have emerged from the banking crisis and...
Read MoreJune 24, 2009
We need your help Aretha! It seems that the little Canadian technology company that could, Research in Motion, has trouble getting respect. This is hardly a statistically robust analysis, but it has been evident to me for years that RIM and its hugely...
Read MoreJune 14, 2009
I'm not a hedge fund manager, but I find their place in the industry to be forever fascinating. Indeed, this week I went so far as to publicly debate the proposition “Hedge funds are dead” with Toreigh Stuart of Man Investments, a hedge fund conglomerate...
Read MoreJune 8, 2009
Last week Chris and I met with Scott Robertson, a financial planner from Ottawa. Scott is a veteran and has a straight-forward, no-nonsense approach to his craft. That was clear when we asked him when and how often his clients re-balance their portfolios...
Read MoreJune 4, 2009
People are having trouble with this rally. Indeed, I admitted to being uneasy about the speed and magnitude of the market’s move in a recent post. What’s spooking people is that it’s happening at a time when the economy is in the dumper and it's not clear...
Read MoreMay 30, 2009
As our firm passes the two-year mark, we aren't able to generalize about where our clients are coming from or why they chose us, but we can make some observations about what their previous portfolios looked like, and more broadly, the state of the...
Read MoreMay 28, 2009
“Fess up, fellows: The masters of the universe have turned out to be masters of disaster. No matter which aspect of the financial crisis you consider, there is a man behind it.” This was the opening paragraph of an article recently posted in the Wall Street Journal that reinforces our view that women are great investors, and even better...
Read MoreMay 26, 2009
The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan (Teachers) came within a hair of buying BCE at $42.75. Clearly the powers that be at Teachers thought enough of the BCE franchise that they were willing to pay up for it and use substantial amounts of leverage...
Read MoreMay 23, 2009
In 26 years of doing this, one of the phrases I find least useful is, the market “is range bound” or “will stay in a narrow trading range over the next X months”. I don’t have conclusive data on it, but I believe that these types of predictions are almost...
Read MoreMay 16, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published May 16, 2009. What do we do now? Has the market gone too far too fast? Is it projecting too robust an economic recovery? Is it going to give back its gains as corporate earnings continue to disappoint? Or is...
Read MoreMay 14, 2009
As I pointed out in a recent post, we all have a tendency to become economists at extreme times like this. Everyone has a view on the economy, the dollar, Ben Bernanke, U.S. consumer debt and Wall Street’s demise. And with our increased focus comes...
Read MoreMay 8, 2009
That’s my answer when asked where the dollar is going. As regular readers know, I’m not short on opinions, nor is it the case that I’m not well informed on the economic and political forces at work. I just think predicting currency movements is impossible...
Read MoreMay 5, 2009
A writer in the Financial Times this morning suggested that BMW and Mercedes need to worry about scale. With Fiat and Porsche playing the role of consolidators, the auto industry is going to have fewer, larger players. Therefore, as the logic goes...
Read MoreMay 3, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published May 2, 2009. Last week I was at the Richard Ivey School of Business speaking to an investing class. It is part of the Benjamin Graham Centre for Value Investing, which has grown in international...
Read MoreApril 29, 2009
The 2009 Lipper Awards have been announced and the ads and emails have started. There will be a rush of fund firms announcing the loot they've collected. Last year we had some fun with our industry's 'silly season'. We announced our own LIPPY Awards...
Read MoreApril 27, 2009
Michael Nairne and his partner (in all respects) Joanne Swystun started a firm called Tacita Capital in 2006. It is a family office for “exceptionally affluent families.” Tacita publishes research pieces from time to time, the latest of which was recently...
Read MoreApril 18, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published April 18, 2009. Let me set the scene. A generic portfolio manager enters a psychiatrist's office and starts talking. Let's be a fly on the wall. Thank you for seeing me, doctor. Sure, I can lie down on the couch...
Read MoreApril 17, 2009
There was great news today. The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) released a proposal to enhance disclosure requirements for over-the-counter (OTC) trades, including bonds. IIROC is one of two regulatory bodies for...
Read MoreApril 15, 2009
More and more commentators and experts are acknowledging that the world has changed. The framework for the future that Pimco’s Bill Gross laid out recently - namely de-levering, de-globalization and re-regulation - encapsulates what I'm reading...
Read MoreApril 8, 2009
My last posting on packaged investment products generated a lot of feedback. There were some great comments posted on the blog, but I received many more emails from readers of the Saturday Globe and Mail. Below are snippets from some of the emails...
Read MoreApril 6, 2009
As the wealth management industry works through this bear market, investment products that promise certainty and limited downside risk are going to be popular. With guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) offering minuscule yields, stock-market...
Read MoreMarch 31, 2009
Recession? Depression? Recessionary depression? Who knows? In the dark moments of an economic and market cycle, I find that everyone becomes an economist. Traders, analysts, portfolio managers, advisors and individual investors all amp up...
Read MoreMarch 27, 2009
Manulife is going to pay its retiring CEO $12.5 million in 2009. Dominic D’Alessandro’s pay cheque for 5 months work will be made up of cash ($2.5 million) and restricted shares ($10 million). To quote chairwoman Gail Cook-Bennett, “[the compensation]...
Read MoreMarch 25, 2009
I received an email from a reader who suggested that someone should offer a balanced fund that is more focused on preserving capital. Rather than being stuck on a set asset mix, as most balanced funds are, the fund would have the scope to move between...
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