Cutting Through the Noise
March 23, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published March 21, 2009. It is hard to find an individual investor who thinks that now is the right time to buy into the stock market. People that are holding cash are happy and have no intention of parting with their...
Read MoreMarch 20, 2009
In the investment business, valuation comparisons are very important. How one security stacks up against another in terms of price to earnings ratio, cash flow multiple or yield is at the core of what we do. CP Rail is cheaper than CN because it has a lower price...
Read MoreMarch 9, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business. Published March 7, 2009. The news media have been remarkably quiet about the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. newsletter this year. And yet, as we go through this historic time, we need its calm, common sense and...
Read MoreMarch 5, 2009
It would be an oversight to do a series of postings on Warren Buffett’s 2008 Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway and not review some of the great quotes and analogies. On the current investing environment: “Things also went ...
Read MoreMarch 4, 2009
In this, our third posting on Warren Buffett’s 2008 Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway , there is no introduction or additional explanation required. This is his comment on the current investing environment. “The investment world has gone from ...
Read MoreMarch 3, 2009
One of the recent themes of this blog has been the notion that this economic crisis will cause the ‘strong to get stronger’. Well-financed companies will have unprecedented opportunities to buy assets and attract talent through this period, and will ...
Read MoreMarch 1, 2009
Warren Buffett’s 2008 Letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway was published on Saturday. As usual, it brings a refreshing perspective on topics of current interest. Over the course of the week, we’ll highlight a few. As he does every ...
Read MoreFebruary 27, 2009
With all of us wondering how we’re going to get out of this mess, I thought this month’s Investment Outlook by Bill Gross of Pimco was a good read. Mr. Gross is known as the ‘King of Bonds’ in the U.S. ...
Read MoreFebruary 26, 2009
In the Globe and Mail today, Derek DeCloet wrote an article about the aftermath of Canada’s great ‘hollowing out’ that took place from 2005 to 2007 - the period when foreigners were swooping in to buy our companies. There was ...
Read MoreFebruary 21, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 21, 2009 As regular readers know, some of my best columns are written for the sole purpose of keeping peace at home. If Lori wants me to write about something, the ...
Read MoreFebruary 16, 2009
That’s how one reader felt about my last Globe and Mail column ( Focusing Too Much on the Short Term Can Lead to a Short Career ). I stand by what I wrote about long-term thinking, but in response to that ...
Read MoreFebruary 11, 2009
I own a lot of Cisco shares through my investment in the Steadyhand Equity Fund and Global Equity Fund. It’s a stock that appears in more than one of our funds. I just went through the company’s February 4th investor ...
Read MoreFebruary 8, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 7, 2009 I've been having trouble sleeping, so I dusted off a research report written by my friend, J.J. Woolverton, who is the chairman of Guardian Capital LP (he makes me ...
Read MoreFebruary 7, 2009
“The conduct at issue relates to stock options granting practices at RIM which, over a ten year period from December 1996 to July 2006 were inconsistent with the terms of RIM’s stock option plan and with RIM’s public disclosure.” - ...
Read MoreFebruary 5, 2009
I’ve written about our home team, Teck Corp., in previous postings. This week Rio Tinto is in the headlines. Its situation is similar in the sense that six months ago it was a leading resource company, perhaps the premier one ...
Read MoreJanuary 27, 2009
As I was reading the year-end report from CGOV, the manager of our Equity Fund, I was blown away by the numbers. We’ve talked in the past about the quality of companies in the fund, how well positioned they are ...
Read MoreJanuary 25, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 24, 2009 Readers are quick to point out when they think I am naive, dismissive, misinformed or just plain wrong. No doubt there has been some loose analysis in this column ...
Read MoreJanuary 15, 2009
I recently re-read a 2004 article from Bernstein Global Wealth Management entitled Taking the Fear out of Entering Equities . It did an excellent job of addressing the issue of whether dollar-cost averaging is the best way to invest new ...
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2009
As regular readers will know, I follow Jeremy Grantham and his colleagues at GMO with great interest. Jeremy’s quarterly missives are always enlightening and the firm, which is based in Boston, has a great long-term track record. One of the ...
Read MoreJanuary 10, 2009
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 10, 2009 When trying to explain what's going on in the stock market, we often draw comparisons to the housing market. It helps to put the mysteries of Wall Street into ...
Read MoreDecember 29, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 27, 2008 The year 2008 was a tough one for prognosticators. Certainly my previously impeccable record was severely tarnished. Last year's Christmas column had a few things right - Bill Holland ...
Read MoreDecember 20, 2008
I’m a sports fan. I’m a Canucks fan. I was a Mats Sundin fan. Until now. Mats’ little dance with NHL general managers is one of the most cynical things I’ve witnessed in sports - the NY Knicks signing of ...
Read MoreDecember 18, 2008
I am on a list to receive a daily email advertisement from Advisor.ca. I see a different product from a different company every day. For me, it’s a great way to keep in touch with what products are being pushed ...
Read MoreDecember 15, 2008
In this podcast, I expand on my latest Globe and Mail column, where I identify three reasons why investors should be looking beyond the doom and gloom: (1) stock and corporate bond valuations are very attractive, (2) investor sentiment is close to maximum bearishness, and (3) there's a mound of cash building up on the sidelines...
Read MoreDecember 15, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 13, 2008 “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” In a recent series of client presentations, we used these words from Iron Mike Tyson to segue from ...
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