Cutting Through the Noise
March 28, 2008
I was in Toronto this week and met with the crew at CGOV to talk about the Equity Fund. We covered lots of ground, which we’ll report on in our Quarterly Report that will be published on or around April ...
Read MoreMarch 24, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published March 22, 2008 Between now and the time I publish my next column, you should receive a quarterly statement from your investment adviser or manager. Get prepared. Your net worth will have ...
Read MoreMarch 17, 2008
The news just keeps getting worse. Today it’s the announcement that one of Wall Street’s revered investment dealers, Bear Stearns, is being bailed out and shareholders are going to lose almost everything. Despite the fact that Bear was a poster ...
Read MoreMarch 14, 2008
I received an email from an investor today relating to my column in the Globe last week . With her permission, I’ve posted our correspondence below. Mr Bradley, Our investment advisor is trying to sell us PPN's which we are ...
Read MoreMarch 10, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published March 8, 2008 During the RRSP season we were barraged with ads from the banks and insurance companies. In light of the recent market turbulence, the emphasis has been on their ‘risk ...
Read MoreFebruary 28, 2008
In the investment business, Royal Bank and PH&N stole all the headlines last week (including on our blog), but there was another piece of news that relates closely to what we’re doing at Steadyhand. It was the announcement of a ...
Read MoreFebruary 25, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 23, 2008 It appeared on my BlackBerry screen on Thursday afternoon. Word from the office that Royal Bank was buying Phillips Hager & North. My first reaction was to shrug and ...
Read MoreFebruary 21, 2008
February 11, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published February 9, 2008 In 2007, the capital markets were defined by acronyms (CDO, ABCP, SIV, CDS), but the big new word doing the rounds now is "decoupling". Decoupling refers to an economic ...
Read MoreFebruary 6, 2008
In 2007, the total return of the S&P/TSX Composite Index was +9.8%. The MSCI World Index (in Canadian dollar terms) was -7.5%. This divergence of returns means that if you’ve done nothing in the past year, Canadian equities are a ...
Read MoreJanuary 28, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 26, 2008 I had a column written for this week on how investors should expect lower returns, lower than what they have achieved in the past 10 to 25 years. I ...
Read MoreJanuary 24, 2008
A friend of mine who lives in the U.S. sent me a comment on my last blog that is worthy of a posting of its own. She is witnessing first-hand the fallout in the housing market and has a few ...
Read MoreJanuary 21, 2008
I can’t contain myself any longer. Do people really expect Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and George Bush to come to the rescue of the failing U.S. economy? Are they nuts? Ben’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, and George ...
Read MoreJanuary 16, 2008
A friend was telling me about a discipline she enforces in her household - if anyone brings a new piece of clothing into the house, they have to get rid of something. It keeps the drawers and closets in reasonable ...
Read MoreJanuary 10, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 12, 2008 Note: this article is a revised version of a previous blog posting titled Fit to be Tyed that was picked up by the Globe and Mail. It was a ...
Read MoreJanuary 7, 2008
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published January 5, 2008 Over the holidays I had a chance to read Michael Mauboussin's More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places . From his perch as chief investment strategist ...
Read MoreDecember 23, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 22, 2007 I put my neck on the line last year with some bold and provocative predictions for 2007 . Rather than make economic or market calls, however, I focused on ...
Read MoreDecember 20, 2007
Yesterday Morgan Stanley took a mortgage-related write-down of $9.4 billion, which led to a sizeable loss for the bank’s fourth quarter. This amount was an increase of $5.7 billion from an estimate it gave the street on November 8th. By ...
Read MoreDecember 12, 2007
We are not a big firm and don’t talk to thousands of investors on a daily basis, but Chris, Scott and I do talk to a fair number. From our conversations, there is one theme that recurs constantly. I DON’T ...
Read MoreDecember 10, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published December 8, 2007 What price-earnings multiple would you put on a company that is growing at 10 per cent, is highly profitable and pays a healthy dividend? A company that has steadily ...
Read MoreDecember 6, 2007
“ As always the key remains to focus on long-term valuations and step aside from the emotional rollercoaster which accompanies it. ” This is an excerpt from a recent interview that Dr. Sandy Nairn, the CEO and founder of Edinburgh ...
Read MoreDecember 4, 2007
Globe and Mail columnist Rob Carrick has recently been pounding the table on the poor investment merit of principal-protected notes (PPNs). In his column in last Saturday’s Report on Business ( A Do-it Yourself Principal Protection Plan ), Rob reiterates ...
Read MoreNovember 30, 2007
It’s the most important moment in one’s investment career - the day they receive their first paycheque. That is the moment that a young person can start a discipline that will last a lifetime - a discipline that will set ...
Read MoreNovember 27, 2007
Research studies have consistently shown that investors do worse than the mutual funds they invest in. And depending on what study you read, the shortfall is sometimes quite substantial. David Sung, from Nicola Wealth Management in Vancouver, has written an ...
Read MoreNovember 26, 2007
The Globe and Mail, Report on Business Published November 24, 2007 Over the last few weeks, I've been spending lots of time speaking with clients and other investors. It's been interesting because while I want to talk about Steadyhand, Steve ...
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