Value investing has been a hugely popular and successful investment strategy for decades. Proponents of value investing include Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett – both of whom went on to achieve staggering returns over a prolonged period of time. While the rewards from value investing appear to be relatively high, the risks may also prove to be greater than many investors realise…
It hasn’t been a terribly good week for the TSX Composite Index. Canada’s benchmark stock index has fallen more than 1% from the beginning of the week through Thursday’s close. Normally, a 1% move in just under a week is the very epitome of much ado about nothing. Stocks are constantly moving up and down for dubious reasons. Normally it takes a 3% or 5% move in a week before…
Canada’s stock market has been among the worst performing in the world this year, with many global fund managers selling Canadian equities and foreign short-sellers targeting everything from resource companies to the country’s banks. Being negative on Canada has certainly been a profitable play. The S&P/TSX Composite Index is currently down eight per cent for 2015, compared with a 1.46 per cent gain for the S&P 500. If that trend…
Canada has always had to play second fiddle to our neighbours to the south. The Great White North just never seems to get the respect it deserves, whether it’s the frequent lag in products arriving on our soil, the border, tax and currency concerns among athletes and entertainers, and, of course, the weather. From an investing standpoint, it’s true that Canada was the place to be during the commodity supercycle…
The Toronto Stock Exchange finished Friday with a 50-point gain, leaving it up about 290 points on the week. In the U.S., however, markets surged, pushing the gain for the Dow Jones to about 425 points on the week, the S&P 500 to 45 points and the NASDAQ to 63 points. The S&P gain left that index ahead on the year since Dec. 23, 2010. The Dow was already ahead,…
Toronto’s main stock index dropped on Monday to its lowest in nearly five months as energy, materials and financial issues receded on concerns about global economic growth. The broad-based decline came on thin trading on a day when U.S. markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday. Among the biggest decliners, Suncor Energy lost 0.9 percent to C$30.84, Royal Bank of Canada fell 0.9 percent to C$50.45 and Teck Resources…
Recently in the comments section of a post from July 2008, titled 30% today vs. 50% tomorrow, a reader John asks the following question, “I noticed some of my mutual funds are showing a 70% return from one year ago (market low). Do you agree it’s a good time to sell some now and wait for a dip in the major indexes before getting back in? I’m of course talking about…
During the RRSP campaign, I met one of my clients who held investments with Manulife for a while. During our meeting, he showed me his investment statements from the other company. He had invested in segregated funds for the past 10 years and wasn’t happy with the results. While I am not bashing Manulife (I still took it in my portfolio for our best 2010 stock picks contest), I can’t…
The average quality of ETFs has been deteriorating lately. Further evidence of this comes from a Morgan Stanley study where they found that US ETF tracking error in 2009 averaged 1.25% compared to only 0.52% in 2008. (I found this article through the Stingy Investor site. Not too long ago we could have summed up the low-cost indexing philosophy by saying “buy ETFs”. Those days are gone. The number of…