Canadian Investment Advice and Financial News
From Black Monday, Oct. 19, 1987, to the September 2008 crash caused by U.S. financials’ exposure to toxic subprime loans and credit default swaps, it’s no wonder that, when autumn nears, so do investors’ fears of stock-market routs. During the 2008 collapse, which was the last major market crash aside from the flash crash of 2010, […]
The number of warnings about overvalued markets seems to be quickly ratcheting upward and no wonder. Stocks in the U.S. closed their best August since 2000, with the S&P 500 up 3.77% for the month. And with a 1.92% return for the TSX during that time, the rally has left equity valuations on both sides […]
Record high markets have our customers asking us questions every day such as: When will there be a correction in the market? What can I do to protect myself from it? First of all, this sort of thinking can be detrimental to your portfolio. Corrections are part of the market, just as rallies are. Trying […]
Many alternative investments, whether in the area of real estate, private equity, hedge funds, infrastructure or more complex structured products, require investors to tie up their capital for periods ranging from four months to 10 years or more. In most cases, there is no secondary market for these securities, so investors lack two elements key […]
Stocks, the Canadian dollar and commodities all soared Friday in the wake of an agreement among European leaders to a set of prescriptions for their debt crisis. But analysts questioned how long the rally would hold. In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index closed up 171.86 points, or 1.5 per cent, at 11,596.56. In New York, […]
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 […]
The resource-heavy Toronto stock market could be headed for another week of losses as commodity prices adjust to much lower expectations for economic growth. And while economic data this week is expected to show that the Canadian economy continued to grow in early summer, investors aren’t expected to find encouragement in the numbers as the […]
Too much of a good thing can end up being bad. That includes using a benchmark index as the basis for an investing apparently. In the July 2010 paper (download here from SSRN; acknowledgement to Stingy Investor where I found the link) On the Economic Costs of Index-Linked Investing, NYU prof and NBER research associate […]
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 […]
The Shrinking TSX Another ones bites the dust. As I noted last year, the TSX Composite Index has been shrinking for years. That seems to be continuing, though at a slower pace. When Enerflex Systems Income Fund (EFX.UN) leaves the index next week as the result of a buyout (see Standard & Poors press release) […]