Why should you invest globally?

1. Greater diversification The Canadian stock market has three dominant sectors that make up 78% of the entire index: energy, materials and financials.  Energy and materials are really all about natural resources. The global stock market is much more balanced, with greater representation in areas such as consumer staples, health care, information technology and comsumer discretionary. […]

Crises are inevitable, so what to do?

Every day when you open the newspaper, turn on the radio or TV news, or surf the internet, you will find at least one story about a natural disaster, political, economic or financial crisis that you could choose to worry about.  This worry can negatively affect investment decisions that you make.  What many investors ignore […]

What do we know about the current market mood?

As the title of this article indicates, my intention is to distinguish the market mood from several important facts.  The emotions of market participants is subject to change every moment of every day, causing them to change their outlook on the future value of businesses.  If people worry about the future, their appraisal of the […]

Trimark – 30 years with the same style

In September 2011 the Trimark Fund and Trimark Canadian Fund turned 30. This is remarkable and almost unique because most funds are relatively new and even fewer have followed the same management style for so long. As current Trimark Fund manager Dana Love said in a recent interview “The investment process is consistent across the […]

AGF Money Manager Report August 2011

In a recent conference call featuring four AGF money managers to discuss the issues of U.S. and European government debt levels, Rory Flynn of AGF International Advisors (AGFIA is the manager of AGF Global Value, AGF International Stock, AGF European Equity) had the following comments: 1. European equities in general are trading at the extreme low end of their historical […]

Vengrowth merger into Covington II Fund

VenGrowth shareholders have overwhelmingly endorsed the Covington Offer to acquire the VenGrowth Funds. More than 90 per cent of votes were cast in favour of the Covington Offer, according to preliminary results presented. The two companies will proceed to merge back office system and expect to be ready to pay out cash to shareholders who […]

Should I be calm or panic?

A client asked me how panicky my clients are with the current economic situation.  I was struck by the question since I do not feel any panic nor are clients bombarding me with queries indicating panic or any sort.  Here was my reply. I don’t think my clients are panicky at all. I hope they […]

Irrational investors, rational conclusions

  There was an interesting article in the National Post written by Peter Hodson, about how investors think the stock market is irrational.  He points out that the average investor behaves in a way contrary to their financial health by buying and selling at the wrong times.  He also points out that if there is […]

Think before firing that fund manager

Michael Nairne wrote an article in the National Post that provides healthy advice about the consistent tendency of investors to change mutual fund managers at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.  For many years I have emphasized to clients how important it is to make rational, careful selection of fund managers before investing with them, […]

Why on earth would you buy that?

At a recent presentation by one of the Mackenzie Cundill fund managers, he described how he had been attracted to the US banking sector in recent months.  He described it as “a bad industry in a bad country at a bad time”.  At least, that’s what the headlines read and what many commentators think.  His […]

Warren Buffett quoted on gold

“You could take all the gold that’s ever been mined, and it would fill a cube 67 feet in each direction. For what that’s worth at current gold prices, you could buy all — not some — all of the farmland in the United States. Plus, you could buy 10 Exxon Mobils, plus have $1 […]