Blog: Cutting Through the Noise

Different This Time?

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 19, 2011

“Tom, I agree with your view on stocks, and boy, you’re so right about how negative people are, but ... I can’t help but wonder if it’s different this time.” It’s different this time. I’ve been trained to never utter these words. They’re the most dangerous four...

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Taking Stewardship Initiative

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on December 2, 2011

As readers will know, Steadyhand has ranked highly on Morningstar's annual Stewardship Grades. That status was reinforced last night when we won the Best Stewardship Initiative Award at the Canadian Investment Awards.

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Now That's Ironic – Part II

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 30, 2011

While Scott finds it ironic that the low-fee fund firms come out of high-cost Vancouver, I find it equally ironic that two of the highest fee firms in the industry come out of my home town. Winnipeg, which is known as the wholesale capital of Canada...

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Now That's Ironic

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 24, 2011

With the holidays around the corner, shopping is in the spotlight. It got me thinking … We’re used to high price tags on the wet coast. We’ve got the most expensive housing market in Canada (if not the world, based on some measures). A bottle of...

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Another Lump in the Rug

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 21, 2011

A dirty little secret in this business: when a fund has an ugly performance record, it can be buried by merging it into another fund. Fund mergers occur all the time (see Fund Company Calls the Cleaner). The latest track records to be swept under the rug belong to a handful of under-performing Investors Group funds. Given...

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Morningstar Stewardship Grades 2011

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 16, 2011

Morningstar Canada published its updated Stewardship Grades for 26 fund companies yesterday. The grades are designed to help investors further research, identify, and compare fund companies that do a good job – or a poor job – of aligning their...

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Generation Riskless

Excerpt from Scott Ronalds's blog on November 9, 2011

I feel for the twentysomething generation. Good jobs are tough to come by, home ownership is out of reach for many (in Vancouver and Toronto, at least), skinny jeans are deemed fashionable for men, and a weekend camping now means pitching a tent...

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Robert Hager, 1937-2011

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 4, 2011

Few icons of the investment industry are celebrated outside the confines of Bay Street, but Bob Hager is one. Bob, who died on Oct. 7, was a driving force in building one of Canada’s most successful asset managers. In 1965, he and partners Art Phillips and Rudy North, started a fledgling firm called Phillips, Hager & North. By...

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Growth Please

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on November 1, 2011

In his letter this month, Bill Gross of Pimco talks about the cure to all our ills – growth. As he says, “No country has enough of it.” In discussing the prospects for economic growth, Mr. Gross does a good job of capturing the challenges we face. “The lack of...

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Crystal Clear

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 28, 2011

Oracle, which is a holding in the Equity Fund, announced a takeover bid for RightNow Technologies this week. In the past, Oracle has proven to be an effective and disciplined acquirer, but there is talk on this one that they paid too much – over 5 times sales...

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China Deconstructed

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 24, 2011

I came across a talk by China-based professor Michael Pettis on Paul Kedrosky’s ‘Infectious Greed’ blog. For those who are interested in China and where it’s headed, I highly recommend these 38 minutes. It’s heavy duty economics, but the points are...

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False Comfort

Excerpt from Tom Bradley's blog on October 21, 2011

In the economic discourse of today, the camp that says we’re going into the tank has lots of ammunition. You don’t have to go past the front page of the newspaper to know we’ve got issues. For those arguing that we’ll be OK, or at least not have a severe...

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