Investorial

Before I break out into a Sally Field “moment”, I just want to show my appreciation for receiving such a humbling mention at WallStreetSelect.com’s recent readers’ choice award for most insightful investment blog of the year. I must stick out like a sore thumb when compared to the other names on the list, since I know and have read everyone of the honorable mentions.

How Investorial got nominated in the first place is still a mystery to me! And though I might question why Digg appears as an investment blog, it’s really up to the reader to decide where they like to get their investment information in this age of content aggregation. (more…)

On this, the final trading day of 2006, I thought it’d be appropriate to editorialize a little about Canada’s biggest investment news of 2006. [Editor's note: Although I'm sure some observant readers will realize that technically, the final trading day of 2006 has already passed!] Finance minister Jim Flaherty will forever be associated with introducing the proposal of taxing income trusts to curtail the rush of Canadian corporations converting their structure for tax advantages. My personal position is clear - I welcome anything that helps to keep junk companies with no business adopting such a structure from carrying on as income trusts.

The whole deal still sounds very fishy. Shortly after the shocking Halloween announcement, the market reacted by dropping the income trust sector by more than 20%, almost $40 Billion dollars of wealth overnight! The ordeal had landed nods for Jim to be the 2006 Canadian business news-maker of the year. But 2007 could hold more surprises, so hold on tight! (more…)

Ever since I mourned the loss of Ameritrade Canada to the buy-out from TD Waterhouse Canada, I’ve been hot on their tail about lowering brokerage commission rates. I was remiss to have not blogged about TD Waterhouse’s new Active Investor commission rates policy, but it’s not too late to correct that oversight!

I’ll scrutinize the fine points of that policy to illustrate that TD Waterhouse has merely put forth a shell to fool customers. The only people able to take advantage of this policy are the really high net-worth account holders. < ?php if (is_home()) { ?>More analysis after the jump!< ?php } ?> (more…)

During this Happy Holiday season, I want to thank you for your readership! Investorial started as a forum for my rants and reactions to investment / financial media out there, who’d have thought people would want to read them? I’m very humbled by that fact. I’m even more grateful for being able to forge relationships with bloggers out there such as Canadian Capitalist, InvestorGeeks, GuruWatch, and AOL Blogging Stocks. Merry Christmas to you!

What about my gift? Like Charlie Brown, I don’t have much to offer. But please believe that my wish to you is sincere! (more…)

Will Smith’s latest movie “The Pursuit Of Happyness” opened in theaters December 15th, 2006. This isn’t a movie review, but as all my other writings on this blog, it’s my editorial from a financial and a personal perspective.

The movie’s title really spoke to me at a time when I’m trying to decide how happy I currently am, and what is it that I want to pursue; what direction I want to take. The movie is based on a true story. But though most people feel that this story is about the American Dream, my empathy is with the sense of responsibility that the main character, Chris Gardner, had for his situation. Want to know why I feel this? (more…)

One of the ways to monitor investment trends is to find out how they are marketed. Mutual fund names are often a good indication of how fund companies wish to reach their target investors. Remember those days when every mutual fund wanted to add the word “tech” into their name? For a while, everybody wanted to be involved in “nano-tech”, “real estate”. When dividend and value investing styles swung back into admiration, funds were tripping over themselves to make those two words show up.

It’s no surprise that “income trust” was also a hot naming convention for Canadian mutual funds, but the recent income trust melt-down due to new Canadian government tax law proposals have dampen those feelings. CIBC Asset Management has just renamed two of its income trust funds with a shady wolf-in-sheep’s clothing intent. (more…)