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” …

Let’s face it, most investing decisions are made as easily as throwing a dice. I have a pretty hot temper, so I make it a point not to jump into things when it comes to investment decisions. This explains why I haven’t covered the recent Canadian Income Trusts melt-down like some of my peers have. There’s been some excellent discussions brewing. Almost a week has past, so here’s my perspective.
I’ve been a very disloyal Canadian investor. For the last 2 years, I’ve only batted eyes at U.S. companies while the …

Did you know that ETFs have been around since 1993? The Wall Street Journal had done a story last year on ETFs that caught my eye. I was looking to learn more about ETFs, and the WSJ article (where I got the chart in this article) gave a good historical summary of ETFs for the un-initiated. I’m not sure if the 13 years is supposed to be too long or too short. But the recent explosion of ETFs has prompted me to revisit the story again.
When it comes to watching …

Canadian investors really treat our big banks and their mutual funds as angels. While our American friends keep the pressure on fund companies to lower MERs, Canadians cannot see through the devil’s disguise. I wouldn’t mind as much if those funds performed well, but their abysmal net returns makes me wonder why they can justify those high fees? Our investment watchdogs north of the border have failed in affecting mutual fund fee changes. But instead of playing the victim, why not step up and try to be a solution to …

Irwin Michael is my favourite fund manager because of his no compromise, no spin, non-apologetic approach to openly discuss investing. He talks and writes candidly about his investment decisions; allowing me to soak up his perspective and learn from it. You won’t catch him doing any sweet-talking to appease investors and audiences. As of the end of August 2006, Irwin’s ABC Fundamental Value has averaged an annual 17.82% return for the last 15 years while it’s benchmark indes S&P/TSX Total Return has only managed a 10.79% in the same timeframe.
If …

Ross Healy is the chariman and CEO of Strategic Analysis Corporation, an investment advisory firm. Though I feel at times, that Ross’s comments are too politically correct, too on the fence, I still recognize that Ross is very much respected in the Canadian investment scene. Ross is best known for his bearish call on Nortel when it was trading over $100 in 2000. As of June 2006, Strategic Analysis Corporation’s model portfolio has outperformed the S&P/TSX Total Return index to a tune of 20.9% to 11.7% since its 1993 inception.
If …

Canada’s Report On Business Television recently held a series of live broadcasts from BCE place in downtown Toronto. On Monday, September 18th, 2006, they invited two venerable deep-value fund managers in a question and answer forum. You might think I’m hypocritical for advising people not to obssess over ROB-TV while highlighting this event. However, my interest was peaked because of Irwin Michael’s appearance. I hope you will see why I listen when Irwin speaks. It’s truly a no-spin zone (unlike Fox News, or Jim Cramer) and investors get to benefit …

Do you own stock options that are also under water? Tech employees from the dot com bubble era may never get to exercise their options (if their companies still exist!). I have never been a fan of stock options, and prefer my bonuses in the form of a real bonus compensation or a transparent shares grant.
While most may still think that stock options can foster worker alignment with company goals, it’s worthy for investors to note why most corporations prefer stock option compensation — because it means they don’t have …