Investorial

I’m lucky to count Larry MacDonald as one of Investorial’s readers. Larry is an economist, author of several business books and currently runs the Investment Ideas blog at Canadian Business Online. He is currently doing a series rounding up Canadian financial blogs. So far he’s profiled bloggers such as Canadian Capitalist, Bill Cara, The Dividend Guy, Yaser Anwar and many more. I have been consistently reading many of those blogs, and am discovering new ones through this process.

Investorial was lucky enough to also get mentioned by Larry in the round up. I guess I’m more well known for being (more…)

I seldom profile other investment / financial blogs here. But when I do, it’s because its content has earnestly captivated my fascination. I’ve been a long time fan of J.S. Kim’s writings ever since he launched Zen Of Investing. Besides being Asian (so am I), and also having a partner (Kaeho) blogging about martial arts (another passion of mine). J.S. displays a thorough understanding of investment, economical and even political issues (to a certain extent). His knowledge stems from his experiences being a former private wealth manager (wonder what happened there?).

His latest impressive article discusses 10 reasons why U.S. Dollar denominated bonds aren’t necessary the safe haven that most financial consultants advocate. Anyone who sees through the mindlessness of fee/commission driven advisers earn points in my book! (more…)

A quick update on the various mash-up experiments involving social networking and stock picking since I last reported on it. TheStreet.com has bought into a venture founded in part by one of its writers, James Altucher. You can read about the StockPickr.com joint venture from James himself.

Two things of note. A contrarian investor like myself by nature does not subscribe to the theory of the “wisdom of crowds”. I didn’t sign up to try out the StockPickr service, because I don’t anticipate putting it to good use. Having a big backer in TheStreet.com will certainly catapult StockPickr to the top of the social stock picking offerings (more…)

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…)