Canadian Capitalist

Hedge funds, private pools of money usually marketed to wealthy individuals and employing aggressive investing strategies like short selling, leverage, derivatives etc., are attracting a lot of new money these days. However, I am staying away from these funds for the following reasons:

I mostly own stocks and ETFs, which are fractional interests in real businesses. [...]

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A recent column on MarketWatch.com points out that adding uncorrelated assets like real estate, commodities and energy to a portfolio composed of stocks and bonds reduces overall volatility. Using data from Ibbotson Associates, they point out that a portfolio mix of 50% stocks, 35% bonds, 10% REITs and 5% commodities outperformed the traditional 60% stocks, [...]

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Sunday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal features some interesting stories:

Should you sell in May and go away? Or, maybe buy some large caps.

Paul Farrell dislikes “enhanced” index funds due to their high costs and under whelming returns.

This story examines why cellphone service is still unreliable.

One way to think about stocks is as a bond [...]

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There is even more discussion about the real estate bubble, especially since Fed Chair Alan Greenspan warned of housing “froth”. SmartMoney magazine recently ran a bull vs. bear debate on the topic. The bulls make the familiar argument of low interest rates, strong demand, low inventory levels, limited land supply etc. The bears, on the [...]

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I learnt about the Investment Quality Trends stock newsletter from this Forbes magazine interview column. IQ Trends has a very interesting stock selection strategy. A stock is undervalued (and hence a buy) when its dividend yield is at the high end of its historical range. At the other extreme, a stock is overvalued and should [...]

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I bought AIG for my retirement account last month, when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer indicated that he expects to reach a civil settlement with the company. Today, Mr. Spitzer filed a civil complaint against the company and AIG’s stock rallied 3% on optimism that former management seems to be the main target of [...]

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Bank of Canada kept interest rates at 2.5% as expected and seemed to suggest that it is no hurry to raise rates.

BMO earned $1.04 per share (vs. expectations of $1.09) and CIBC earned $1.20 well shy of analyst expectations of $1.44. CIBC closed 2.25% lower today.

JLP at AllThingsFinancial alerts that many iShares ETFs are [...]

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The big five Canadian Banks kick off their earnings season on Wednesday with BMO and CIBC reporting. Here’s what to expect:
BMO $1.09 ($1.12 in year-ago quarter)CIBC $1.44 ($1.34 in year-ago quarter)TD Bank $1.00 ($0.90 in year-ago quarter)RBC $1.38 ($1.17 in year-ago quarter)Scotia Bank $0.75 ($0.68 in year-ago quarter)
The Bank of Canada is also widely expected [...]

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When I was recently offered a new job, I had to find out if I was being offered a competitive compensation package. I was already gainfully employed and was in no pressure to accept the job offer. I couldn’t just ask my friends and co-workers about their salary, so I turned to the web for [...]

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The Globe and Mail newspaper runs a regular column that examines the financial situation of an average Joe or Jane and asks a financial planner for advice. The stories allow us to indulge in a bit of financial voyeurism and hopefully, learn a few things that can be applied in our own lives.
Last weekend’s edition [...]

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