- The creator of the Easy Chair portfolio, Eric Kirzner tells The Financial Post that investors should take a Rip Van Winkle approach to volatile markets.
- Larry Swedroe counsels investors to keep their emotions in check in a guest essay in The Wealthy Boomer blog.
- This column explains why a lot of people hate loyalty points.
- It is heartening to read that Vanguard’s low-cost ETFs are seeing strong inflows.
- If you are a shareholder in our big banks (who isn’t?), you should check out this column in the Globe & Mail titled The bank most likely to walk into a sharp object (no prizes for guessing the bank it refers to). I found it interesting that the CEO and the board was unaware that “such a small part of the bank’s overall business” would cause so much grief. If the people running a business are in the dark, where does that leave ordinary investors like us?
Blog Roundup:
- When did Petro Canada start selling mobile phones? Million Dollar Journey ferrets out the existence of two more players in the pre-paid cell phone business.
- Larry MacDonald wrote a post on how to get exposure to REITs.
- The Dividend Guy is writing a series of posts on his investment process.
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8 responses so far ↓
1 FourPillars // Jan 24, 2008 at 10:35 pm
That “Sharp Object” article is excellent - one of the best I’ve read in a while.
Mike
2 MillionDollarJourney // Jan 24, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Thanks for the mention CC. It seems that petro canada and 7/11 offer decent options for prepaid wireless providing that you have one of those stores nearby.
3 FinancialJungle // Jan 25, 2008 at 3:23 am
Count me as one of those who bought into Vanguard ETFs last year. I do wonder, however, if the market becomes less efficient as more investors (retail or pension) rush into ETF investing. After all, who will stay behind to maintain the balance between intrinsic value and market cap?
4 Canadian Capitalist // Jan 25, 2008 at 8:13 am
FJ: Maybe but I wouldn’t worry about it just yet. Only a fraction of investments are indexed.
5 The Dividend Guy // Jan 25, 2008 at 10:28 am
Thanks for the mention CC.
6 Silicon Prairie // Jan 25, 2008 at 11:12 am
ETFs may be seeing a lot of inflows now, but just wait until the next bubble comes along that will “go up 35% a year forever!”. It won’t take long for people to sell their ETFs.
FJ: I dodn’t think the usual alternative to ETFs included the type of arbitrage that makes them efficient. That seems a little beyond the average active fund manager. I’m not an expert but it’s probably done by more specialized funds that the average investor doesn’t have access to. If the number of people doing it does go down, the profits will go up - drawing more people.
7 brad // Jan 27, 2008 at 11:40 am
Speaking of pre-pay cellphones, does anyone know of a prepay phone that will work in the US as well as Canada? I travel occasionally to the US (2-3 times/year, sometimes a bit more) and that’s the main time I use my cellphone; I rarely use it in Canada. But I haven’t been able to find a prepay service that lets me use it outside of Canada; some providers won’t even let you use prepay outside of the province.
8 Investor // Jan 27, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Any one out their know if any of the big banks of other Canadian Financial institution honour Quebec government RESP grants?
I just posted about this on myblog
http://ridetomilliondollars.blogspot.com/search/label/Quebec%20RESP
If any on knows please let share the information
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