Modest Equity Market Returns: In this recent paper, Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton authors of Triumph of the Optimists update their research into stock returns relative to bonds in 19 different countries. They estimate that the expected returns from stocks will be a rather modest 3% to 3-1/2% relative to bills. Modest Asset [...]
Tomorrow’s Gas Price Today: Long-time Member of Parliament Dan McTeague runs a website that forecasts the next day’s gas prices for major cities across Canada. It can help you decide if you want to tank up today or wait until the next day. The website correctly forecast last week’s spike of approximately 6 cents a [...]
Before we kick off, I want to take a moment and wish all our readers a very happy Thanksgiving! Now, onto this week’s interesting stories… Institute for Financial Learning Ponzi Scheme: Last weekend, CTV’s W5 asked some tough questions as to why authorities allowed an alleged Ponzi scheme run by the Institute for Financial Learning [...]
Trouble with Experts: CBC TV featured a documentary on how good expert predictions, especially those stated confidently in the mainstream media are (hint: not very). Unfortunately, the show did not spend much time on research findings that experts who make probabilistic and nuanced forecasts are worth listening to but the show is still worth your [...]
The Long-Term Case for Stocks: Optimism about the stock market is in short supply these days. The Wall Street Journal ran a story on a long-range market forecast that expects US stocks to return an annualized 6.5% to 2020. The forecast sounds about right since dividend yields are just above 2 percent and economic growth [...]
With stock markets skidding down and bond yields dropping like a stone, many investors will likely find that the allocation to stocks in their portfolio is now below target and the allocation to bonds is above their target. Disciplined investors should regularly rebalance their portfolios to bring the allocations back to target but are likely [...]
The Bank of Canada decided to keep interest rates level this week. In its news release the Bank hinted that interest rates are going to stay level noting a “slowing global economic momentum and heightened financial uncertainty”. The Prime rate to which variable rate mortgages and lines of credit are linked to remains at 3 [...]
Ottawa-based Zip.ca is seeking to take advantage of the demise of Blockbuster Canada, which is winding down its operations by the end of this year. The Ottawa Citizen reported that Zip will be installing DVD rental kiosks in 800 Metro locations across Canada. The Zip kiosks are already available in many Ottawa-area Metro grocery stores. [...]
When Alexey Saltykov, a consultant for insurance companies, crashed a rental car, he was under the impression that he was covered by the credit card he had used to rent the car. Much to his dismay, it did not and Mr. Saltykov had to pay the expenses to fix the car out of his own [...]
Forget buy the dips. These days retail investors are on a buyers strike instead. The New York Times reported that between 2007-11, US investors added $104 billion to stock mutual funds but withdrew $448 billion. Writing in The Wall Street Journal Jason Zweig explored some of the reasons why investors have turned apathetic towards the [...]
