It was about one year ago when inflationary pressures were being dismissed as “transitory”. Undoubtably, that was a terrible misjudgement by central bankers, but the logic used to make such an assessment was not incorrect. The most common definition of inflation is the year-over-year change in prices for goods and... read more →
May
13
Apr
14
There was no shortage of bad news for markets in the first quarter of 2022: a war in Ukraine that shows no clear signs of ending; a resurgence of the coronavirus which essentially shut down one of the largest cities in China; and inflationary pressures that continue to escalate globally.... read more →
Mar
25
Bonds have become unloved. In an investing world where the mentality is dictated by “What have you done for me lately?”, bonds do not have a strong argument. In Canada, bonds had a negative overall return in 2021 and underperformed equities by about 27.5%. The underperformance has continued thus far... read more →
Mar
14
Almost two years ago, panic amongst investors was surging on a global scale as the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic. Equity markets subsequently suffered the third worst decline in history as emotional fears and uncertainty affected rational decision making for many. Today, the pandemic still persists, but the... read more →
Feb
24
As many of you may be aware, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has escalated to the point of military operations. Although this event has been building for some time, the most recent developments have had a material impact on financial markets and garnered international media attention. We wanted to... read more →
Jan
18
Another quarter of living through a global pandemic, another quarter of record-setting equity levels. Positive equity returns were recorded in all major regions in every quarter of 2021, resulting in some very strong gains for the full year. The main stock market indices for both Canada and the United States... read more →
Dec
02
The study of behavioural investing is a component of the broader category of behavioural economics. The field is a more modern area of research that does a good job of explaining why traditional economic and finance theories do not always hold. Traditional theories tend to focus on mathematical relationships and... read more →
Oct
13
The third quarter of 2021 marked another positive quarter for most investors as the strength of July and August performance outweighed the decidedly negative results of September. Aided by a strengthening U.S. dollar, the S&P 500 topped major indices with a quarterly return of 2.90%, followed by the MSCI EAFE... read more →
Jul
14
On the strength of generally positive news headlines, improving economic data and some very strong earnings announcements, financial markets responded with exceptional returns in the second quarter. Canadian equities were a leader, powered by a steep rise in commodity prices which led to a quarterly gain for the S&P/TSX Composite... read more →
Apr
15
The content of our quarterly commentaries normally focuses on what is moving markets, providing insight into what may transpire in the near future, while constantly reinforcing that focusing on the long-term and the factors that you can control is what really matters. Comments on actual performance are normally kept to... read more →