Welcome to the Chalten Investment Review for Q2 2017. Last quarter we touted the merits of holding a passive, globally diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds versus the potential perils and pitfalls of trying to time market swings. Trying to beat the market is a loser’s game and as Charles Ellis so rightly pointed out […]
Protecting and growing your retirement nest-egg is one of your most important financial responsibilities. Ensuring that your nest-egg is sufficient to fund your lifestyle in retirement often means putting at least part of it at risk in the stock market. Unfortunately too many people are swayed into believing that being a successful stock market investor means you have to […]
Integrity has no need of rules – Albert Camus If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it – Marcus Aurelius Words to live by, no? Unfortunately the financial services industry in Canada doesn’t tend to screen for existentialists and stoics. I’d take Marcus Aurelius or […]
Welcome to the Chalten Investment Review for Q4 2016. At the end of this past quarter and year we reflect and feel relief that we don’t hang our hat on the crystal ball of prediction! After the rocky start stock markets had in January and early February, who could have expected the rebound through the […]
Yesterday the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) released a much awaited consultation paper, “Consultation on the Option of Discontinuing Embedded Commissions”. We say “much awaited” half tongue-in-cheek! Much in the same way that a large number of Canadians have no idea how or how much they pay for investment products / advice, we expect even fewer are […]
There are two crucial success factors that often elude investors – the ability to save consistently and the discipline to stick with a saving and investment plan over time. Successful investing is a long-term proposition. In the short-run financial markets are very unpredictable, gyrating to a complex and increasingly-interconnected information flow that changes by the second. […]
November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada and there are lots of articles out there on the importance of financial literacy and even more opinions about how to improve it. Some argue for it to be taught in schools – aren’t our schools stretched enough for resources as it is? Some say parents should make […]
Last month S&P Global published it’s 2016 mid-year SPIVA Canada Scorecard which compares the performance of actively managed Canadian-based mutual funds with their benchmarks. The conclusion is clear: actively managed funds, after fees, underperform their benchmarks over time. Investors may be better served using passively managed alternatives such as index tracking mutual funds and exchange traded funds […]
We’ve been doing a lot of reading leading up to and since the election – as you’d expect there is no shortage of opinions of what is going to happen to financial markets and how investors should position themselves as a result. The investing opinions vary as extremely as the political views. We’ve read crazy things and some […]
Last week the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) launched an investor education campaign targeted at helping investors better understand the fees they pay. There simply can’t be enough education around this issue and we absolutely applaud their efforts. Their Investright.org website is a great source of information and education and this latest campaign showcases some new tools […]