Investment Memos highlight the distinction between well-considered financial decisions and hasty gambles. This unassuming yet powerful tool is pivotal in crafting a disciplined investment strategy, one that is guided by clear governance and a consistent decision-making process. Rather than by feelings and emotions. This post will describe how investment memos are a powerful tool for serious investors who support accountability....
Portfolio rebalancing is the process of realigning the weightings of a portfolio to maintain a desired allocation. Over time, as various investments perform differently, a portfolio can drift away from its initial target allocation. So, to correct this, portfolio rebalancing involves selling a portfolio’s best performing investments and using those proceeds to purchase more of a portfolio’s worst performing...
A Core-Satellite portfolio approach breaks down an investor's portfolio into two main components: the "core" index funds and the "satellite” active components. The core typically consists of a broad-based market index or a diversified fund that seeks to mimic the returns of the whole market or a benchmark. This core is expected to provide diversification and represents a large chunk of...
In the ever-evolving world of investment strategies, it’s easy to get lost amidst the myriad of complex theories and tactics touted by experts. Yet, time and again, history has shown that there’s profound strength in foundational principles. At the heart of these principles lies the concept of buy-and-hold investing. This approach not only champions the virtue of patience but...
In the era of digital trading platforms and zero-commission brokers, investors have never had it easier. With tools at our fingertips and little to no fees, we have the luxury of making stock market investments efficiently. However, with all these resources, a staggering number of both novice retail and seasoned professional investors still fall short of outperforming passive benchmarks. How...
Many Canadian charitable foundations hold US stocks in their investment portfolio. This makes it important for Canadian foundations to understand the application of US withholding tax. And as this post will explain, there's a common mistake many foundations make when structuring their investments that exposes them to US dividend withholding tax (and many don't even know it!).
The wealth management industry has become increasingly sophisticated when selling us financial services. They come up with “holistic solutions” to our financial “problems” and tap into our emotions in an effort convince us to pay them. The truth is, like most important things in life, there is no “quick fix” to managing our finances and you can’t simply buy success off...
Impact investing seeks to achieve certain social and environmental goals as the primary reason for making an investment. Impact investors oftentimes sacrifice economic profit and liquidity in favour of achieving the investment’s non-economic goals. This post describes what impact investing is and the choices impact investors face.
Active investors attempt to outperform the returns of a benchmark by applying an investing strategy. Passive investors simply mirror the returns of a benchmark by using low cost index funds. This post will briefly compare active vs passive investing approaches. Active investing aims to beat the market whereas passive investing aims to track the market. Passive investing was made possible by...
Should you invest in private companies or public stocks? Since there are many differences between public and private investments this post will discuss their unique features and how those attributes are used by different types of investors. Over the past several decades, investors have been shifting their focus from public company investments to private investments on a broad scale. While...
