Investments

Change is good Fallback Image Decorative pattern

Market Insights

Change is good

This global economic meltdown is beginning to expose great shortcomings in the fi nancial services industry. Maybe that’s a good thing, as it’ll shine the spotlight on areas that need real change. Let’s start with the regulators. Advisors across Canada are bombarded with paper shuffl ing and disclosure work, all in the guise of protecting […]

By Brian Hein |February 1, 2009

3 min read

Common sense anyone? Fallback Image Decorative pattern

Market Insights

Common sense anyone?

There’s no way to describe the current financial crisis except as sharp, unpredictable, and enduring. Investors have witnessed a meltdown in assets that for most is uncharted. Few have been unscathed by this tidal wave of de-leveraging of assets caused by a freeze-up in credit markets. But despite the severity of this correction, the critical […]

By Jonathan R. Pinsler |February 1, 2009

6 min read

The SWF world Fallback Image Decorative pattern

Market Insights

The SWF world

In the 1966 Norman Jewison movie The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming, Soviet submariners run unwittingly aground off New England and go ashore to find a towboat, triggering village rumours of an invasion. You may be excused for harbouring similar feelings toward sovereign wealth funds (affectionately known as SWFs), the new, massive investment […]

By Pierre Saint-Laurent |February 1, 2009

4 min read

Hedge funds might shine in 09 Fallback Image Decorative pattern

Market Insights

Hedge funds might shine in 09

Hedge fund managers, once the swashbuckling frontiersmen of international finance, have quickly gone from hero to goat. As the global credit bubble burst with a vengeance in 2008, so too did the oft-touted myth that these alternative strategies could deliver positive results in any market. But such sweeping claims paint the universe with too broad […]

By Al Kellett |February 1, 2009

5 min read