Products

Decorative pattern

Lifting the hood

(November 2006) You invest in mutual funds, good, solid, long-only investments that everyone can understand. No surprises, no mystery. Market goes up — money is made. Market goes down — well, the fund’s active manager has presumably preserved wealth through defensive (tactical) positioning. Plain and simple. Not so fast! Did you know that your plain-vanilla, […]

By Pierre Saint-Laurent |October 31, 2006

5 min read

Decorative pattern

5th Annual Dollars and Sense: Managed money gains traction

(October 2006) It appears the popularity of outsourcing investment decisions has surged. In our 2005 Dollars & Sense Survey, 28% of respondents said they were selling or recommending managed products. This year, the number has climbed to 43%. “I am a big proponent of asset management programs — 90% of my book is in them,” […]

By Steven Lamb |October 12, 2006

5 min read

Decorative pattern

Norshield report to come in September

(August 2006) The potential recoveries aren’t looking any better for Olympus hedge fund investors, nor is the principal cooperating quite as much as he has privately told investors, says RSM Richter in its latest update. Richter is the receiver for the whole Norshield complex of hedge funds and private equity investments. Canadian retail investors put […]

By Scot Blythe |August 8, 2006

8 min read

Decorative pattern

Rational exuberance: The bubble that wasn’t

(May 2006) Here’s a fact: the late 1990s were a time of irrational exuberance (said Alan Greenspan, no less), with more froth than Lake Ontario in a hurricane. When the floor dropped on the markets many investors were mauled and markets are just now recovering from these historic lows. But this flies in the face […]

By Pierre Saint-Laurent |May 26, 2006

4 min read

Decorative pattern

Real returns

(May 2006) Traditional asset allocation typically divides a client’s portfolio between stocks, bonds and cash, with some fine-tuning around allocations of global versus Canadian, small cap versus large cap, and growth versus value stocks. Most advisors design their recommended portfolios around this approach for both funds and securities. What we tend to overlook is the […]

By John Nicola |May 5, 2006

8 min read

Decorative pattern

Legal structure vital in real estate investing

Similar to a true gold bug's aversion to mining stocks and preference for physical bullion, institutional real estate investors know that REITs are far too closely correlated to the equity markets on which they are listed. For these managers, nothing beats the real thing: a portfolio of physical real estate holdings.

By Steven Lamb |April 27, 2006

5 min read

Decorative pattern

Real estate smoothes portfolio volatility

With the real estate market booming across the country, it may be hard to ignore the capital appreciation aspect of real estate investments. But for many institutional portfolio managers, real estate is a core holding rooted firmly in the fixed income side of the asset mix. Sure, housing prices seem sky high, but residential property […]

By Steven Lamb |April 21, 2006

5 min read

Decorative pattern

Norshield Saga: An in-depth look

(April 2006) Largely based in the Quebec market, the story of Norshield Asset Management may not have attracted the same national media attention as Portus, but the story is just as compelling: a labyrinth of inter-related companies, a regulatory crackdown and investor funds vanishing into thin air. Investigative journalist Scot Blythe has been digging into […]

By Staff |March 31, 2006

1 min read

Decorative pattern

Alt Assets: Name raiders

(March 2006) You use domain names every time you visit a website or google a term to find more information. But do you know what gives value to a name? Do you know how to assess that value? What you don’t know actually spells opportunity. Just as in financial markets, there are primary and secondary […]

By Pierre Saint-Laurent |March 10, 2006

4 min read

Decorative pattern

Perfect storm for U.S. mortgage-backed investors

(March 2006) Investors seeking yield were well compensated when interest rates fell; they received capital gains that in many instances gave them better returns than equities. In a rising rate environment, however, income investors find it more difficult to make an adequate return. Not only do rising rates usually result in lower bond valuations, but […]

By Michael Barrett |March 1, 2006

7 min read

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