Knowledge Centre

A widespread misconception is that the stock markets are only open in the daytime. This is wrong considering that stock markets continue to work during the night. In fact, it appears that the daytime market is not where the best results are obtained. Overnight is when the real money is...

The current Canadian stock market rally has reached 16.9% so far this year and it appears to be in good shape to continue roaring right along. Should we be celebrating? There is certainly a strong bullish case to be made because after market declines (including 2018) going back to 1924,...

Most investors know that passive Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are low cost investment vehicles, correct? Well, almost right! Passive ETFs are “designed” to track an index or market at a low cost. ETFs may be relatively cheap from a Management Expense Ratio (MER) perspective but the costs don’t stop there....

Many investors were all too willing to bail on stocks recently as their prospects looked quite dim. Of course, the same was being said of the market in early 2009 when the world was thought to be on the edge of financial ruin. The reality was that the first part...

Most investors have heard of the January Effect which is the observation that January has historically been the best month to be invested in stocks. This year was particularly good with Canadian and U.S. markets up 8.7% and 8.0% respectively. However, there is another January effect which states that, “as...

One of the core pieces of information in the financial planning process is the assumption of what the future return for a portfolio could be. Certainly, higher returns are more desirable as they generate greater spending power and/or the potential to achiever goals sooner. Of course, the standard caveat is...

Current volatility levels are not even close to being high. In fact, we are very close to being in one of the least volatile periods since 2000.

The riskiest forms of lending are missing, financial institutions are well capitalized, and while asset prices look stretched, it is difficult to make the case that they are dangerously overvalued. So hopefully the next global downturn is more likely to be relatively mild and short lived.

October gives way to what is historically the best four months of stock performance in Canada, the months of December through March.

Interest rates have been on the rise in Canada since June 2017 and the general consensus is that they will continue to go up. What will this mean to the average client’s portfolio? Of course, everyone knows that rising interest rates are bad for bonds, right? In reality, history shows...