Knowledge Centre

Asset allocation is one of the most important decisions investors will likely make. There are a number of risk factors related to the type of investments used as well as their mix which makes determining the appropriate capital market assumptions necessary. There are many firms which provide investment assumptions to...

Last year the Bank of Canada (BOC) implemented its first interest rate hike since 2010 and many investors reached for their crystal balls to try and forecast the future. While rising rates tend to signal stronger economic conditions and inflationary pressures, they can also have a meaningful impact on stock...

Eventually this bull market will break its long winning streak but that does not mean you should be abandoning everything and running for the hills. What it does mean is that you should consider shifting your portfolio's emphasis. Not all stocks react equally during good and bad times so the...

Most investors have heard of the January Effect which is the observation that January has historically been one of the best months to be invested in stocks. However there is another January Effect which states that, “as goes January, so goes the year”. While January has produced positive performance 66%...

Investors had taken most of the summer off as the S&P/TSX stock index drifted aimlessly, trading between 15,500 in May and 15,000 at the end of August, but since then it has undergone a steep 7.5% increase. Of course for those investors who closely follow the market, it seemed to...

After every major bull market, stocks typically become range bound and experience a sideways pattern with many optimistic and pessimistic periods before exiting 15 to 30 years later at about where it began. This has occurred in the U.S. five distinct times since 1870: 1870 to 1900 (lasting 30 years);...

Short term interest rates are near 60 year lows which makes it hard for fixed income investors to earn a decent income. Couple this with the fact that the average investor has an aversion to investing in long term bonds because of the belief that higher interest rates are on...

While it is sad to say, there is always some sort of crisis cropping up around the world and more often than not they can lead to fear as investors become overly pessimistic. Such crises inevitably lead to panic selling and selling into a panic is always a bad idea....

The Bank of Canada (BOC) has just implemented its first interest rate hike since 2010 which means a lot of investors are grabbing their crystal balls trying to forecast the future course of the stock market. Historically there has been a strong inverse relationship between interest rates and stock prices....

Typically, commodity prices go through longer bear market cycles compared to bull market cycles while the opposite is usually true for stock prices. While Canadian equity markets are slightly off the record highs set in February 2017, commodities, relatively speaking, are dirt cheap. In fact, they are basically the cheapest...