Success is not the result of knowledge, talent, or even skill. These things help, to be sure, but the most important determinant of achievement is step-by-step improvement. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, as long as you take […]
Method vs. Madness: the benefits of rules-based investing
There has been a lot of discussion here recently about whether or not certain stocks should be included in the Beating the TSX portfolio. IPL, PPL, and BPY-UN have all landed on the list in the last few months. Some […]
BTSX after bear markets
In a recent post we talked about why investing in the stock market during a market correction can be one of the best investment decisions one can make. But what about dividend paying stocks? Data shows that dividend-paying stocks in […]
Why now is a good time to invest
What a month. Humanity is living through the worst pandemic in a century. Canada’s oil and gas sector is on the ropes. And our investments have taken a beating. Is this a good time to invest in stocks? I think […]
Why is the stock market crashing?
Two days ago the stock market officially entered bear market territory, coming down 20% from its high just a few weeks ago. Yesterday the TSX dropped another 12% – the largest one day drop in its history. The beating investors […]
Coping with a market correction
As I write these words, the TSX Composite is down 11.2% in the last week – officially a market correction. News headlines are screaming that it’s the fastest sell-off in history. The talking heads on BNN are turning shades of […]
BPY.UN: does Brookfield Property Partners belong in your portfolio?
I am no stock analyst, I just play one on this blog (from time to time). With a recent shake-up of the TSX 60 index, Encana (ECA) is out and Brookfield Property Partners L.P. (BPY.UN) is in. BPY sports an […]
How did BTSX perform in 2019?
How did your investments perform in 2019? Some will be surprised that it was such a good year. The S&P/TSX Composite Index returned about 22% including dividends. The bad news for mutual fund investors is that, as usual, the vast […]
What is SPIVA?
If there is one thing every investor should know about before considering the purchase of an actively managed mutual fund, it is this: the SPIVA report. SPIVA stands for “S&P Indices Versus Active” and it describes a semi-annual scorecard comparing […]
What is confirmation bias?
Building on last month’s post which addressed how we might tackle investing in a potentially “over-valued” market, I thought I would explore one of the most common cognitive biases that undermines good financial decision-making: confirmation bias. About a year after […]