Headline Deflation Number Not Worth Reporting

Media outlets have been reporting that inflation was -0.9% for the last 12 months in Canada. Many people will listen to that one number and not look any further.
The headline number includes food and energy prices with energy prices being the main reason for the decline since a barrel of oil in July 2008 was [...]

Bonds Are Not Stocks

Bonds are not stocks.
The title of this post seems quite obvious in nature yet the amount of calls we received after Manulife cut the dividend on its common shares and how it affected the pricing and interest payments on their corporate debt was quite astounding.
Earnings per share for the company increased to $1.09 in the [...]

Jobs Numbers Better Than Headlines Suggest

The latest monthly job numbers in Canada showed a 44,500 decline while the economic consensus was a 15,000 exepected decline. The National Bank Financial Economic & Strategy Group pointed out some figures that suggest some very good takeaways.
Half the job losses were in the food and accomodation area in Quebec. The decline was also among [...]

Fundamental Indexing Outperforms in Last Year

Fundamental Indexing is a strategy which ranks and weights companies, not by market capitalization but instead by four fundamental financial data points (cash flow, dividends, book value and revenue).
The portfolio gets rebalanced annually and typically overweights companies that are considered value oriented vs. growth oriented.
The strategy was developed by Rob Arnott and his company Research [...]