Although cheap gas is great for motorists, it could wreak havoc with Canada’s energy sector, as well as the market for junk bonds.
Central banks throughout the West last year found   Read More

The European Central Bank, or ECB, ushered in a new era by launching an aggressive bond-buying program in January. The euro zone is one of the global economy’s biggest trouble   Read More

Is your self confidence waning? Do you feel you may be better off putting your money in a mutual fund and leaving stock selection to the fund’s professional managers? You   Read More

Investing for current income requires an entirely different way of thinking than does investing for growth. But mutual funds that offer current income as their main purpose still report their   Read More

 “As a technical analyst, I tend to avoid making longer-term predictions about markets, sectors or commodity prices. I find that forecasting market movements or events out beyond a few months   Read More

Putting money into your Registered Retirement Savings Plan, or RRSP, is a great way to start planning for your retirement. And there’s no better time to start thinking about your   Read More

It’s the job of any financial writer to see through fresh eyes, to look for traps and false assumptions in the world of money. Investors who weathered the stormy bear markets of 2000 to 2003 and 2008 to 2009 know only too well what can happen to the unwary.   Read More

Oil prices have plummeted since June, 2014. Other commodity prices have declined. This has hurt the share prices of the producers. Oil companies are a lot cheaper than they were. The same is true of many mining companies that we review   Read More

Recent market action indicates why it’s essential to hold Canadian equity index ETFs as part of a larger, well-diversified portfolio. Heavy concentration in just a few industry sectors makes Canadian   Read More

Super Bowl XLIX will be played this Sunday. And for many inveterate sports fans, this is the pièce de résistance of the TV sports year. Yes siree. Endless hours of   Read More

Writing in The TaxLetter, Mark Halpern, a Certified Financial Planner and Trust and Estate Practitioner with Markham, Ontario-based illnessPROTECTION.com outlined several easy ways to help you and your family find   Read More

Bonds account for much of Canadians’ investments. And bond funds make up a large part of Canada’s mutual fund business. But investing in bond funds can deny you the very   Read More

This past year, 2014, was a difficult one for Europe. According to estimates provided by The Economist, the euro area is likely to have grown just 0.8 per cent for   Read More

Where should you put new money now?

Continue to add to stock funds, emphasizing diversified, conservative offerings. Longer-term, risk-tolerant investors may want to be more aggressive with specialized funds.

We think the   Read More

Puts and calls may seem a little bit exotic at first, but their potential to earn you some handsome extra income may well be worth it.

At the Money Reporter, we   Read More

Dividend Re-Investment Plans, or “DRIPs,” can assist you in building your wealth. You can instruct companies with DRIPs to reinvest your dividends into new shares. You can build your wealth   Read More

Hamilton, Ont.-based Ken Norquay is a CMT (Chartered Market Technician) and the author of the behavioural finance book Beyond the Bull which discusses the impact of your personality on your   Read More

Although many investors buy the units of real estate investment trusts, or REITS, and other high dividend-paying stocks for their attractive income — and maybe also for capital appreciation —   Read More

Today the world’s 2 billion+ Christians pause to celebrate the birth of a nice little Jewish boy who was born to a virgin mother who, together with her husband, had   Read More

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam-based Peter Pham wrote recently in Investor’s Digest of Canada that the Greenback’s growing strength shows continued confidence in the American economy. He told readers how   Read More

Recently, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (or “OPEC”) decided against cutting its production. This sent the price of oil down further.

OPEC could have cut back its production to raise   Read More

A criticism of the standard market capitalization-weighted exchange-traded fund, or ETF, is that it mimics an index that gives greater weight to stocks that are high in demand among investors,   Read More

Wall Street strategists have started to issue their 2015 forecasts. And if a report by Goldman Sachs is any indication of the forecasts to follow, you might want to forget   Read More

We’ve always held a high opinion of dollar-cost averaging. That’s because we’ve often seen this investment strategy richly reward those who follow it.

To dollar-cost average, of course, you invest equal   Read More

How much foreign content you choose to hold in your portfolio should depend on your investment objectives, time horizon and risk tolerance. But when you calculate your foreign content, remember   Read More

In every issue of the Money Reporter we provide you with a table of various interest rates. Along with this, we often provide a description of how these rates have   Read More

American Depositary Receipts, or ADRs, give you ownership in companies based outside of Canada and the U.S. This can give you several benefits. One is diversification—geo-political and industrial. It’s tempting   Read More

Our investment planning committee regularly examines MDC Partners Inc. (TSX–MDZ.A) (NASDAQ—MDCA). Since we last looked at it at the start of the summer, the shares have risen by 5.1 per   Read More

The lessons of stock-market volatility especially apply to specialty funds. If you learn from them, consider any losses the cost of tuition at the school of Bay Street. You can,   Read More

As we begin to approach the end of the calendar year, a common tax tip is to think about “tax-loss selling”. This refers to the strategy of triggering losses before   Read More

“If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?” When Shelley wrote his famous poem “Ode to the West Wind”, he was looking forward to the gentler times of spring. Instead,   Read More

Though balanced funds are extremely popular with Canadian investors, we see little appeal in these investment products. It’s better to create your own balanced fund by selecting stock funds and   Read More

Gold may stay low. We still see more factors working against it than for it. Though you might hold a little gold for diversification purposes, remember its drawbacks.

In November, gold   Read More

Key market indicators are back in a ‘buy’ mode and it’s time to buy says Keith Richards, a portfolio manager at ValueTrend Wealth Management in Barrie, Ontario.

“It’s no secret that   Read More

Some investors want their money used in ways they consider socially responsible. The criteria for that may change from individual to individual, but here’s a fund that tries to address   Read More

 “Neither a borrower nor a lender be,” wrote William Shakespeare. In the investment arena, well-known investors such as Sir John Templeton have echoed the same sentiment over the years. But   Read More

Watch the mutual funds you buy outside your registered accounts between now and the end of the year. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the hook for taxes if you   Read More

To avoid risk, think like a trader, says Ken Norquay, a Hamilton, Ontario-based Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and author of Beyond the Bull, a book about behavioral finance and the   Read More

John Bogle, Vanguard Group founder and the father of the indexing concept, takes a highly academic route to his conclusion that no one can predict the future performance of any   Read More

“In the stock market — or in any widely traded market — there’s an inevitable fact of life: bear markets happen. It’s a topic I’d just as soon avoid. After   Read More

More companies are buying back their shares. According to The Economist, the companies in Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index spent $500 billion on share buybacks in 2013. The trouble is,   Read More

Warrants cost a lot less than the stocks they give you a right to buy—and when stock prices rise, warrant prices often rise faster. But warrants are also far riskier   Read More

Charles Ellis, author of Winning the Loser’s Game, believes that you should build your portfolio as you would a house. Your house should be suitable to the climate, not last   Read More

The advantage of investing internationally lies mainly in broadened diversification, which cuts risk. Similarly, you can cut risk by investing in dividend-paying stocks.

Here are two complementary exchange-traded funds that together   Read More

We believe that it pays to buy dividend-paying stocks. Dividends can assist you in paying your bills, of course. Even better, dividends are likely to improve your returns from your   Read More

We see little appeal in bond exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, right now. That’s because even shorter-term bond ETFs are vulnerable to the potential of rising interest rates over the next   Read More

There’s been little market action in either gold or silver over the past few months, says John Embry, chief investment strategist for Toronto-based Sprott Asset Management.

For one thing, both July   Read More

There is nothing more joyful than the birth of a child. It is a very emotional time for parents and grandparents as they make lofty plans for the baby’s future   Read More

Sometimes it’s worth doing your own analysis, says Keith Richards, portfolio manager at Barrie, Ontario-based Value Trend Wealth Management. It may result in a satisfying contrarian payoff.

At Value Trend, says   Read More

As the most dynamic, flexible and successful material-wealth-building economy in the world, the U.S. deserves your investment attention. Every Canadian investor should have some exposure to U.S. stocks.

Compared to last   Read More

Sometimes things just go on and on and on. Take, for example, the loonie’s duel with the greenback.

So observes Keith Richards, Barrie, Ontario-based portfolio manager of Value Trend/Wealth Management, who   Read More

Paying capital gains taxes may be an inevitable result of successful investing. But the longer you can delay the inevitable, the greater will be your ultimate success.

Sector funds offer aggressive   Read More