An Interview with John De Goey
On Monday, the UK implemented new rules banning embedded commissions on investment products. We’re still many years away from that in Canada, but it’s not for lack of effort on the part of John De Goe [...]
Ask the Spud: Do I Have Enough for a DRIP?
Q: I’m planning to use my 2013 TFSA room to purchase a bond ETF. How can I make sure I’m investing enough to benefit from a dividend reinvestment plan? – Phil B. Dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) ar [...]
What Investors Can Learn From Weather Forecasts
I’ve never made a secret of my opinion that acting on market forecasts is destructive to investors. Nate Silver’s fascinating new book, The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some [...]
A Market Forecaster’s Report Card
As 2011 came to a close, the usual army of market gurus began making predictions for 2012. I’ve often criticized market forecasters for their embarrassing track records, so this year I made a point of [...]
How Much Are You Paying For US Dollars?
Currency conversion remains one of the biggest rip-offs in banking and investing. It's made worse by the lack of transparency: if you call your discount brokerage they'll quote their current rates, bu [...]
Ask the Spud: Adding a New REIT to the Index
Loblaw recently announced it will be creating a new real estate investment trust (REIT). Once it goes public, how would it be added to existing real estate ETFs? And considering how large the proposed [...]
Passive Investing: The Movie
There are countless books laying out the case for index investing, but as far as I know there has never been a film—until now. A UK investment firm has just released a 54-minute documentary called Pas [...]
Ask the Spud: Combining e-Series Funds and ETFs
I use the Global Couch Potato with e-Series funds in my TD Waterhouse account, but I eventually want to use the Complete Couch Potato. Once my portfolio gets to $50,000 and I qualify for $9.95 trading [...]
Inside the iShares Minimum Volatility ETFs
Last week we looked at two low-volatility ETF strategies based on beta and the standard deviation of daily price movements. Now let’s complete our roundup by looking at a third methodology used by MSC [...]
Inside the BMO and PowerShares Low-Vol ETFs
In the last 14 months or so, Canada’s ETF providers have launched several funds based on low-volatility strategies. As we saw in my last post, the research suggests it may be possible to build a portf [...]
