Critics of index investing often argue that the strategy is not sensitive to valuation. They feel that a simple strategy of buy, hold and rebalance is folly: there are times when the market is cheap or overvalued, and it makes sense to shift toward or away from equities accordingly. It’s hard to argue with that [...]
The humble Global Couch Potato portfolio, first recommended by MoneySense eight years ago, is an excellent way to get started with indexing. So when ING Direct launched its Streetwise Balanced Fund in 2008, I thought it would be perfect for new investors, since it’s a single fund with the same target allocation: 40% Canadian bonds and [...]
Here is part two of my interview with Mary Anne Wiley, Head of iShares, who explains what to expect in the wake of BlackRock’s acquisition of Claymore. You can read the first part of the interview here. Claymore pioneered some innovative programs, such as preauthorized cash contributions (PACCs) and dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs), as well [...]
Back in January, BlackRock—the parent company of iShares—announced that it had acquired Claymore Investments, the second-largest ETF provider in Canada. Since then, BlackRock has been gradually integrating the former Claymore funds into its family. The ETFs were officially rebranded last week and all of them now trade under the iShares name. Many readers have wondered [...]
[Note: This post was an April Fool's joke!] The volatility we’ve experienced in the last five years has challenged every investor. Yes, diversification can help, but many of the leading minds in finance have been looking for ways to improve on the now discredited Modern Portfolio Theory. I recently met with a quantitative analyst who [...]
It’s report card time in the investment fund world. Every year at this time, all mutual funds and ETFs are required to file a Management Report of Fund Performance, a document that contains a wealth of useful information. (They’re available from the SEDAR website.) If you’re an index investor, one of the most important things you can [...]
BlackRock surprised almost everyone in January by announcing that it would be buying Claymore Investments, the second-largest ETF provider in Canada. The move takes another step forward today when the former Claymore ETFs start trading with new names. With a couple of exceptions, all of the Claymore exchange-traded products have been rebranded with the iShares [...]
One of the problems with actively managed mutual funds is that you can never be sure that the risk level will remain constant. In an income fund with a mix of government bonds, high-yield corporate bonds and dividend-paying stocks, for example, the exposure to these asset classes can vary according to the manager’s whims. Well, [...]
This post is part of a series called Under the Hood, where l take a detailed look at specific Canadian ETFs or index funds. The fund: iShares S&P/TSX Completion Index Fund (XMD) The index: This ETF tracks the S&P/TSX Completion Index of midcap and small-cap Canadian stocks. It includes all of the stocks in the [...]
Spring is a time for renewal, so I am happy to announce that I have freshened up some of the permanent pages on the blog to make them more useful. When I launched this blog more than two years ago, there were just few dozen Canadian ETFs, so it was practical to catalogue them on [...]
