With literally thousands of mutual funds available for sale in Canada, tyring to find a fund or mix of funds that will have the potential to deliver strong risk adjusted relative returns can be a very daunting task. Our Recommended List of Funds does a lot of that heavy lifting for you. We have analyzed more than 1500 funds and narrowed the investment universe down to our best ideas. This comprehensive report includes what we feel are the best funds in a wide range of asset classes, includes quick bullet points on the fund and the current environment, and provides ideas on how to put your own portfolios together. This tool is a great way to help reduce the time you spend selecting funds and building portfolios and gives you more time to build and maintain client relationships.
Below, you will find our Recommended List of Funds reports. Subscribers have access to the most current reports, which are updated quarterly. If you would like reports from 2009 or 2010, feel free to email us at info@paterson-associates.ca with your request.
Mutual Fund Focus List – June 2019
Heading into the second quarter, the consensus was that the next moves from global central banks was going to be a hike in interest rates. That changed about two-thirds of the way into the quarter as the friction caused by the trade wars started to have a real impact on the economic numbers, and with no end in sight, created real uncertainty about the future. This caused a complete 180 and the consensus shifted that the next move was going to be a cut by central banks, with the only real debate being how big of a cut. In this environment, we saw yields move lower. In Canada, the yield on the benchmark five year Government of Canada Bond fell from 1.52% to 1.39%, after peaking in mid-April at 1.66%.
read moreMarch 2019 ETF Focus List Review
Last time around, I noted that I continue to favour the Invesco Senior Loan ETF (TSX: BKL.F) for exposure to the leveraged loan space largely on the higher quality portfolio it offers. During an extremely challenging period for credit markets, this ETF held up better than the other floating rate ETFs, gaining 1.10%. This narrowly outpaced the Mackenzie Floating Rate Income ETF. I continue to follow the Mackenzie offering closely and am looking to see how it continues to perform in a challenging environment.
read moreRecommended List of Funds – October 2015
Download the PDF Version of the report here List Changes Additions There were no funds added to the list at this update. Deletions Manulife Monthly High Income Fund (MMF 583 – Front End Units, MMF 483 – DSC Units) – I added this high quality Canadian balanced fund to the Recommended List in December 2015. It is managed by the team of Alan Wicks and Jonathan Popper, with an equity approach that is rooted in a value philosophy that looks for businesses that generate high and sustainable profits that are trading at attractive valuations. The...
read moreNew Fund Rating System Launched in 2015
When I first started providing a rating on mutual funds back in 2002, I developed a formula that considered a number of key performance and risk metrics. It looked at absolute return, relative return, volatility and relative volatility. It also took into account the length of track record of a fund when determining the rating for a fund. It seemed to work very well over the years, but its biggest drawback was that it was complicated to explain. Whenever an advisor or investor would ask about my rating system, I could never explain how I...
read moreETF Focus List – June 2014
Welcome to our inaugural edition of our ETF Focus List. The goal of this list, like our Recommended List of Funds, is to help you narrow your focus on what we believe to be the best ETFs available in a wide range of asset classes. This first edition is focused solely on Canadian traded ETFs, but over time will grow to include ETFs that also trade in the U.S. You can download your copy of this report here. A brief commentary and some highlighted ETFs follows: It was another solid quarter for the ETFs on our Recommended List, with all finishing...
read moreRecommended List of Funds – March 2013
Please download the full report here. During the quarter, we made a number of changes to our list. They are: Dynamic Advantage Bond Fund – During the quarter we removed the Dynamic Canadian Bond and replaced it with the Dynamic Advantage Bond Fund. In reviewing the two funds, it is our opinion that the Dynamic Advantage Bond Fund is better positioned for the current environment. First, it has significantly higher exposure to corporate bonds, and some exposure to high yield bonds will increase the yield. This will allow for better...
read moreRecommended List – March 2011
During the quarter, there were no additions or deletions to our Recommended List of Funds. We placed two funds UNDER REVIEW as a result of portfolio manager departures.
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