PowerShares Canadian Preferred Share Index Class
Fund Card Preferred shares were long thought to be less volatile than common equity. Well at least they were until 2015, when investors sold off their preferred holdings indiscriminately on worries that the lower interest rates would affect the coupon rates of their preferred shares. Hit hardest were the fixed reset preferred shares, which have a coupon rate that is reset periodically, and uses...
Read MoreFront Street Growth Fund
Fund Card With a one year loss of just under 38%, this concentrated, energy focused, small cap offering lagged its peers by a pretty big margin. Looking at some of its holdings, it’s not hard to see why. Baytex Energy has a one year loss of -81%, Journey Energy is down 74%, and MEG Energy is down 72%. This type of performance is not out of character for Front Street. They tend to take...
Read MoreTrimark Energy Growth Class
All energy funds were hit pretty hard in 2015, and unfortunately this was hit hardest, losing more than 38%. There were a few reasons for this underperformance, including its higher exposure to small and mid-cap names which were sold off more violently than their larger cap brethren. It also had a higher portion of the fund invested in Canadian names compared to its peers, resulting in less of a...
Read MoreFidelity NorthStar Fund
Fund Card Daniel Dupont joined longtime manager Joel Tillinghast on this go anywhere, all cap equity fund in late 2011. They have continued to build on the excellent long term track record, outpacing both the index and peers. More impressive, this was done with lower volatility and stellar downside protection. According to Morningstar, it has experienced about half of the market declines over...
Read MoreManulife Canadian Balanced Fund
Fund Card Managed by Greg Peterson of Calgary based Mawer Investment management, this fund looks a lot like the highly regarded Mawer Balanced Fund. It is set up like a fund of funds that invests in other Manulife managed mutual funds. At the end of September it was about a third in the Manulife Canadian Bond Fund, a third in the Manulife Canadian Investment Class Fund, 20% in Manulife Global...
Read MoreO’Leary Canadian Bond Yield Fund
Fund Card On a risk adjusted basis, one of the strongest Canadian bond funds over the past five years has been the O’Leary Canadian Bond Yield Fund. It is managed with a focus on capital preservation by a team lead by Connor O’Brien at Stanton Asset Management. The managers use an active investment process that blends a top down macro analysis, and bottom up security selection. The macro...
Read More