PowerShares Tactical Bond ETF (TSX: PTB)
Fund Card This is a tactically managed, diversified bond portfolio that provides exposure to Canadian government, investment grade corporate, and real return bonds, as well as U.S. high yield, and emerging market debt. The portfolio management team will tactically shift the exposure to a number of underlying ETFs in an effort to best position the portfolio for the market. To be blunt, so far,...
Read MorePowerShares Senior Loan CAD Hedged ETF (TSX: BKL)
Fund Card It was not a good quarter for riskier parts of the fixed income market, including leveraged loans. For the three-month period ending October 31, BKL dropped 2.07%, lagging its peers, and benchmark. With markets becoming extremely volatile, investors shunned riskier assets, and instead moved into safer haven assets. If nothing else, this highlights why floating rate notes and loans...
Read MoreFidelity Small Cap America
Fund Card Despite dropping 1.4% in the third quarter, the fund’s outperformance continued. The Russell 2000 was down 6.9% in Canadian dollar terms, while the average U.S. Small / Mid Cap equity fund lost nearly 5%. The recent outperformance was the result of strong relative returns from a number of technology and consumer discretionary names, with Ingram Micro and Jardine Group helping the...
Read MoreManulife Strategic Income Fund
Fund Card Managed by a team headed by Dan Janis, this tactically managed global bond fund focuses on four key risks for investors; interest rate risk, credit risk, currency risk, and liquidity risk. For the quarter, it gained 1.75%, outpacing its peers. In a recent commentary, Charles Tomes, a trader, and member of the management team of this fund said they expect the recent high levels of...
Read MorePH&N Total Return Bond Fund
Fund Card Starting the quarter with a duration that basically matched the FTSE/TMX Universe Bond Index was one of the factors that allowed the fund to outperform its peers in the third quarter. This longer duration allowed it to see a nice gain after the Bank of Canada cut its benchmark overnight lending rate in July. As the quarter progressed, the focus shifted to the market’s expectation over...
Read MoreBrandes Emerging Markets Value Fund
Fund Card To say this fund has struggled of late would be a bit of an understatement. Over the past year (to September 30), it has lost more than 20%, significantly underperforming its peers. In the past quarter alone, it was down 14%, again lagging both its peers and its benchmark. Does that mean the fund has lost its mojo? No. The problem the fund is experiencing at the moment has more to do...
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