New 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...
Read MoreSeptember 2013 Market Recap
Lack of taper announcement pushes markets higher As we entered September, investors were focused on the September meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee. The consensus was that this meeting would be when the Fed chair Ben Bernanke finally announced that they would begin to slow the pace of their massive bond buying program, signaling the beginning of the end for low interest...
Read MoreFebruary 2013 Market Recap
Investors Rewarded Despite Mixed Signals February was another profitable month for investors with all major equity and fixed income markets moving higher. In Canada, the S&P / TSX Composite Index gained 1.3% on the month. U.S. equities were higher with the S&P 500 gaining 1.4% in U.S. dollar terms. For Canadian investors, the gain was amplified, as the Canadian dollar dropped from...
Read MoreJanuary 2013 Market Recap
2013 Starts out Strong for Equity Markets 2013 started out very well with all major equity markets in positive territory. The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 2.25% during the month, but lagged its global brethren. The S&P 500 gained 5.73% in Canadian dollar terms, while the MSCI EAFE Index rose by 5.74%. In fact, the S&P 500 had its best month since October 2011 and it was its biggest...
Read MoreOctober 2012 Market Recap
October Recap Despite data showing that U.S. manufacturing continued to expand pushing GDP growth higher than expected, reducing unemployment, it was concern over the impending “fiscal cliff” which weighed on U.S. markets in October and since the November election. The fiscal cliff is the combination of the expiration of Bush era tax cuts and a slew of massive spending cuts that are slated to...
Read MoreJuly 2012 Market Recap
Global markets got a boost following the July 26 comments made by the European Central Bank’s president Mario Draghi. In his remarks, Mr. Draghi stated that the ECB would “do whatever it takes” to ensure that the Euro remained intact. Investors took this as a sign that the ECB would take immediate simulative action in an effort to shore up the European economies, bidding stock prices higher.
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