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Manulife Global Small Cap Balanced Fund
Fund Card This is a somewhat unique balanced fund in that the equity sleeve is highly focused on small and mid-cap funds. It invests in primarily in the Manulife Global Small Cap Fund, and the Manulife Strategic Income Fund, two very excellent funds in their own right. The target mix is set at 75% in equities, 25% in fixed income. At the end of December, it was overweight equities, holding nearly 80% stocks and just over 20% in fixed income. The equities are selected using a highly disciplined, research focused, bottom up investment process...
read moreTD U.S. Blue Chip Equity Fund
Fund Card It is pretty tough for a U.S. large cap fund to outpace the S&P 500, but this fund did that in 2015, and has for the past five years. While the S&P 500 has earned an annualized 20% for the past five years, this fund is up more than 21% (in Canadian dollar terms). As impressive as these numbers are, I wouldn’t bet on them being sustainable over the long term. While the manager uses a fundamentally driven, bottom up investment process, it has a decided growth focus to it. Growth has been in favour recently, but in time, market...
read moreManulife Global Small Cap
Fund Card With a one year gain of 30.7%, this was the top performing global small cap fund in 2015. But this was no fluke. The fund, launched in April 2008 is identical to the highly regarded Mawer Global Small Cap Fund (MAW 150 – No Load Units). For the five years ending December 31, it has gained nearly 21 per year on an annualized basis, making it one of the best performing funds. In fact, except for 2010, it has been an above average performer in each calendar year. Mawer has recently adopted the tag line “Be boring. Make money”, and...
read moreTD Health Sciences
Fund Card Healthcare, particularly in Canada was one of the bright spots of the year, with the S&P/TSX Health Care Index gaining an impressive 22%, while the S&P Global 1200 Health Care Sector Index rose by a more modest 6.0%. Factoring in the drop in the Canadian dollar, and the unhedged return to Canadian investors would have been in the ballpark of 26%. Posting a gain of nearly 33% in Canadian dollar terms, this was the best performing healthcare mutual fund for the year. It invests in companies that are involved in the research,...
read morePowerShares 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 the Bank of Canada rate as its benchmark. So with two cuts in 2015, and it looking increasingly likely one or more is on the way in 2016, preferreds...
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 concentrated positions, and make a lot of big bets. When they win, they win big, like they did in 2009 when they were up more than 111%. Even in 2008 the fund...
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 currency boost. While I see 2015 as a bit of an anomaly for this fund, I believe there are better options available. My picks for those looking for...
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 the past five years. The managers meet both formally and informally to discuss the relative attractiveness of investment opportunities in various...
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 Equity Class, and just under 10% in the Manulife Global Small Cap Fund. Each of the underlying funds are managed by Mawer. The Manulife Canadian...
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 analysis is used to set the fund’s duration, credit quality and sector allocation. Security selection is done using a rigorous, fundamentally driven credit...
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