Investment Advice
Subprime Mortgages and the Credit Bubble: Why You Should Always Invest in Banks
Posted by admin on September 6, 2007 in Investment Advice
Investing in bank and/or financial institution stocks is like owing a casino. No matter how bad times get or how many times the gambler wins, the odds are stacked so the house always wins 51% in a worse case scenario (blackjack has the worse odds for the house- statistically speaking, the house only wins 51% [...]
For Whom the Bell Tolls: Bell Weather Stocks
Posted by admin on August 9, 2007 in Investment Advice, Investment Products
(Just a remainder that next week is book review week; if you have a favorite personal finance book you want to share, please post a comment or email me at thickenmywallet@gmail.com) Warren Buffet has been often quoted as invest in companies with economic moats that could with-stand bad times. These companies sometimes tend to be [...]
The Financial Industry and the Art of Selling- it is 2007, subtlety is dead
Posted by admin on August 8, 2007 in Investment Advice
(Just a remainder that next week is book review week; if you have a favorite personal finance book you want to share, please post a comment or email me at thickenmywallet@gmail.com) Approximately 18 months ago, a good friend of mine invited me to attend a seminar on how to sell more effectively. The seminar was [...]
Buying Opportunity or Road to Heart-break? The Curious Case of CIBC
Posted by admin on July 12, 2007 in Investment Advice
Earlier this week, I received a research report that CIBC has become a “buy idea” which seems like lazy analysis to me. There is a lot of speculation that CIBC bite off more than it could chew- again. A quick recap- there are a lot of numbers being tossed around on CIBC’s sub-prime mortgage exposure. [...]
When Do You Sell a Losing Investment?
Posted by admin on July 4, 2007 in Investment Advice, Investment Strategy
Most investors I know have had at one time or another a real loser of an investment- a complete dud which is good for nothing more than a tax loss. Typically, the investor has bought the investment at the height of the market and watched its price fall due to internal factors in the company [...]
Personal Finance Lessons from the Business World
Posted by admin on June 21, 2007 in Investment Advice, Investment Strategy, Misc.
Someone asked me the other day what lessons I learned advising entrepreneurs/businesses which could be applied towards personal finance. As the book The Millionaire Next Door states, an entrepreneur has a higher chance of being a millionaire than employed individuals; thus, the lessons I have learned from my successful clients about business are fundamentally rooted [...]
The Most Over-Looked Part of Your Portfolio is…
Posted by admin on June 20, 2007 in Investment Advice, Investment Strategy
Cash. For the last five years or so, a lot of financial advice has been about investing your money into product- whether it be a mutual fund, stock, GIC, ETF etc. Now that the market is going sideways, it may be time to assess your cash position. First and foremost, cash gives most investors an [...]
Contribute to Retirement or Pay Down Your Mortgage?
Posted by admin on June 5, 2007 in Investment Advice, Real Estate, Taxes
Its taken me almost 50 posts but I thought I would finally wade into the contribution to retirement (through an RSP, 401K or IRA) or pay down your mortgage. There seems to be an equal proportion of advocates supporting paying down the mortgage as those who support contributing to retirement. My thoughts on an emotional [...]
Stocks, Day Trading and Market Timing
Posted by admin on May 2, 2007 in Investment Advice, Investment Strategy
I wanted to rely two stories on stock trading, on-line/day trading and why it may be a little futile for non-institutional investors to time the market. By reputation, the best bank/financial institution analyst for Canadian banks in Canada is supposedly Kevin Choquette of Bank of Nova Scotia (I can neither confirm nor deny this having [...]
Things I believe in…
Posted by admin on April 21, 2007 in Investment Advice
I have the privilege of being friends with traders for large financial institutions. This allows me to get some top-notch reserach from them and to paratake into their insights into investing. The day after the world markets dropped in early March based on fears of an economic slowdown, one of my trader friends made an [...]
