Investing

“Past performance is not an indicator of future results.” Investors have heard this disclaimer for years, yet when it comes to picking investments we can’t help but look to a fund’s historical results to determine its quality. Indeed, it’s one of the first questions asked whenever I mention the idea of switching to an indexed…

Questrade touched a nerve with financial advisors with a series of commercials highlighting how lower investment fees over time potentially means you can retire up to 30% wealthier. Financial advisor extraordinaire Jason Pereira acknowledged that Questrade was right to go after do-nothing advisors who collect fat commissions, but he claimed the 30% wealthier promise was…

Setting up the initial asset allocation for your investment portfolio is fairly straightforward. The challenge is knowing how and when to rebalance your portfolio. Stock and bond prices move up and down, and you periodically add new money – all of which can throw off your initial targets. Let’s say you’re an index investor like…

Tax loss harvesting sounds like a magical strategy that is only available to the wealthy. But in reality, it’s a simple tax saving concept that involves selling a security or investment that has experienced a loss, and using that ‘capital loss’ to offset a capital gain in the past, present, or future. Investors should know…

The evolution of self-directed investing through discount brokerage platforms has driven the cost per trade down from $29 a decade ago to $9.99 at big bank brokerages today. Some discount brokers (like Questrade) offer free ETF purchases, and one platform – Wealthsimple Trade – even offers commission-free trading of stocks and ETFs with no account…

Investors should take great care to choose an investment strategy they can stick with for the long term – in both good times and bad. The problem is we make our decisions about risk tolerance and asset allocation in a vacuum. Our retirement portfolio isn’t at stake when we fill out a questionnaire. Then markets…

This is a reader story from Kevin in Toronto, who, after getting laid off, took an unconventional approach with his locked-in retirement account (LIRA) – paying off his mortgage and then setting up a LIRA mortgage. What are the pros and cons of loaning yourself a mortgage from your RRSP or LIRA? Read on for…

The following story is from Nick, whose investing journey began when he bet the farm (and won) on weed stocks, then watched in horror as that same barn burned to the ground several months later. You can follow his portfolio and journey for redemption at LateCycle.com – or on Twitter (@latecycle_nick). It’s one o’clock in the…

There have been many ridiculous statements made about passive investing over the years. None have garnered as much media attention as hedge-fund manager Michael Burry’s claim that passive investments such as index funds and ETFs are the next bubble. He said these index-tracking investments are “inflating stock and bond prices in a similar way that…