Investing

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…

This post is sponsored by RBC InvestEase Inc. All views and opinions expressed represent my own and are based on my own research of the subject matter. Responsible investing is something on the minds of many investors today. They’re concerned about the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects of economic activities. Once considered a fringe movement, retail…

Investors could have done a lot worse over the past 30 years than investing in the Mawer Balanced Fund. Mawer, which epitomizes the art of boring investing, has been nothing short of consistently brilliant – with annual returns of 8.5 percent since the fund’s inception in 1988. Investment giant Vanguard doesn’t have the same longevity…

The research firm DALBAR has been studying the behaviour of mutual fund investors for 25 years. Each year the firm reports how poorly investors fared relative to their benchmark index over time. What the data repeatedly shows is a ‘behaviour gap‘ that leads to significant investor underperformance. It suggests that investors lack the patience to…