Search found 2497 matches

by George$
30 Dec 2014 13:13
Forum: Under the Mattress: Protecting Your Money
Topic: Which Charity Is The least Worthy Of A Donation
Replies: 108
Views: 19264

Re: Which Charity Is The least Worthy Of A Donation

I have already donated for 2014 - but am looking for 2015.

A friend has suggested
"Indian Village Poverty Relief Fund"
It looks exceptional to me. Does anyone here have any experience
See
http://www.indiavillagefund.org/Contact.php
and
http://www.indiavillagefund.org/Donation_Form.php

Does anyone here have experience here? Or thoughts or help?

The other George :)
by George$
21 Dec 2014 13:10
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Howard Marks' Memos - Bubbles & Bubbles on top of Bubbles
Replies: 36
Views: 6074

Re: Howard Marks' Memos - Bubbles & Bubbles on top of Bubble

The Dec 18, 2014 latest letter from Howard Marks - always worth reading carefully and slowly

The Lessons of Oil
by George$
17 Dec 2014 16:30
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Risk parity
Replies: 26
Views: 2025

Re: Risk parity

ghariton wrote: And now you know everything I know about the subject. :wink:

(the other) George
:thumbsup: nuch thanks to George from George$

I vaguely remember that years ago you came in first as "George" -- and so I added $ :)
by George$
17 Dec 2014 14:18
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Sherritt International Corporation (TSE:S)
Replies: 52
Views: 2359

Re: Sherritt International Corporation (TSE:S)

Peculiar_Investor wrote:Back from the dead? Nice pop in share price today, Sherritt Jumps After U.S. Moves to Normalize Cuba Ties - Bloomberg
Sherritt rose 23 percent to C$2.79 at 11.16 a.m. in Toronto, where the company is based. It earlier climbed to C$2.80, the biggest intraday increase since April 2009.
On the flip side, looking back at prices quoted previously on this topic and looking at a 10 year chart on Yahoo! where S reached $17.60 in Sept 2007, they'll need to pop many more times.


Hmmm - another not so good hold at the moment for me . Even with a +25% increase for S - I still am about -39% from what I paid :cry: - to make me feel better with the winners :thumbsup:
by George$
17 Dec 2014 14:07
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Risk parity
Replies: 26
Views: 2025

Re: Risk parity

"Risk parity" has been mentioned in passing in various threads but there isn't a dedicated one yet I could find. According to Wikipedia, Risk parity (or risk premia parity) is an approach to investment portfolio management which focuses on allocation of risk, usually defined as volatility, rather than allocation of capital. The risk parity approach asserts that when asset allocations are adjusted (leveraged or deleveraged) to the same risk level, the risk parity portfolio can achieve a higher Sharpe ratio and can be more resistant to market downturns than the traditional portfolio. Risk parity is a conceptual approach to investing which attempts to provide a lower risk and lower fee alternative to the traditional portfolio alloca...
by George$
10 Dec 2014 07:04
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: AGF Management (Symbol-AGF.B)
Replies: 89
Views: 10841

Re: AGF Management (Symbol-AGF.B)

Some work out - others don't - and in some I have been stupid - that is me in AGF. This post is to balance my boasting of good results against my poor results A few years ago I put in some $ in AGF (not that much). My mistake - I should have known. I recall thinking that Canada might continue giving its money to AGF - and its dividend seemed high. Today AGf is down about 45% from what I paid. Read today's G&M - AGF to slash dividend in major step in transforming business NOTE - recent Bylo's post is more interesting - and will also come to Canada and eat AGF some day - When? - I dunno :? Coming to Canada too? Vanguard turns firepower on shake-up of financial advice market [FT(*)] Executives at Vanguard’s Valley Forge, Pennsylvania headq...
by George$
07 Dec 2014 14:00
Forum: Community Centre
Topic: Charity Recommendations
Replies: 71
Views: 2567

Re: Charity Recommendations

I'm quite impressed with - Lifewater Canada With lots of good information -like Over the past decade, governments and donor agencies such as the World Bank have spent up to $100/person to provide safe drinking water in underdeveloped areas. Lifewater Canada does this same work for $10/person by: •Being run by volunteers working from home to keep overhead under 5% - see our $$ Statements •Focusing on low cost technologies •Empowering local people •Doing the "Easy One's First" And lots of pictures and data on 1413 projects to date I have a question - and hope somebody knows more - and so can help Life Water is hooking up with "Link Charity" -- see http://www.linkcharity.ca/ Does anyone here know anything about Link Charit...
by George$
04 Dec 2014 12:14
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa
Replies: 1785
Views: 325585

Re: Norbert's gambit - Can$ to US$ or vice versa

adrian2 wrote:
SQRT wrote:Yes the gambit works fine. Just not happy with the weak CDN dollar.
Time to do it the other way around! :P

Yes Adrian, exactly what I plan to do - as the CDN dollar goes down. :thumbsup:
by George$
04 Dec 2014 11:23
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Microsoft (Symbol-MSFT) - whereto
Replies: 244
Views: 47761

Re: Microsoft (Symbol-MSFT) - whereto

I keep looking at MSFT information - here are a couple this morning .... 2 Reasons Microsoft Corporation Is a Top Dividend Stock to Buy Microsoft 's dividend doesn't look quite as attractive as it did a few years ago. The dividend yield is currently just 2.6%, higher than the S&P 500 average, but a bit lower than other tech giants like Cisco and IBM . Microsoft's stock has very nearly doubled over the past three years, and while the dividend has been increasing during that time, it just hasn't kept up. and - not sure on this .... but here it is ... Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Headed to the $53 Mark: Pete Najarian Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s performance on the cloud has been largely responsible for what has turned out to be on...
by George$
23 Nov 2014 10:33
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: What % in equities.
Replies: 66
Views: 4398

Re: What % in equities.

Age 63 2% cash and pref's 30% canadian equity 68% US equity Portfolio yield 1.88% Annual income $85000 57% of the equity in 4 individual company positions. In my case - - ignoring value of house and DB pension plan and CPP - thus leaving liquid portfolio - Age 74 25% - cash estimate 3% - or less for bonds 31% - about for Canadian equity 41% - about for US equity Sure appreciate reading "kiwidog". :thumbsup: My main concern these days is how to handle our estate and how to do some low cost but effective "good" with our assets. We on FWF have a wide range of ages, of attitudes, of interests, of success or luck, or ... it goes on To get some sense of my investment background and reading - go to http://www.georgeluste.com/D...
by George$
16 Nov 2014 13:43
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Folklore of Finance - new report from State Street - CAR
Replies: 0
Views: 1880

Folklore of Finance - new report from State Street - CAR

This was just passed my way by CV. Looks worthy for a separate. Three links follow - The Folklore of Finance: Beliefs That Contribute to Investors’ Failure - in New York Times Including the following text - In 1990, 14 percent of domestic equity mutual funds achieved “true” alpha — which was defined in a University of Maryland study as alpha that was not achieved by chance. In 2006, the number of funds delivering true alpha was down to 0.6 percent, which is statistically equivalent to zero. Five times as many funds operated in 2006 as in 1990. and Yet the financial industry continues to search for alpha as if it were a great white whale. The study found that financial services firms spent 60 percent of their capital expenditures on resource...
by George$
16 Nov 2014 13:24
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Investment Books
Replies: 70
Views: 11844

Re: Investment Books

Taggart wrote:
George$ wrote:
Taggart wrote:If you click on Bernstein's New Books at efficient frontiers he has a free download called "If You Can" which is targeted to the young investor.
Is this still available to copy free? - I don't see it :(
George:

Below the book "If you can", you choose from one of three formats. Acrobat, Mobi, or Kindle.

I just clicked on acrobat, since I'm on the laptop computer and it came up, no problem.
Thanks again. George (the other G)
by George$
16 Nov 2014 12:53
Forum: Financial Planning and Building Portfolios
Topic: Investment Books
Replies: 70
Views: 11844

Re: Investment Books

Taggart wrote:If you click on Bernstein's New Books at efficient frontiers he has a free download called "If You Can" which is targeted to the young investor.
Is this still available to copy free? - I don't see it :(
by George$
07 Nov 2014 16:14
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Microsoft (Symbol-MSFT) - whereto
Replies: 244
Views: 47761

Re: Microsoft (Symbol-MSFT) - whereto

I was just reading some of the older Chou Letters of the Manager, and apparently back in April 2000 Microsoft was trading at 25 times revenue and 100 times earnings. The stock is now quite a bit cheaper than then, but I've tended to keep away from individual technology stocks since the turn of the new century. Yes, both older Chou letters and older Buffett letters are worth reading and re-reading. And again "yes" in 1999 the MSFT price was crazy and way too high - I remember thinking that I should sell it - BUT - to what (no idea then) and also remembering Warren Buffett's advice - something like "Unrealized capital gains has an interest free loan from the government - and with no call date - to pay taxes when you sell"...
by George$
06 Nov 2014 12:13
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: What did you buy? What might you buy? (2014)
Replies: 480
Views: 59746

Re: What did you buy? What might you buy? (2014)

Me - have not bought anything for the past 2-3 years.

I keep about 25% of assets in cash - why? Two reasons. In case I need it or want to give it away - but also when we see the stock market in another major crash (like 2008-09) - I will be ready to be a serious buyer. :)
by George$
06 Nov 2014 10:12
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Value Investing - do cheap stocks outperform?
Replies: 292
Views: 40271

Re: Value Investing - do cheap stocks outperform?

Re Taggart's reference (related perhaps?) - see Dimensions of Popularity - by ROGER G. IBBOTSON AND THOMAS M. IDZOREK CONCLUSIONS For many years, academics have sought to explain and understand asset prices, with a strong emphasis on market premiums and market anomalies. Generally, these academics end up falling into one of two camps: the equilibrium efficient market camp or the behavioral economics camp. Popularity offers an explanation that is consistent with both approaches. The premiums that are considered permanent (for example, for risk, liquidity, taxability, and so on.) are expected to provide excess returns, even after their discovery. These premiums are consistent with efficient markets and might include risk (for example, volatil...
by George$
06 Nov 2014 10:05
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Microsoft (Symbol-MSFT) - whereto
Replies: 244
Views: 47761

Re: Microsoft (Symbol-MSFT) - whereto

I keep looking at MSFT as it creeps up and up - at the moment at $48.33 - :thumbsup:
Here is some reading -

Why This Billion Dollar Hedge Fund is Betting Big on Microsoft Corporation Stock
What does Hexavest find so attractive about Microsoft? A review of its investment philosophy makes it clear why Microsoft occupies such a prominent position in Hexavest's global portfolio. Like many investors, institutional or individual, finding relative value compared to peers, indices, or any suitable benchmark, is the goal. Based on the key metrics hedge fund manager Hexavest subscribes to, Microsoft fits the bill nicely.
by George$
06 Nov 2014 09:43
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Value Investing - do cheap stocks outperform?
Replies: 292
Views: 40271

Re: Value Investing - do cheap stocks outperform?

If you read the previous page on this thread, you'll find a few posts on illiquidity. This continues with an article from Robert Tattersall in Globeinvestor. One way for small investors to outperform institutions Thanks Taggart. Yes, a very interesting article - mention of - Roger Ibbotson, made what I believe is a compelling argument for a strategy where the individual investor actually has an advantage over a large institution. Putting all this together, where should a long-term individual investor direct their research focus? In the Canadian context, the TSX Venture Exchange is heavily populated with small and microcap illiquid stocks. Your immediate reaction may be that there are few value stocks in this universe, but a screen of the G...
by George$
04 Nov 2014 16:48
Forum: Stocks, Bonds, ETFs, Funds, REITS and More
Topic: Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Symbol-FFH)
Replies: 172
Views: 31246

Re: Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited (Symbol-FFH)

A good up day for Fairfax - up 5.05% to $545.74 per share today - wonder if it will go up more - who knows :roll:

My top 5 (via $ value) share holdings these days - in descending order - with Fairfax in third (why I keep looking at it)

MSFT
HPQ
FFH
JNJ
BRK.B
by George$
03 Nov 2014 07:32
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??
Replies: 23
Views: 2833

Re: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??

Just a brief comment about Chou Funds. It is the only "active fund" where I have some of our personal portfolio. It has done well for us. True there is an annual fee of about 1.7% or so. But I am also attracted by Chou's clarity and truth in his reports. And some years ago he did perform this amazing action - he returned fees already paid by some fund clients because he did not think he did well for them. Not easy to do. Don't think anyone else ever did this.
by George$
02 Nov 2014 16:31
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??
Replies: 23
Views: 2833

Re: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??

ig17 wrote:
George$ wrote:In other words lumping total assets to total income is misleading if applied to retail and ishares. Don't you agree?
Misleading in what sense?
The ratio is very different if you are referring to institutional assets - or referring to retail assets - or referring to iShare assets - all at BlackRock.

Not on the above issue - but I gather from other posts you think I overvalue Vanguard compared to BlackRock - here is a recent Reuters report worth looking at -
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/ ... BZ20140630
"BlackRock ETFs near $1 trillion as it loses market share to Vanguard"
by George$
02 Nov 2014 16:21
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??
Replies: 23
Views: 2833

Re: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??

It's true that scale is key for fund management businesses like BlackRock. In the early going, the capital investment required to build the business property is very significant. And operating expenses of the business are high. Such is the downside of operating leverage. ... Thanks Dan - but there are significant exceptions to - "scale is key". I was recently comparing Chou RRSP fund with UTAM-UofT, with OTPP, with HOOPP, etc - and Chou is way ahead in investment performance over the last 5 years - yet is much much smaller. If you send me your email via the PM here - I can pass my brief pdf presentation on this (not posted yet on web :( ) Yes about the speaker fees - can vary so much from one event to another and one presenter to...
by George$
02 Nov 2014 16:00
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??
Replies: 23
Views: 2833

Re: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??

ig17 wrote:
George$ wrote:My question - can they really maintain their low cost ETS - and see at the same time huge profits? I simply don't understand how they are doing it.
AUM: 4.32T
Revenue: 11.07B
....
I think this ratio number is misleading - it depends on client type - but correct me if necessary.

On page 4 in the 2013 annual report it reflects that for BlackRock

For institutional income AUM / Base fees ratio is about 2:1 and this is 65% of total AUM
but
For retail AUM / Base fees the ratio is about 0.33:1 and this is only 12% of total AUM
and
for iShares about 0.66:1 and this is about 23% of total AUM

In other words lumping total assets to total income is misleading if applied to retail and ishares. Don't you agree?
by George$
02 Nov 2014 13:48
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??
Replies: 23
Views: 2833

Re: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??

ig17 wrote:
George$ wrote:My question - can they really maintain their low cost ETS - and see at the same time huge profits? I simply don't understand how they are doing it.
AUM: 4.32T
Revenue: 11.07B

Assuming that all their revenue comes from the management fees:

11,070,000,000 / 4,320,000,000,000 = 0.26% average fee. Sounds plausible.

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Thanks - I will look further and try to understand more. Can I assume your numbers are from the BlackRock 2013 annual report?

In 1999 their share was at $14 - and today it is at $341 per share with a dividend at $1.93 per share. Do you understand how this happened? I don't think I do. :(
by George$
02 Nov 2014 11:40
Forum: Retirement, Pensions and Peace of Mind
Topic: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??
Replies: 23
Views: 2833

Re: MoneySense and Blackrock and "retirement rich" ??

To change the MS topic - to BlackRock. I have not owned BLK shares - but I would like to know more about it. Today BLk shares are worth about $57 billion With a P/E of about 17 - suggests the earnings are running at $3 billion a year. My question - can they really maintain their low cost ETS - and see at the same time huge profits? I simply don't understand how they are doing it. From Wikipedia Origins[ BlackRock was founded in 1988 by eight people including Larry Fink, Robert S. Kapito, Susan Wagner, Barbara Novick, Ben Golub, Hugh Frater, Ralph Schlosstein, and Keith Anderson to provide institutional clients with asset management services from a risk management perspective. Fink, Kapito, Golub and Novick had worked together at First Bosto...