Rising Debt and its Potential Consequences: Canada’s New Normal?
We need to understand where we are in the debt super cycle to inform our investment decision making.
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Why public investors should care about the rise of private investment
To be sure, there are many reasons a company may prefer to turn to private investors over more traditional public markets, but as more companies choose private funding when they need to raise capital, what are the implications for investors in public markets?
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A selective approach to equity markets
Last week, Morningstar interviewed international equity portfolio manager David Ragan about finding resilient stocks in international markets during turbulent times.
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The competitive advantages of decentralized structures
How can a business continue to grow while still retaining the internal characteristics that helped contribute to its past success?
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Canadian lifecos: More than just insurance
Canadian insurance companies are no longer just in the business of selling insurance to Canadians. They function more like financial conglomerates, and that, for investors, is potentially a good thing.
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Defensiveness: A suitcase word
Given how often “defensive” enters into the investing lexicon and that it can mean different things to different people, aiming for a greater degree of precision in its definition may help to reduce misunderstanding or generalized historical bias.
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Process before proceeds
In theory, investors should improve at least linearly over time as they make and learn from errors. But in practice, there seems to be little evidence of this (only few active managers beat the market over longer time periods).
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Italian moves
Italy has been the source of drama in recent weeks, and it hasn’t all been about men racing bicycles in spandex.
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The top 15 macro questions to ask before investing in a country
These 15 questions are by no means exhaustive—they are not intended to be—but they serve as a helpful checklist for the main structural factors to consider when assessing a country’s macroeconomic backdrop.
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“Certified fresh” lessons from machine learning
Humans and machines have different strengths and weaknesses, and on our team, we tend to see the foreseeable future as a world in which the two work side-by-side. As with any tool, for machine learning to be useful, it is what it is being used for and how that matters.
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Southern exposure in the North: When Canadian small caps expand into the U.S.
It is possible for smaller companies to punch above their weight in a foreign market. In our Canadian small cap portfolio, there have been many wealth-creating companies that were able to successfully expand and compete in the United States.
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Enduring themes for volatile times
While investor apprehension in this environment is understandable, volatility in markets is both normal and expected. Looking back through our Art of Boring archive, we were struck by the enduring relevance of not letting fear guide investor decision-making during jittery times.
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Beyond barriers to entry: The advantage of barriers to capacity expansion
There is arguably another, more robust means of competitive advantage: that of barriers to capacity expansion. And this factors into one of the two main reasons behind limiting our exposure to the utility space.
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Why public investors should care about the rise of private investment
To be sure, there are many reasons a company may prefer to turn to private investors over more traditional public markets, but as more companies choose private funding when they need to raise capital, what are the implications for investors in public markets?
October 31, 2018
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A selective approach to equity markets
Last week, Morningstar interviewed international equity portfolio manager David Ragan about finding resilient stocks in international markets during turbulent times.
October 17, 2018
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The competitive advantages of decentralized structures
How can a business continue to grow while still retaining the internal characteristics that helped contribute to its past success?
September 19, 2018
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Canadian lifecos: More than just insurance
Canadian insurance companies are no longer just in the business of selling insurance to Canadians. They function more like financial conglomerates, and that, for investors, is potentially a good thing.
August 22, 2018
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Defensiveness: A suitcase word
Given how often “defensive” enters into the investing lexicon and that it can mean different things to different people, aiming for a greater degree of precision in its definition may help to reduce misunderstanding or generalized historical bias.
July 18, 2018
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Process before proceeds
In theory, investors should improve at least linearly over time as they make and learn from errors. But in practice, there seems to be little evidence of this (only few active managers beat the market over longer time periods).
June 12, 2018
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Italian moves
Italy has been the source of drama in recent weeks, and it hasn’t all been about men racing bicycles in spandex.
June 4, 2018
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The top 15 macro questions to ask before investing in a country
These 15 questions are by no means exhaustive—they are not intended to be—but they serve as a helpful checklist for the main structural factors to consider when assessing a country’s macroeconomic backdrop.
May 16, 2018
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“Certified fresh” lessons from machine learning
Humans and machines have different strengths and weaknesses, and on our team, we tend to see the foreseeable future as a world in which the two work side-by-side. As with any tool, for machine learning to be useful, it is what it is being used for and how that matters.
May 2, 2018
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Southern exposure in the North: When Canadian small caps expand into the U.S.
It is possible for smaller companies to punch above their weight in a foreign market. In our Canadian small cap portfolio, there have been many wealth-creating companies that were able to successfully expand and compete in the United States.
March 14, 2018
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Enduring themes for volatile times
While investor apprehension in this environment is understandable, volatility in markets is both normal and expected. Looking back through our Art of Boring archive, we were struck by the enduring relevance of not letting fear guide investor decision-making during jittery times.
February 14, 2018
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Beyond barriers to entry: The advantage of barriers to capacity expansion
There is arguably another, more robust means of competitive advantage: that of barriers to capacity expansion. And this factors into one of the two main reasons behind limiting our exposure to the utility space.
January 31, 2018
