The market value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension funds rose to $1.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2018, up from about $1.85 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2017, according to new data from Statistics Canada. The increase represents a rise of three per cent from the fourth quarter of 2017 and 5.7 per […]
With markets showing signs of potential extreme volatility in recent weeks, how can employers address the many questions that arise from pension plan members? When speaking to members, consultants usually emphasize advice on asset allocation based on age and risk tolerance. Many members aren’t honest in their responses, often overstating their tolerance for risk because markets are typically on the rise. […]
Investors are putting risk at the centre of their asset allocation decisions — and that’s good news. The trouble is, the risk models they’re using aren’t up to the task. So says Sebastien Page, head of global multi-asset at T. Rowe Price Group Inc. Despite shortcomings with the current models, he believes there are solutions to help investors […]
Many publicly traded companies give employees the opportunity to own shares in the company they work for. Traditionally, that happens through an employee share plan where employees directly purchase their company’s stock, as provided to employees at Starbucks Corp. and WestJet Airlines Ltd., for example. Ownership is beneficial to both the employer and the employee for […]
In hindsight, everybody would have invested in Apple back when it was a smaller, obscure private company. But as its founder Steve Jobs famously once said in a different context: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” So for investors who can stomach the risk, private companies valued […]
You can just imagine 19th-century blue-blooded jaws dropping when stock traders reportedly started the practice of sending runners across exchange floors to place bids and offers. But disapproval didn’t stop those traders from practising their wind sprints or hiring secondary-school track stars to do the running for them. Time has always been money. Later that […]
With the exception of South Africa, public equities in sub-Saharan Africa are generally cheap. Buyers, however, are in short supply. Some contrarian investors see the dearth of buyers as an opportunity to gain a foothold in those exchanges before they become crowded and expensive. “You have to invest now when people are negative. When everybody […]
A conversation with Joe Overdevest, portfolio manager at Pyramis Global Advisors After six years as an analyst, Joe Overdevest became a portfolio manager in October 2008. “The first day I took over a portfolio, I had stocks down 15%,” he says. So he bought companies with strong financial positions that would withstand the changing economy, […]
Recent volatility on the Chinese stock market is a timely reminder that, in the shorter term, share prices depend on many factors—not least of which are sentiment and speculation. But, rather than blindly accepting the bearish consensus on Chinese shares, investors should rationally assess individual companies. When markets get bumpy, step back and remember the […]
The word Gazprom can literally send shivers down Europeans’ spines. In January 2009, during a freezing winter, Gazprom cut gas supplies to Eastern Europe for two weeks due to a row with Ukraine, the transit country.