Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - Locking in Profits after Outstanding Run for Stocks.Allocating More to Bonds with Semi-Annual Rebalance.
January 12, 2024 | John Ord & Tim Waller
Well, we got what we asked for. In our last discretionary portfolio update email on November 28th, we outlined the following strategy at a time the S&P 500 was trading around 4,550 (about 5% below the current level) Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - Checking In on the Success of 2023. Looking ahead to 2024.
November 28, 2023 | John Ord & Tim Waller
If you only listened to the news this year to guess how your investment portfolio was doing, you may be entirely shocked to know this has actually been a pretty good year! If you haven’t looked at your discretionary portfolio in a while, maybe take the time to check it out and let us know if you have any questions. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - NVIDIA continues its run. We’re taking some profits
May 26, 2023 | John Ord & Tim Waller
A few months ago, we sent out an email that highlighted one of the companies that we have owned in your discretionary portfolio for some time. That company is NVIDIA (ticker: NVDA). Fast forward to now, and if you didn’t know about this company when we last mentioned it, it’s very likely that you have heard the name in recent weeks as the stock price has exploded upwards. The reasons for this are a renewed frenzy around Artificial Intelligence (AI), which NVIDIA supplies many of the chips required to facilitate this technology. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - Locking in some profits on recent AI winners
February 27, 2023 | John Ord & Tim Waller
The beginning of 2023 has seen a much more positive start to a year than we saw in 2022, even with February recently giving back some of the larger gains from January. We wanted to provide you with a quick update on decisions made in the portfolio that aim to take advantage of recent strength. The stock price of some companies in the model have outperformed significantly since our semi-annual rebalance in early January. As part of our disciplined process, we have been trimming some of those positions and locking in profits. We have also added made a couple new companies to our Canadian equity model in recent weeks. Read More>
Update on Your Discretionary Portfolio - Semi Annual Rebalance for January 2023
January 25, 2023 | John Ord & Tim Waller
Now that we have put 2022 in the rear-view mirror (finally), we wanted to provide you with some quick thoughts on the year that was, and also update you on recent changes in your discretionary portfolio based on our semi-annual rebalancing that was completed earlier this month (January 9th – 11th). Those changes are detailed in the “Portfolio Comments” section below.
2022 was not a good year for equity investors, which seems somewhat obvious. However, when you add in how poorly the usual “safe haven” bond market performed, the story gets even more negative, as it turned into one of the worst investment years in recent memory for those with a balanced portfolio. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - Summary of recent changes & Tax Loss Selling November 2022
November 21, 2022 | John Ord & Tim Waller
We are getting closer to the end of 2022, and we wanted to provide you with an update on recent activity in your discretionary portfolio. The past several months, we have remained focused on owning more quality names within your equity portfolio. We have also taken advantage of the recent hikes in interest rates to lock in some higher yielding bonds and GICs. More detail can be found in the Portfolio Comments section below. Read More>
Update on Your Discretionary Portfolio - Semi Annual Rebalance for July 2022
July 15, 2022 | John Ord & Tim Waller
As we pass the halfway point of 2022, many of the same questions that arose during the first few months of the year remain embedded in investor’s minds. How long will inflation keep rising? Will supply chain issues be resolved in the near future? How high will central banks raise interest rates, and will there ultimately be a recession? While these are all important questions to consider, none of them should be the first consideration for investors looking to build their wealth into the future. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - May 2022
May 11, 2022 | John Ord & Tim Waller
Over the course of the last year and a half, we have made a conscious effort to shift our equity exposure more towards Canada, and reduce the relative US and global equity exposure. We did this because the US equity markets had performed extremely well in previous years, and throughout 2020, while the Canadian market had lagged behind in part due to extreme amounts of liquidity in markets boosting hight growth companies, predominantly found in the US. Read More>
Commentary on Recent Market Volatility (May 10, 2022)
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - April 2022
April 8, 2022 | John Ord & Tim Waller
We hope everyone is doing well.
We wanted to provide an update on some recent updates to the portfolio, both in equity and fixed income. We will also summarize the first quarter of 2022 in the stock market, and provide some updated thoughts on the economy. Read More>
Article: Jim Allworth - Global Equity Perspective April 2022
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - February 2022
February 1, 2022 | John Ord & Tim Waller
We hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy (and warm)!
We wanted to provide you with a quick update about a tactical decision that was made in your discretionary portfolio, in light of the recent volatility that has returned to markets in the last few weeks. Specifically, we added back some exposure to the market last week on Friday, January 28th. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio - January 2022
January 14, 2022 | John Ord & Tim Waller
Happy New Year! We hope that you and your families are staying healthy and safe. We wanted to take this opportunity to provide you with an important update on your discretionary portfolio.
During the beginning of 2022, we initiated the semi-annual rebalancing of your portfolio, as part of our disciplined investment process. The trades for this were completed earlier this week on Monday, January 10th. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio Current Thoughts – June 2021
June 1, 2021 | John Ord & Tim Waller
As part of our disciplined process, we completed the semi-annual rebalancing of your discretionary portfolio just over a week ago on May 20th and 21st. Usually we perform our second rebalance in early July (after the initial rebalance in January). However, we have done it slightly earlier this year so it would correspond with our decision to increase Canadian equity, while slightly lowering US equity (see below for more details). By setting it up this way, all positions have been set at our desired weightings as soon as this shift took place. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio Current Thoughts – March 2021
March 25, 2021 | John Ord & Tim Waller
It was just about one year ago that the stock market bottomed out from the initial panic around COVID-19, as businesses and economies around the world were shut down to try and get a handle on the spread of the virus. On March 23, 2020 the S&P 500 reached an intraday low of 2,191.86. On that same day, the Federal Reserve announced their commitment to use their full range of tools to support households, businesses and the US economy. One day later: the S&P 500 closed up 9.4% higher, and began the process of one of the largest (and quickest) stock market recoveries in recent history. Read More>
New Normal, New Opportunities series: Cybersecurity and Video Streaming
September 2, 2020 | John Ord
Please see the attached articles along with additional commentary below on the emerging themes of cybersecurity/digital content and cord-cutting (video streaming). Read More>
New Normal, New Opportunities series: Fintech and Nesting
August 20, 2020 | John Ord
Please see the attached articles along with additional commentary below on the emerging theme of financial technology (fintech) and also the COVID-19 inspired theme of nesting. Read More>
New Normal, New Opportunities series: Cloud computing
August 5, 2020 | John Ord
Please see the attached article along with additional commentary below on the emerging theme of cloud computing. If you had not heard of this term in previous years, it is likely you would have over the past few months. The efficient storage, management and processing of data has become increasingly vital to many businesses in today’s world. Read More>
New Normal, New Opportunities series: e-Commerce
July 28, 2020 | John Ord
Please see the attached article along with some commentary below on another major emerging theme we have seen: the expansion of e-Commerce. We feel this is one of the most investable areas in the market right now, and have felt that way for some time. Read More>
New Normal, New Opportunities series: Telemedicine; Drug discovery & diagnostics
July 24, 2020 | John Ord
Please see below for some commentary on two of these emerging themes: telemedicine and drug discovery & diagnostics, along with the attached articles. In relation to exposure in your discretionary portfolio, we currently own positions in Teladoc Health Inc (TDOC - telemedicine) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO - diagnostics). Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio- Current Thoughts
July 22, 2020 | John Ord
In our previous communication about your discretionary portfolio in June, we had noted that the market’s recovery was not occurring in an equal fashion, and that we expected certain sectors to continue to lead the way forward during this recovery (health care and technology being the sectors we had the highest conviction in). Fast forward a few weeks, and this has continued to be largely the case. Read More>
Update On Your Discretionary Portfolio- Current Thoughts
June 10, 2020 | John Ord
The last time we communicated about your discretionary portfolio was in late April, as the markets had bounced back about halfway from the initial drop earlier this year. As we stand several weeks later: the market recovery has continued through May and early June, and is getting closer to recovering the previous losses. However, what we need to make clear about this recovery is that there have been clear winners and losers depending on the sector the business happens to operate in. Read More >
Timely Update on your Discretionary Portfolio - Current Thoughts
April 22, 2020 | John Ord
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been making a number of adjustments to the discretionary portfolio, as there had been a significant rebound in equity markets, from the lows in late March. Approximately 50% of the losses seen in the markets from peak to trough had been recovered recently, as investors began to look for signs that a recovery was on the way. Read More >
Timely Update on your Discretionary Portfolio - Current Thoughts
March 10, 2020 | John Ord
Back in January, we had made the decision to reduce our equity position in the discretionary model, due to the valuation of the stock market at the time. This included freeing up 2% from equity for all clients, as well as a sale in our Canadian Equity model of CN Rail. When CN was sold, we did not reinvest in any companies at the time, in order to wait for a better opportunity and an expected pullback. Read More >
Coronavirus Concerns - Discretionary Clients
February 25, 2020 | John Ord
In addition to the recent report we have sent out to you relating to the coronavirus, we wanted to reiterate the changes made in our discretionary model that were noted in our January 16th commentary email. Read More >
Important Commentary relating to your Portfolio Performance in 2019 & Our views on the markets going forward.
January 16, 2020 | John Ord
As we get a few weeks into the year 2020, we wanted to provide you with our thoughts on the year ahead, while taking a quick look back at the markets in 2019. Read More >
