Investments Too Good to Be True
Another large speculative company fails, and investors lose billions, writes Peter Watson. In life, people like to pick a winner, and this is certainly true in the world of investing. But this can sometimes backfire. Until recently, FTX was a global giant as a cryptocurrency exchange platform. According to CNBC its value was $32 billion. […]
Stock Market Can Provide Useful Investing Insights
Understanding how the stock market works can be a useful guide to personal investing, writes Peter Watson. Do you want to know the best place to look for reliable information on the stock market? The answer is simple. Look to the stock market. The reason is buyers and sellers come together to trade a stock. […]
Stock Market Volatility Can Leave You Depressed
There is a reason why the normal ups and downs of the stock market can leave you depressed, writes Peter Watson. It has to do with human behaviour. People are emotional. Investors value gains and losses differently. A loss has more significance on an investor than a gain of an equal amount. For example, if […]
The Challenges of Another Interest Rate Hike
Many households will feel the pain of the most recent interest rate hike, writes Peter Watson. Plus, the cumulative effect of so many rate hikes over such a short period of time could be unmanageable. The Bank of Canada’s most recent increase to the cost of borrowing is one half of one per cent. That […]
Financial Pain is on The Way
Beware, the financial storm clouds are closing in, writes Peter Watson. That was the tone of a recent warning by Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Her conclusion was that many households are going to be adversely affected. Interest rates are being aggressively increased to try to control inflation. That will slow the economy, businesses will suffer, […]
Investing – A Time to be Brave
Investing in the current climate can be challenging, writes Peter Watson. The stock market has been volatile with many significant declines and bonds, that are meant to be a safe haven, have done poorly too. Then there is that sacred asset that Canadians are so proud of: Homeownership. Rising home values over a prolonged period […]
Retirement in Canada is Becoming More Risky
Canadians financial risk during retirement is a reason to plan carefully, writes Peter Watson. Canadians underestimate the impact of longevity, inflation and healthcare costs have on retirement savings, and that’s making our country a less secure place to retire. This is according to the Natixis annual ranking as reported by Investment Executive. Greater focus needs […]
Canadians Net Worth Declined Significantly
Canadians’ net worth suffered a significant decline during the three months ending June 30. Both real estate and financial investments fell in value making this the largest drop of household wealth on record. This information was recently released by Statistics Canada. Stock markets performed poorly during the first half of the year. Many investors diversify […]
Prices Increasing and Spending Decreasing
Prices are increasing so Canadians are reducing their spending, writes Peter Watson. The annual inflation rate as of the end of July decreased slightly to 7.6 per cent. That is good news for the Bank of Canada who are trying to control inflation. The reality is things are significantly more expensive than one year ago […]
Why investors should understand stock market details
In Canada only 33 per cent of managers outperformed the underlying index after one year. After five and 10 years the outperformance was only six and 19 per cent respectively. Similar results were experienced by US managers. This information is from S&P Dow Jones Indices from their Year-End 2021 SPIVIA Scorecard. SPIVIA stands for Standard […]
