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Tag Archives investing for fun and profit

Commodity booms and busts: Part 1
Columns

Commodity booms and busts: Part 1

Commodity price highs and lows are tightly tied to the economic cycle

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The U.S. stock market had one of its worst decades on record from 2000 to 2009, even worse than from 1930 to 1939, averaging just 1.2 per cent returns annually. Commodities, on the other hand, had a fantastic decade. U.S. stock markets had a great decade from 2010 to 2019, averaging 14.2 per cent annual […] Read more
Columns

Year and decade financial review: Part 1

Canada started the last decade strong, but wound up weaker than the U.S. Why?


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2010 was a good year, but from all the gnashing of teeth, it didn’t seem that way. The world had narrowly escaped another Great Depression, only experiencing the Great Recession. The financial crisis emanated from a U.S. housing crash, quickly spreading to Europe and around the world. Canada stood strong, and by comparison, the 2008 […] Read more
The Sky is not falling, Part 2
Columns

The Sky is not falling, Part 2

Free markets are best equipped to find solutions to global problems


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Developed economies operate under a democratic, capitalist, free-market system. Developing countries often have socialist, autocratic, controlled-market systems — although many are becoming freer. It seems obvious to me which system is superior, yet the continuing tug on free-market economies is towards socialism, because “profit” is considered a dirty word implying that one party took advantage […] Read more
The investment world ebbs and flows with sentiment, something that holds very true when it comes to Canada’s oil and gas sector.
Columns

Investing for a positive, progressing world

Herman VanGenderen wants to assure you that the sky is not falling

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Chicken Little is a famous storybook character. He (or she) had an acorn drop on his head and concluded the sky was falling. As he rushed to tell the king, he ran through the countryside yelling “the sky is falling. The sky is falling.” Along the way he collected other like-minded fowl, all yelling, “The […] Read more
Stacks of Canadian Coins
Columns

Secrets to sanity and success in the investment world

Buying and holding is a more solid, and sane, strategy then portfolio turnover

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This article marks my 24th for Grainews. My first article, in March of 2018, had a quote: “it’s all about buying common shares in solid companies, and holding them for a long time.” I hope you are now convinced of the validity of this approach. Why is this simple strategy shunned by most market participants? […] Read more
Stock investing isn’t possible without a few failures.
Columns

Long-term investment successes… and a few blemishes

Herman VanGenderen reveals the ups (and a few downs) of his stock investing history

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Success through simplicity entails buying the right companies and holding them a long time. This reduces stress and workload managing investments, and leads to better outcomes. But do I follow my own advice? My first decade of stock investing was unsuccessful so when I transferred my RRSP into a stock account in 1993, I began […] Read more
The folly of market predictions
Columns

The folly of market predictions

For the best long-term predictions, predict that most predictions will be wrong

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In a previous column, I mentioned less than half of predictions are accurate. This phenomenon has been well documented, yet market predictions continue to abound. I began making market predictions in my January 2016 newsletter, mostly to poke fun at the whole prediction process, but also to test myself against the experts. How have I […] Read more
Investment success factors
Columns

Investment success factors

Some personal and investment-focused factors that drive investing success

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In September of last year I was interviewed by the Globe and Mail, Canada’s premier business newspaper. A question that really made me think was, “What accounts for your outperformance since the 1990s?” I would like to delve into this question, dividing the answer into personal and investment factors. Personal factors for success The personal […] Read more
Close up of Canadian banknotes (CAD) background, this is polymer money with holograms that will last longer and be harder to counterfeit.
Columns

2019 SMART Investing Goals

Setting personal financial goals for the upcoming year is a good way to make sure you grow your portfolio

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2018 has been a challenging year for stock and bond investors around the world. Virtually every asset class, in every country is down year-to-date. Following is a sampling of stock market declines (not including dividends) around the world as at mid-December, 2018: China is down 22 per cent, Germany 16 per cent, Canada 10 per […] Read more

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