The S&P 500 made a new all-time high in early July. Less than 20% of the stocks in the S&P 500 made new highs as the index broke out. Historically, 20% or more is a sign of a broader market advance; technically we call this
Category Archives: Economics & Fundamentals
With market multiples at lofty levels, investors have options to protect against a market pullback – much like a farmer may protect the value of their crop using options. It’s time to consider laying off some of the risk from runaway markets that don’t make
We always look at the risks of investing, because that’s how investors look at it (after the risk bites them), so for our clients we carefully weigh risk/return with each investment. I’ve said “Europe is a basket case” so you might think that means avoid
I’ve often warned that Western economies – now heavily indebted post credit crisis – are on track to end up like Japan if nothing is done to change course. You might think that means Japan is down and out, and while they are, there is
The global push to spend at all costs has to end. The debt governments are accumulating to do so are toxic to future generations and stymying future growth. The G20 communique highlights the following messages, which is simply more of the same rhetoric. I’m not surprised
Our latest piece in the Globe & Mail explores the argument that stock markets must continue endlessly spiraling upward. Why? Because rates are to remain between negative and to low (which we agree with), and therefor there is no alternative to pure equity risk (we
I have suggested for years that zero and (now) negative interest rate policies that central banks have employed are stealing money from the savers to prop up the economy and it’s not working very well. One estimate I saw recently has transferred over 2 trillion
A week does not go by on Berman’s Call where we don’t get a handful of emails or calls asking how retirees can get a safe 4-6 per cent yield in their portfolios. The source of this question stems from the Zero Interest Rate Policies
Why work for a living when your house out-earns you? In a “truth is stranger than fiction” moment, the price appreciation of homes in greater Vancouver have produced more than the sum total of all work done by every single human being that lives in
Share Buybacks have been a very popular use of corporate profits in the past few years. By some estimates, they have “artificially” increased earnings per share by over 25 per cent in the past few years. This would suggest that if we factor in non-adjusted