Member Documents

Investment Indigestion

March 12th, 2010

The 2010 Canada Budget includes an end to the medical expense tax credit for liposuction. Could there be a more symbolic gesture for "cutting the fat"? Unfortunately, fiscal imbalances require much more than a tummy tuck. In the US, Barack Obama has ...

Why the Materials Underweight?

February 19th, 2010

The index that we get benchmarked against has a 31.9% weight in Materials. The QV Small Cap Fund is underweight the sector with an 11.0% weight. Sometimes we get asked why we are taking on such a big risk by being so ...

Christmas Cheer

December 18th, 2009

Although 2009 had a miserable start, capital markets have been in a gift giving mood for most of the year. Near zero interest rate policy combined with unprecedented global fiscal stimulus resulted in assets catching a bid. A year ago at this ...

Oh My, Oh My, It's Debt Repayment Time for Dubai!

November 27th, 2009

On Wednesday Dubai asked creditors to agree to a debt repayment standstill as they look for ways to refinance obligations outstanding from their gluttonous growth of the past decade. A Dubai default would be the largest sovereign debt default since Argentina defaulted ...

St Andrews Sprint

November 13th, 2009

The G20 finance ministers met at St Andrews last weekend to provide a progress report on the economic and financial actions put in place since the onset of the financial crisis. Trivia buffs know that the beach at St Andrews is also ...

Choose your Dance Parnters Wisely

October 2nd, 2009

"Music begins to atrophy when it departs from the dance" -Ezra Pound
If the market was a sonata, the Conductor's arms would be mighty tired. They have been working overtime, applying a magnificent crescendo since the middle of March. If the music ...

Rubber Chicken Risk?

September 18th, 2009

I was at my nephew's third birthday party last weekend. A clown was in attendance and had the children mesmerized with her balloon animals and rubber chicken gags. To be honest, I was pretty impressed by her ability to make butterflies out ...

What Credit Crisis?

August 28th, 2009

Financial and Technology sectors typically lead in the early stages of the business cycle. The above commentaries from two of the heavy weights in those industries are suggestive that we are through the worst of the Great Recession. Indeed, there has been ...

Second Quarter Earnings Season

August 7th, 2009

We are in the midst of the Canadian earnings season. Below you will find a snapshot of results from some of our largest holdings that have reported this week:

What a Fight!

July 24th, 2009

The month of July has been like a boxing match. But not just any boxing match, this one's an epic battle. A real "one for the ages" bout, the type of fight that inspires thoughts of greatness, think: Sylvester Stallone in his ...

Dynamic in Approach, Grounded in Principles

May 29th, 2009

This week is rich with illustrations supporting the old adage "the only constant is change". Nortel's market cap is less than $100 million today compared to $380 billion at its peak. Jim Flaherty's estimate of the budget deficit is now projected to ...

May, may be full of substance

May 1st, 2009

I was a K-car kid. That and a Dodge Caravan were the underpinnings of my mobility growing up. They were popular cars and were largely credited with saving Chrysler from near bankruptcy in 1979. Witnessing the official demise of Chrysler yesterday could ...

Finally Some Relief

April 17th, 2009

Thirty nine years ago to this day, a colossal sigh of relief resounded around the world. Four days after Commander James A. Lovell famously said "Houston, we've had a problem", the crew of Apollo 13 successfully returned to earth. Against all odds, ...

Be Aware

March 13th, 2009

With today being Friday the 13th and the Ides of March fast approaching, there is ample ammunition for fear mongering. We aren't going to go there today but we do reiterate the importance of exercising caution. In an era where we are ...

Ownership Equals Committed Stewardship

March 6th, 2009

We think property ownership encourages a person to buy into society. We think ownership allows for increased productivity, responsibility and stability. Pride also comes with ownership and may be reflected in a homeowner's pristine lawn or a car owner's well presented automobile. ...

Potemkin Villages Everywhere

January 16th, 2009

The year was 1787. Empress Catherine the Great was touring Crimea, now part of her Russian Empire. General Grigori Potemkin hosted her excursion, where she saw from her carriage, flourishing villages off in the distance. She concluded Crimea was a valuable asset ...

Book as a Measure of Value

November 21st, 2008

"...it's not been possible to completely avoid the unprecedented global liquidity crisis of the last few months" - Ed Clark CEO of TD Bank commenting on TD Bank's profit warning and asset write downs earlier this week

Top Ten Update

November 7th, 2008

The credit crisis has clearly evolved into a crisis of confidence. This is impacting the economy in a very real way as business and consumer spending has ground to a halt. This environment is stress testing business models to an extent we ...

How Things Change

October 24th, 2008

Over the past year there have been extreme changes on so many fronts. In November of last year the front cover of India's national newspaper displayed a cartoon of an indestructible sacred cow in a superman costume celebrating the new found wealth ...

When the Going Gets Tough...

October 3rd, 2008

It is tough out there. The S&P 500 has declined 29.8% from the peak reached at this time last year. According to data provided by Myles Zyblock at RBC Capital Markets the current decline is in-line with the average 29.7% drop in ...

Tough Love

September 5th, 2008

It has been a long week back from the long weekend. The TSX has been plunging, down approximately 9% since the beginning of the week. Energy and basic material equities have fared the worst, following the underlying commodity prices down. The commodity ...

08/08/08

August 8th, 2008

The Summer Olympics in China commenced today (08/08/08) at 8:08:08pm China Standard Time. There were 15,000 performers at the opening ceremonies and 30,000 fireworks. What a start to the most expensive Olympics on record, with costs estimated to be as high as ...

Quarterly Review

July 11th, 2008

During the second quarter, the Canadian small cap market continued to under-perform the large cap stocks as investors sought perceived safety. Historically the market has migrated to larger cap companies at times of uncertainty and potential economic slowdown. We would expect this ...

A Sure Thing?

June 6th, 2008

The National Post today has an article discussing the 140th Belmont Stakes which is set to take place this Saturday. According to the article a horse named Big Brown is attempting to win the coveted "Triple Crown". For those who aren't horse ...

Performance Review

May 16th, 2008

As you can see, our long term performance is in the top five percentile but our shorter term performance has moved towards the median. For the past year our performance was in the 30th percentile.

Market Update

May 2nd, 2008

Yogi Berra is reported to have said that forecasting is very difficult, especially when it comes to the future. If we didn't know that Yogi was a Major League Baseball Hall of Famer, we would have guessed that he was a money ...

Small Cap Financial Exposure

April 25th, 2008

A crucial vote on the $32-billion restructuring plan for the frozen Canadian asset-backed commercial paper market will go ahead today. In light of this, it is timely to provide an update on the small cap fund's largest financial holdings.

Earning Season

May 11th, 2007

Quarterly earnings season is well underway and the trend of strong Canadian corporate profitability continues. Just over half of the companies listed in the broad S&P/TSX composite have reported to date, with first quarter profits surging 20 percent versus this time last ...