Leigh Pullen
President & Chief Investment Officer
CFA, CFA Institute (1975)
Email:
lpullen@qvinvestors.com
Phone:
403.265.7007 x 240
Member Bio
Mr Pullen founded QVGD Investors Inc in November, 1996. He serves as Chairman of the Investment Committee. He is responsible for the management of QV's Canadian Balanced and Global Equity Funds. Prior to 1996, he was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at Mawer Investment Management. Before joining Mawer he was Manager of Pension Fund Investments at National Trust, Toronto. Mr. Pullen has served as President of Calgary's Estate Planning Council and Calgary Society of Financial Analysts. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
Member Documents
Veteran manager stands by 'Steady Eddies'
March 22nd, 2010
Author Brian Milner features Leigh Pullen in an article published in the Globe & Mail, March 22, 2010.
Petitions for Patience
March 5th, 2010
The Prayer of Saint Francis speaks to the balance all need in their lives between satisfying appetites and maintaining sanity and good will. Balance in government, business and finance allows management to sustain a solid franchise.
A Bull Market in Optimisim
February 5th, 2010
A year ago, pessimists were a dime a dozen. We would not sell ourselves so cheaply but we were among them. Some might accuse QV Investors of feeling good about feeling bad. We were bearish three years before the crack in equity ...
Monthly Update - November 2009
December 11th, 2009
Against a deflationary backdrop in the United States, and in the world, of faltering employment, of contracting bank loans, of failing banks, (to say nothing of the failings of ambitious Gulf States), and of slipping house prices (US), the authorities continue to ...
Monthly Update - October 2009
November 11th, 2009
On Wednesday, November 11, QV Investors celebrated thirteen years in the business of managing investment portfolios. From a start of three: Wendy Booker-Urban, Gordon Singer, and Leigh Pullen, and a few million dollars, we have grown to a staff of twelve ...
Monthly Update - August 2009
September 3rd, 2009
The market's recovery is vigorous but unsustainable. The market holds neither the promise of enduring profits or value. The unprecedented, concerted global spate of spending and bank system liquidity has boosted both bonds and stocks and delivered a mite of a business ...
Morningstar - Manager Monitor
July 10th, 2009
Click here to read an article by Morningstar's Diana Cawfield, featuring Leigh Pullen.
A Confession
June 26th, 2009
First and foremost, we advertise ourselves as fundamental, bottom up, company analysts. We must know with whom and in what we are risking our clients' dollars. And we are adamant in hewing to our categories of corporate tests - management, their financial ...
Monthly Update - May 2009
June 8th, 2009
Not being believers in a world running out of oil, but being believers in sensible valuations, we held no energy stocks in the Global Equity Fund last year. We benefited as oil and share prices tumbled. At the beginning of 2009, we ...
A Spring in the Market's Step
June 5th, 2009
For three months, from the March lows, stock markets, commodity markets, and the Canadian dollar have put in rallies of 20% to 40%. Moves of 100% or more in small companies, distressed resource, and bank issues were common thus partially reversing last ...
Monthly Update - February 2009
March 9th, 2009
In asking one of my colleagues last week for a thought on the theme of this letter he turned to me and said, "Gosh Leigh, it is kind of tough to think of anything optimistic to say right now." Admittedly, he was ...
Monthly Update - January 2009
February 11th, 2009
Bailing with Bigger Buckets - The Boat Still Leaks
Yesterday, Timothy Geithner, Barack Obama's Secretary of the Treasury, introduced the Financial Stability Plan FSP, replacing, the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, the acronym of which had the unfortunate connotation of a cover-up. ...
Monthly Update - November 2008
December 8th, 2008
Ms N. and Mr M. are financial consultants whose views and questions we respect. They have asked us two posers during recent client presentations - Ms N. asked, "When will it end?" and Mr M. asked, "What could make you wrong?"
What's Next for Small Caps?
September 19th, 2008
"I'm phoning about my exposure to AIG, Lehman and Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae?
"You haven't any."
"Whew."
"You're invested in smaller Canadian companies. They have no exposure."
Monthly Update - July 2008
August 11th, 2008
Autumn has come early, frosty and fast to commodity prices. In the first half of the year, with the exception of March, every month of '08 had seen higher prices set by the Commodity Research Bureau's Index. Metals, oil, natural gas, minerals, ...
Bull Market in Pessimism
July 18th, 2008
Have we been too bearish? I received an e-mail from one of our more insightful clients yesterday, "Dear Leigh, I received and read your quarterly report last night and must admit that I found it to be right up there with root ...
"Pete's Tax"
June 20th, 2008
The above is the 'one man's meat is another man's poison chart'. What is good for oilmen is not so good for bankers. Our proposition is, this is about to change and the shift will result in higher interest rates.
Monthly Update - May 2008
June 6th, 2008
John Templeton, the nonagenarian money manager of the
Templeton Funds advised investors to buy shares at their
point of maximum distress, to benefit long-term from
their recovery. Our purpose in showing the US banking
chart is to ponder if equity markets have ...
Monthly Update - April 2008
May 5th, 2008
On Monday April 28, 2008, QV Investors hosted a client reception and presentation. A summary of our remarks follows.
Q1 Review
April 4th, 2008
Problem we have is, a lot of folks aren't responding to over a million letters sent out to offer them assistance and mortgage counselling. You know, these mortgages can be pretty frightening to people. I mean, there's a lot of small print.
President ...
Monthly Update - February 2008
March 4th, 2008
Aware as they are that the credit crisis and now economic crisis is broadening and deepening, policymakers in Ottawa and Washington are in full disaster recovery mode and possibly blowing another bubble.
How We Doin'?
January 25th, 2008
Last year the BMO Small Cap Weighted Index earned a total return of 2.0%. The Unweighted Index lost 0.4%. The difference in returns suggests the positive return in the weighted index resulted from a few strong stocks, a characteristic of toppy markets. Our Small Cap returns on an average were in the region of 11.4% ...
Leigh's Musings
January 4th, 2008
Pay attention to the bond market. Canadian bond yields peaked in mid-2007, breaking a rising trend that begun in mid-2003. As the cracks in the financial system became more pervasive, bond prices began appreciating, a pattern that continues into the New Year.
Monthly Update - November 2007
December 4th, 2007
Five months after the start of faltering credit conditions and after witnessing a growing list of distressed financial institutions, we expect the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve Board will again cut interest rates in December.
Monthly Update - April 2007
May 10th, 2007
With Canadian corporate profits up 20% for Q1 of 2007 over Q1 of 06, and up 7% in the US, and with the acquisition frenzy unabated, the Toronto market rallied another 10 percent in the last six months. The BMO Small Cap ...
Monthly Update - February 2007
March 8th, 2007
With the exception of the Global Equity Fund, unit values advanced into the end of February. On a per unit basis, the Global Fund dropped 2.2% from December, something we would prefer not to display at start-up. A glance at the Total ...
Monthly Update - January 2007
February 13th, 2007
In January and early February, confidence in the economy and profits buoyed share prices. The GNP in the US in the fourth quarter was strong.
Given same economic growth, ongoing strength in employment and consumer prices along with no concessions as yet ...