Download this Report Real estate has occupied public consciousness in Canada during the 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2016. It all started with The Globe and Mail publishing an investigative story on suspect property transactions in British Columbia in April 2016, followed by extraordinarily bullish data on house …

Every now and then, investors get an opportunity to earn outsized returns in capital markets. Is Britain’s recent vote to exit from Europe one such opportunity? At the heart of this conundrum is a fundamental question – will Brexit ultimately result in an unravelling of the European Union (“EU”)?  …

On February 20, 2016, David Cameron the newly re-elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom (“UK”) announced a referendum to be held on June 23, 2016, that gave the citizens of UK the opportunity to decide their future within the European Union (“EU”). Against all economic logic, UK voters chose to …

Download this Report Over the last decade, a Canadian business news channel has developed business programming dedicated to hosting stock-market experts on a daily phone-in show. Viewers from across Canada seeking investment counsel, call in seeking expert advice. There is the added possibility of getting some hot investment tips either …

One of the conundrums facing policy makers and savers when planning or discussing retirement savings is to determine the quantum of savings i.e. how much of a nest egg will be enough? Since most savers are looking to plan for something distant in the future, neither the path to investing …

Download this Report “We Do Not Bet on Science, But On Management” Valeant Pharmaceuticals  International Inc. – Annual Report 2011 That Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s (“Valeant” or the “Company”) stock price was bound to implode is evident in the quote from the Company’s 2011 annual report. Needless to say that …

“Growing The Middle Class”, that was the refrain of the first Liberal budget. To that end Liberals reaffirmed personal tax changes announced in December 2015. The budget also disclosed additional measures to benefit middle income families with children, and announced some additional grants for university students. That the government is …

“The Committee expects that economic conditions will evolve in a manner that will warrant only gradual increases in the federal funds rate; the federal funds rate is likely to remain, for some time, below levels that are expected to prevail in the longer run.” With those words of wisdom the …

In 2015, amid plunging oil prices and a strengthening U.S. dollar, the S&P 500 Index delivered a total return of 1.38%. Nonetheless, in 2015, 66.11% of large-cap equity managers, under-performed the S&P 500. The figures are equally unfavorable when viewed over longer-term investment horizons. Over the five-year period ended 2015 …

In the February issue of VITRAKA – citing research from an academic study – we highlighted that active mutual fund managers in Canada were “less active” than universally believed. Using data from the study, we illustrated that Closet Indexing in Canada was double that in the U.S., and that Canadians …

The media, concerned politicians, market commentators and the rest of Canada is anxious about two things at the moment. The first: Canadian real estate – is a hard landing imminent? The second is the sufficiency or a lack thereof, of individual retirement savings. By creating Ontario Retirement Pension Plan (“ORPP”), …