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What can we do for you?
- Identify the many Myths in the financial system, including the dream of “beating the market” through individual stock selection.
- Identify the key factors to becoming better do-it-yourself investors AND identify those which are under your control, such as an optimum allocation of your investments across appropriate asset categories.
- Accompany you each step of the way in the saving and investment process- see our User Guide.
- Help self-investors to better control their costs, what Warren Buffett calls the financial system’s friction costs.
- Help you better use your tax-exempt (
 RRSP) account.
- Show you how to minimize your tax-related investment costs.
- Give you access to information to help you better manage a portfolio intended to constitute an important source of retirement income.
- Identify areas where the financial system does not adequately take into account the interests of independent investors.
- Encourage reforms to the regulatory system.
HELP-US
Help us to help you become a better independent investor. Your comments are appreciated and welcomed on our commentaries or on any other aspect of the site- not only what you find but also how it is presented. In addition, we specifically ask for your input at various points throughout our site.
Stock Quotes
For more details on the choice and meaning of the symbols click here.
| S&P/TSX |
8835.73 |
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| Dow Jones |
8424.75 |
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| S&P500 |
859.12 |
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| Dollar |
0.808 |
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| XIU.TO |
13.43 |
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| IVV |
86.25 |
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| EFA |
40.52 |
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| EEM |
21.53 |
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| XBB.TO |
28.44 |
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| AGG |
97.10 |
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| XSB.TO |
28.68 |
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| XRE.TO |
7.95 |
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| RWR |
33.36 |
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| RWX |
24.39 |
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Welcome to our site for the independent investor which was officially launched March 18, 2008. Become a member (it’s free) and enjoy full access to the site + receive on a preferred basis our weekly newsletters.
Our site has been described as one of
the few educational websites that offer the unbiased, clearly written material that busy investors need (The Globe & Mail 30 05 2008) and as a site dedicated to providing individual investors with independent, objective, free advice and information (The Gazette, Montreal 31 03 2008). See In the Media under the tab Media on our home page.
MEMBERS-PLEASE NOTE: Depending on your software and internet provider, it may be necessary for you to add
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to your list of safe contacts in your spam filters. Otherwise, you may not receive our newsletters. Our newsletters notify our members in priority of our commentaries on current events and other topics of interest. If you miss a newsletter, it will eventually be filed on the site at a later date under Information on the home page.
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A new committee to protect self-investors |
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News accessible to all
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 In these difficult markets, a self-directed investor is entitled to
ask who, if anyone, is monitoring the markets to specifically look out for
his or her interests.
If you browse through the sites set up by canadian provincial securities commissions you find little
information prepared specifically for do-it-yourself investors. Yes, the sites
encourage consumers to check if their broker is registered with
the commissions (the bar is really set low to be asking this kind of question) and alerts consumers to be vigilant for cases of possible fraud. But the major questions that an independent investor faces are largely absent from their sites,
for example:
- should small investors consider an index or passive approach to investing since
few investors manage to beat the market by selecting individual securities;
- mutual fund costs in Canada are very high and therefore most
actively managed funds in Canada fail in the long run to beat the
market, after deducting these costs;
- Bank
of Canada rules prevent the direct purchase of bonds of the Canadian government by an
investor who wants to trade without using a broker etc.
In a recent newsletter
we reported that the Canadian regulatory agency IIROC (Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada ) has established a foundation to promote the interests of investors. Although the foundation claims to
represent both institutional and individual investors, a review of the
composition of its board suggests that the interests of the first
are likely to predominate. Let's hope a resonable balance is attained.
We are pleased to report that the Ontario Securities
Commission has recently established a joint committee with
other regulatory agencies to exclusively promote the interests of
individual investors; see OSC 2008 release committee doc.1141. Thecommittee's web site is www.osc.gov.on.ca/jsc . Strangely, the committee's
mandate is not found there; here is the committee's mandate
doc.1140 (thank
you CanadianFinancialDIY ).
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Read more...
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Asset-backed third party commercial paper: some lessons for the future |
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News accessible to members only
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 You may have followed, closely or more likely from a distance, the crisis in asset-backed non-bank commercial paper (ABNBCP) in Canada. The IIROC (the investment industry regulatory organization in Canada), which regulates most securities dealers in Canada, recently published a study examining how this product was sold to investors, and its recommendations to correct for the future observed gaps in terms of investor protection. The vast majority of sales of this product were to institutional investors, but the fact remains that $ 372 million was sold to 2,542 individual investors. Although dealers have repaid many of these clients we encourage you to read this report in order to draw lessons for the future.
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Register to read more...
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Do-it-yourself investors and personal financial advice: Part 2 |
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News accessible to members only
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 Many investors want to take a more-hands on approach to managing their investments, but are reluctant to so. They want continued access to personal advice on investing from time to time, and are often fearful of losing such access should they terminate their existing relationship with a financial advisor. What to do? In this three-part commentary we first looked in Part 1 at the kind of advice do-it-yourself investors need. In this Part 2, we look at the alternative approaches for seeking out that type of advice. In Part 3, we will give you specific online sources to locate providers of financial advice.
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Financial system meltdown: John Bogle makes sense of a black swan event |
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News accessible to members only
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 This year’s market meltdown has been nothing short of breathtaking: what some are calling a once in a lifetime black swan event, to use the term coined by Nicholas Taleb. Much has been written and said about it: who caused it, why did it happen, lessons to be drawn, what should the investor do, what should government do? One voice stands out above all others in making sense of it all: John C. Bogle. John is the founder and former chief executive of the Vanguard Group, the largest, non-profit index mutual fund company in the world. If you want an independent, unbiased, experienced explanation, this is THE place to go. We urge you to listen to this Q&A session with him.
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Register to read more...
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Do-it-yourself investors and personal financial advice: Part 1 |
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News accessible to all
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 Many investors want to take a more-hands on approach to managing their investments, but are reluctant to so. They want continued access to personal advice on investing from time to time, and are often fearful of losing such access should they terminate their existing relationship with a financial advisor. What to do? In this three-part commentary we first look at the kind of advice do-it-yourself investors need, in Part 2 the alternative approaches for seeking out that type of advice, and in Part 3, we give you specific online sources to locate providers of financial advice.
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Read more...
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Do-it-yourself investing: pro’s and con’s |
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News accessible to members only
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 You can invest your money yourself, or hire a third party to invest it for you. In these times of difficult markets, we review the basic principles of do-it-yourself investing. Why do it, and what principles you should follow to minimize your mistakes.
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Register to read more...
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Panic on Wall Street: How should investors react? |
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News accessible to members only
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 In the light of the unprecedented gyrations in the financial markets (we write these lines in September 2008) we decided this week to take a break from our current series of commentaries on longevity risk and examine how investors should react to the current crisis in financial markets.
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Congratulations!
Your efforts have paid off. You have ended up on a site which is focused on delivering investment information, not selling you financial services or products. Our site is not associated with, and accepts no financing, advertising or other financial assistance from:
- Banks
- Insurance companies
- Investment dealers or
- Financial advisors.
OUR MISSION
- Help you become a better independent self investor.
- Be a source of free, objective, independent and unbiased investment information for self-investors.
- Build on our past to earn the trust of Canadian and non-Canadian do-it-yourself investors. Our founder has several years experience with a securities regulatory agency and over a quarter century of experience with two blue chip Canadian securities issuers.
- For more, see Who are we?
Learn more about us
- Take 15 minutes to read the Summary.
- To assess the credibility of our site. It’s the best investment decision you will make today.
- The information on self investing is divided into 44 sections (and counting) which are organized under eleven main headings or topics. Click on Themes at the top of this page for a short summary of the information covered under all of the topics.
- For a list of the sections under any particular theme, click on the name of that theme at the top of this page.
Who should visit our site?
- You are an independent investor looking for investment information focused on the needs of do-it-yourself investors.
- You are a novice in investment matters, but are considering becoming more independent in your investing.
- You trade in reliance on a financial advisor, but wish to better use his services, or perhaps understand the other alternative trading methods.
- Perhaps you see self investing as a retirement project, or are merely curious about the world of investing.
- Perhaps as a result of your professional activities (institutional investor, broker, professor or journalist), you seek access to a non-industry source of objective investment information.
 We intend to regularly circulate by email newsletters to our members. To access our newsletter, click here.
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