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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.
Technorati Profile
Stock Quotes
For more details on the choice and meaning of the symbols click here.
| S&P/TSX |
11280.64 |
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| Dow Jones |
1313.84 |
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| S&P500 |
0.00 |
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| XIU.TO |
16.11 |
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| IVV |
132.00 |
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| EFA |
48.93 |
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| EEM |
37.99 |
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| XBB.TO |
31.26 |
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| AGG |
111.035 |
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| XSB.TO |
28.92 |
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| XRE.TO |
16.53 |
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| RWR |
69.44 |
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| RWX |
34.85 |
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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).We are also on Twitter under DIYInvestor .
NEW: On JANUARY 1ST WE LAUNCHED OUR NEW SITE: INFOINVESTDUJOUR.COM . The site contains an electronic calendar called All about Investing. It provides, on every day of the year, information selected from the best texts from our existing site, plus additional, never published, information. It will notify you when North American markets are closed for the day, key Canadian tax dates, anniversaries of people who historically have played important roles in the world of finance, and much more. WE ENCOURAGE ALL MEMBERS TO CONSIDER SIGNING UP TO INFOINVESTDUJOUR.COM, for only $2.19 plus applicable taxes for each period of 30 days.The revenue from the new site should allow us to continue to offer FREE membership to our existing site.
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News accessible to all
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 In the first commentary in this series we looked at two recent published research reports on wine investing which have received much media attention. In the second commentary we looked more closely at when is wine an investment and how wine stacks up using criteria to assess so-called alternative investments. In a third commentary
we listed the many different ways of spending/investing in wine, and some common issues to all of the methods of directly acquiring direct physical ownership of your wine. In this commentary we look at the peculiarities of each of these different ways of acquiring direct physical ownership of your wine. We also look at the legal restrictions on buying and keeping wine in most Canadian provinces, restrictions which makes investing in wine physically held in such provinces difficult if not impossible.
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News accessible to all
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 Our site does not believe investors can regularly, and in the long term, beat the market through stock picking. We also know that many investors still like to roll the dice, and look to broker research reports as an important (often the most important) source of recommendations and research on which they rely to trade in stocks. Recent US regulatory proceedings against one of the largest US broker-dealers represents a unique opportunity to draw back the veil on how brokers may not act in your interest in connection with their research reports, and why relying on those reports may not be a good strategy.
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News accessible to all
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 Dividend
investors prefer to invest in issuers that pay above-average dividends on their
common shares. But where do they go to find information on high dividend yielding
shares paid by companies based in Canada? In the USA? In Europe? Elsewhere
around the world? There are many, many dispersed
sources of such information. In this commentary we introduce you to one free, Dutch-based
source that conveniently provides, in one single location, world-wide
information on top-yielding shares.
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News accessible to all
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 Charles Kirk recently interviewed sport psychologist Doug Hirschhorn, who explained why trading is NOT like sports:
In sports, you are NOT supposed to think, "What if I mess up this shot?" In trading that is called risk management.
In sports, when you miss a shot, you don't lose points. In trading, when you get a trade wrong, you lose money.
In sports, the opponent adjusts to what YOU do. In trading, the market does not know or care about YOU.
In sports, you focus on improving weaknesses. In trading, your strengths are your weaknesses and vice-versa.
In sports, if you get poor results, you need to practice harder, put in more effort.
In trading, effort is not positively correlated to improved performance.
Now for a little entertainment. How are the fabled Montreal Canadiens
doing?
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News accessible to all
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 Every so often another study comes out casting a critical eye on the performance of the Canadian mutual fund industry. The last study by Morningstar
gave Canada a failing grade for mutual fund expense levels. Now Vanguard has published its own study, which finds that Canadian mutual funds have underperformed the indexes. Now, you might say, no surprise, since Vanguard has announced plans to launch its own set of ETF’s in Canada, and has a vested interest in painting the Canadian fund industry in a poor light. But to us the numbers seem so compelling, we think the study is worth a read.Read-on why you should untie your future from the mutual fund industry.
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News accessible to all
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 In the first commentary in this series we looked at two recent published research reports on wine investing which have received much media attention. In the second commentary
we looked more closely at when is wine an investment (as opposed to a consumption tool, a hobby or a cost saving technique), how wine stacks up using criteria to assess so-called alternative investments, and some risks peculiar to wine. In this commentary we list the many different ways of spending/investing in wine. We explain why wine investing is particularly challenging for both do-it-yourself and adviser-assisted investors, where to go for information on wine investing, making your own wine, and some common issues to all of the other methods of directly acquiring physical ownership of your wine. In the final 2 commentaries we will look in detail into some of these different ways of investing, and the impact of restrictions imposed in jurisdictions with liquor monopolies.
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News accessible to all
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 Retirement raises new investing challenges: for instance, how much can I safely withdraw annually from my portfolio, and should I purchase an annuity to create my personal pension plan? Life expectancy is increasing, in itself good news but at the same time complicating these challenges. Ironically, more and more private-sector employers have, at the same time, elected to start offering defined contribution retirement plans and cease offering traditional, defined-benefit plans thereby increasing the responsibility for workers and retirees. To look at the implications, a branch of the US government, the Government accountability Office or GAO, has published a report. This is a rare opportunity for investors to read objective, unbiased information on the challenges of retirement investing, and how to minimize the so-called longevity risk i.e. the risk of outliving their assets. This is Part 2 of a 2 part review of the GAO report;for Part 1, click here .
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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
- we are on Twitter under DIYInvestor
- 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. We are also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DIYinvestor. Our Newsletters typically contain an in-depth commentary on a timely subject. The most recent commentaries are on our home page. Older commentaries can be found in our Archives, where they can be found by scrolling through the headings or by using the Search function.
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