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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 |
11918.71 |
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| Dow Jones |
10564.38 |
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| S&P500 |
1140.44 |
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| Dollar |
0.00 |
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| XIU.TO |
17.61 |
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| IVV |
114.79 |
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| EFA |
54.85 |
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| EEM |
41.21 |
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| XBB.TO |
29.58 |
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| AGG |
104.58 |
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| XSB.TO |
29.20 |
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| XRE.TO |
12.16 |
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| RWR |
51.76 |
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| RWX |
35.06 |
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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 http://independentinvestor.info 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. We are also on Twitter under DIYInvestor.
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News accessible to members only
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 Do you trust your financial advisor or portfolio manager? With all the scandals in the financial sector over the past few years, we are entitled to ask whether legislative, regulatory or other corrective measures are necessary. A team of professors from Laval University led by Raymonde Crête has completed the first phase of a major research program on the prevention of misconduct in the areas of financial advice and portfolio management.
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News accessible to all
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 So you've decided to invest in a mutual fund. How will you choose it? The financial industry says ad nauseam that you should consult with your financial advisor. He will probably trot out the many qualities of the manager of the fund he recommends: that he is experienced without being too old, an expert (of course), cautious but not too much, aggressive without being a daredevil, and honest without being naive. You are already salivating at the windfall results that this guru is going to produce just for you. But before signing your check ask yourself whether you (or even your adviser) really have sufficient information on the fund manager to ensure a market-beating performance.
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News accessible to all
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 The Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global is the entity that invests
the funds generated by Norway’s prodigious oil revenues . It is one of the largest investors in the world. Recently three acclaimed financial experts were invited to address the governance of Norges Bank Investment Management (the fund manager). They issued on December 14, 2009 a report entitled Evaluation of Active Management of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global. Why should it be of interest you? Firstly, because in the secretive world of asset management these types of reports are almost always confidential and therefore inaccessible to the public. Secondly, and more importantly, it contains important lessons on the limits of active management for institutional investors but which are even more relevant for the individual investor.
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News accessible to all
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 Dividend investing is a much-spoken about investment approach. Less discussed are what are the best ways to practice it? In this commentary we compare: buying and holding dividend-paying shares directly, investing in mutual funds or exchange-traded funds specialized in dividend investing, or participating (directly or through a broker) in dividend reinvestment plans. We conclude by asking if any of these methods are superior to a classical indexing approach.
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News accessible to members only
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 The Canadian retail investor community enjoys a limited number of ongoing, objective, reliable sources of information on investing. Week-in week-out financial journalist Rob Carrick is one of those sources. We are delighted that he has also found the time to write a book bringing together much of that information for his existing and new readers. Looking for a primer on investing from a Canadian perspective? This book will be of interest to you.
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News accessible to all
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 Dividend investing has many followers. And they can describe numerous advantages of a pro-dividend approach (some of which we skeptically, but hopefully fairly, commented on in our previous commentary in this series).
We now take a look at some of the disadvantages. First and foremost, contrary to an index-based approach, dividend-based investing runs up against the rock of Gibraltar of modern investing: diversification. And in practice this technique starts looking like old fashioned stock-picking, on whose shores so many boats of investors have sunk. And the dividend-focused investor also exposes himself to additional risks which we label as irrational factors, that is to say risk factors that are unrelated to the fundamental profitability of the companies issuing those dividend-paying shares. Interested? Read on.
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News accessible to members only
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The MEDAC (the Quebec-based association for the education and defense of shareholders) held its annual conference January 23, 2010 in Montreal. We were honored to have been invited to participate in a roundtable discussion and to give our views as an observer of financial markets on the recent evolution of shareholders' rights.
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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.
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