commodity

I’ve often written that conflicts of interest are the greatest risk you face as an investor. This idea seems to make sense to most Inner Circle members, even if they never thought of it that way before. But when I mention it to experienced investment professionals, most react in one of three ways:

1. A blank look, as if I’ve referred to something that they know nothing about, or a sensitive issue they don’t want to talk about;
2. An aggrieved or defensive look, as if I’ve raised a sensitive issue and they expect me to follow up with criticism of something they’ve done;
3. A big smile, as if they know of an outrageous conflict of interest and are eager to share.

Recently I got response #3—a big smile—from a fellow portfolio manager....

Recently I had lunch with a friend who is also a portfolio manager. He asked a couple of today’s most common questions. What do you think of the market? Are you worried about how long the market rise has lasted?

As I’ve written here, I think the ongoing long-term rise—the one that started in spring, 2009—still has life left in it....

Investing in top consumer product stocks can help your portfolio in an economic downturn, especially if they pay sustainable dividends

We based our Successful Investor investing system on fixed aspects of human nature. That’s why some of its key points apply beyond stock selection.

One essential part of our system is that in your stock-picking, you should downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight....

Stock market volatility sometimes appears when least expected. However, volatility as measured by the BetaPro S&P 500 VIX Futures ETF (Toronto symbol HUV), has substantially subsided in the months following a big spike in December 2018. As a result, this ETF, which gains in value when volatility rises or declines, lost 3.2% in July and is now down 50.7% over the past six months.


Meanwhile, the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (Toronto symbol HMMJ) dropped 11.7% in July as the CEO of its top holding, Canopy Growth, was let go and CannTrust, another of its top holdings, violated licensing rules....

Soon after buying a home, many people begin a string of visits to home shows, antique markets, flea markets and so on. They see these all-in-one-place supplier gatherings as a great time-saver. They expect to learn a lot by inspecting purchases close up, comparing prices, and talking to a lot of providers....

What are cyclical stocks? Discover the answer, plus how these types of stocks best fit into your portfolio

We think foreign stocks can safely make up 10% of a conservative investor’s portfolio. One way is through exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with an overseas focus.


The best of those ETFs continue to offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks.


Here’s a look at four international ETFs we see as suitable for new buying and two others we feel you should continue to hold.


ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS ETF $41.77 (New York symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers) is designed to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.


The fund’s geographic breakdown is as follows: China, 31.8%; South Korea, 12.0%; Taiwan, 11.2%; India, 8.6%; Brazil, 7.9%; South Africa, 5.8%; Russia, 3.9%; Thailand, 2.9%; Mexico, 2.4%; Indonesia, 2.1%; Malaysia, 2.1%; and Saudi Arabia, 1.4%.


Its top stocks are Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), 4.9%; Alibaba Group (China: e-commerce), 4.5%; Taiwan Semiconductor (computer chips), 3.8%; Samsung Electronics (South Korea), 3.5%; Naspers (South Africa: media and Internet), 2.0%; China Construction Bank, 1.4%; Ping An Insurance Group (China), 1.2%; China Mobile, 1.0%; Housing Development Finance Corp....

Use these strategies to uncover the top TSX stocks, including undervalued stocks that could boost the value of your portfolio

Politics is important, but if you focus your long-run investment decisions on a multitude of other factors, you should see better returns over time