As I said yesterday, I was going to spend the next four days at the Toronto Financial Forum at The Toronto Convention Center. The first speaker I heard, Tom Bradley, was the most interesting. He is from a Mutual Fund Company called Steadyhand and it was sponsored by The Money Saver Magazine. The next speaker I heard was Jonathan Chevreau of “Findependence” Day and it was interesting. I next heard a talk on 2009 Equity, Commodity and Currency Market outlook. Next I heard one by Dr. Bart Diliddo of VestorVest Inc. It was boring so I will not talk about it again. Lastly I heard Rich Swope of The Investment Guys site, sponsored by E*Trade and he was interesting.
Tom Bradley first recommended a book called Unconventional Success by David F. Swensen. He said that his Mutual Fund Company concentrated on 4 things. The first thing he said was his company was absolute returns orientated. It did not try to compare their returns with any benchmark. The second thing he stressed was that they concentrated on their best ideas. They do not invest in a lot of stocks, but concentrated a fewer good stocks. They feel unconstrained with their choices and go with value. Their funds also have very low turn over.
Tom Bradley also remarked that we are still in a banking crisis. He feels that debt is still a problem and we have a way to go before we work off the current debt problem. He feels that the economy will be ugly for a while longer and no one knows when the market will go up again. He feels that a lot of capital has been sucked out of the system and this capital is just sitting on the side lines. He ends by quoting Warren Buffet about trying to be fearful when others are greedy and trying to be greedy when others are fearful.
Jonathan Chevreau is probably well known by those who have gone to the Financial Forum before, or who reads the Globe and Mail. He basically talked about his 12 step program to achieve financial independence. This is the day when your sources of income, from such things as investments and business, exceed your income from salaried employment. You can see him at www.financialpost.com/money/wealthyboomer/index.html. Basically, he says we have to learn to spend less than we earn, we must prepare a financial plan for ourselves, pay down our mortgage, get a pension/RRSP plan going, get an emergency fund and use the new Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA). He also feels that the last step is to develop multiple streams of income. These multiple streams could be such income as investment income, Real Estate income, part-time business income, pension income and royalties income.
The talk on 2009 Equity, Commodity and Currency Market outlook I found this interesting. It is not that I invest in commodities and currencies, but Toronto is filled with commodity stocks, so we should be aware of what is happening in this market if we intend to make money in the Toronto Market.
The talk by Rich Swope was also interesting. It was basically, know your market, protect your market and find your opportunities in your market. The protect your market section was having rules, like an 1% rule, where you will try to ensure that you will not lose more than 1% of your portfolio money on one stock. You can find them at www.themarketguys.com/.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website at www.spbrunner.com/stocks.html for a list of the stocks for which I have put up spreadsheets on my web site.
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