Comments on: Friday Free for All!

By: Michael Randallbard

Michael Randallbard — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:30:11 +0000

http://www.321gold.com/editorials/russell/russell…

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: nvgrl

nvgrl — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 18:42:09 +0000

PHN is a reputable fund. Might have to jump "ships". Interesting info. Thanks!

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: Asun

Asun — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:04:18 +0000

Down with mutual funds and high MER. ETF is the way to go. In fact, the short ETF has been a lot of fun the last couple months. You can check out SKF, SRS, FXP on US market.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: bdk

bdk — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:21:31 +0000

Mohican I agree. They have an Overseas Equity fund and a U.S. fund which're pretty good, he could do 80% balanced, 10% overseas and 10% U.S. and then when the Canadian Market hits bottom switch some into the PHN Dividend income fund too. Jay, If you are just starting with one single global fund, take a look a: Mac Cundill Value Fund Some sites worth using for research include: www.morningstar.ca www.globefund.ca www.stockhouse.ca

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: jay

jay — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:10:36 +0000

Mohican, Any advice on "good global funds". -J

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: mohican

mohican — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:02:04 +0000

TD has some good index fund offerings. Their e-series has particularly low fees and they offer pre-constructed portfolios for people at different risk tolerance levels. CIBC also has a low-fee balanced index fund. The PH&N fund is really good. The only issue I see with that fund is the underexposure to global markets but one could shore that up with a couple good global funds.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: bdk

bdk — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 14:15:27 +0000

Mold City, I was doing index funds too, but figured pPillips Hager North are the way to go. They have a Balanced fund which is a Morningstar Fund Pick and has an MER of .88 (versus 2% for comparable funds at RBC).

You need $25,000 to open an account with them, or you can pay a financial planner an extra .5% with $5,000 down.

Here's the opening paragraph from the morningstar.ca article

Low costs and an excellent team of managers make this fund a top pick.

Even with the overabundance of balanced offerings, there are still only a handful of names that we would consider worthy of owning, and PH&N Balanced is definitely one of them. With rock-bottom fees and an excellent management team that attempts to add value with all facets of the port"

http://www.morningstar.ca/globalhome/quicktakes/f…

The market is volatile so a balanced fund with really low fees and a consistent track record could be a good move right now.

There are other Vancouver Brokerages, which are highly rated with lower MER than the bank funds.

Leith Wheeler is another one, and another one that I wouldn't personally use but is very popular is Cannacord.

If you like real estate the Dynamic real estate fund is a good one. It has a 2.58% MER though…..

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: Mold City

Mold City — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:11:01 +0000

A much more alarming statistic is that it is at 1/3 of what it was in 1990. Damn! Is that true? Some of them must have had their networth thrashed in a crash like that. Does Japan have an old age pension to support their older citizens? What are people doing with their RRSP contributions this year? I have a feeling we're going to be in for a rough ride in the markets, so is it a good time to be buying equities or index funds? I'm paying too much for MER on mutual funds and trying to pay closer attention to this stuff, so I started a topic in the forum to ask for ideas on this: http://vancouvercondo.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=...

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: jesse

jesse — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:05:59 +0000

patriotz: details on what 10% down meant was never specified. Listen for what it's worth; inklings of anything negative in the MSM, regardless of the exact number, is maveric IMO.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)

By: patriotz

patriotz — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:53:50 +0000

Sure. Nominal price is simply the price in dollars. Real price is this price adjusted for inflation to some base date. The consumer price index is almost always used for this (real = nominal/CPI). That's just a convention, there is nothing magical about CPI. Analysts (unnamed in the commentary) are apparently muttering of a 10% drop in Canadian prices this year. What price? Median or average? It matters, because BC and Alberta RE is so expensive compared to the rest of the country. A correction to fundamentals in the West could drop the national average a lot all by itself. But a 10% drop in the Canadian median would have to mean a significant drop in the non-bubble areas where most Canadians live.

Current score: 0 (to vote for this comment, please visit the site)