“May you live in interesting times” is an English expression popularly misattributed as an ancient Chinese curse. While its interpretation could fall on either side of the “glass half full/half empty” metaphor, historically its interpretation falls on the negative side - a curse - meant as an era of turmoil, tumult, upheaval and strife. Digging deeper historically, its origin is likely in the early 20th Century, not ancient, and from the West, not Asia. Today’s world story-l

Q> So...what’s important for me to know? A> That’s up to you and your individual choice. At minimum, we ask you to read the SUMMARY to know how your money is doing—and that is told by how much your portfolio earned, in both dollars and the rate-of-return . If you are a couple and/or have multiple accounts with us, we report here the overall return. The rate of return data includes your simple return for the past year and, most importantly, your long term compound r

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times….” Thusly we started our editorial in the Spring 2023 issue….quoting the opening lines from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities in 1859. Fast forward to lyrics in 1967 from the Rascals Band: “How can I be sure...in a world that’s constantly changing?” So many people, places and things to worry about. Lastly, our least favourite pithy statement “This time..it’s different!” We frequently have shared with you the grounded wi

Our client portfolios continue to benefit from robust growth in global equity markets, as well as stable returns in our bond portfolios. Over the last 1 1/2 years, our portfolios have seen mostly double-digit returns (ranging from 8.8% to 22%), for equity proportions between 45-65%. Over that period, the equity portion has averaged 18% and the fixed income portion 6%. Over the last five years, portfolios with an asset allocation plan of 40% fixed income and 60% equities have

D espite ongoing global uncertainty, driven by U.S. tariff policies, recession fears, and a relentless cycle of negative media headlines,...

There is no doubt that investor anxiety has become the predominant theme since the ongoing, and constantly changing, series of proposed US tariff policies and opposing court challenges. With this anxiety has come increased volatility in global financial markets. As we have discussed in the past, volatility is both down and up. Portfolio returns have remained strong over the last year across all asset classes, as you will see elsewhere in this issue. While positive returns “ba

Investing Update Foresight had to take a forced “sabbatical” due to the national postal strike, and skip the Winter issue. Since the Summer issue, the equity markets have been buoyant. Rolling annual returns were negative from June 2022 through February 2023. They jumped into healthy returns from June 2023 and have been steadily double-digit from May 2024 to the end of the calendar 2024. The components of portfolio construction- fixed income and equity markets- both experienc

As we look forward through the Fall of 2024 to the prospects for 2025 and beyond, we think it is worthwhile to first look back at where we have come from over the last 5 years. In the summer of 2019, the then-current bull market was over 10 years old and, although we did not know when it would end, we certainly did not expect it to end with a global pandemic in February/March of 2020. Imagine in the summer of 2019 that an investor was given a forecast that in the next 6 to 9

Global equity markets had a very strong end in 2023 and continue to be the major driver of portfolio returns over the first five months of 2024. The following table is a sample of some of our larger equity sector ETF returns YTD and twelve months to May 31st. Exchange Traded Fund returns to May 31/2024 12 months Year to Date BMO Low Volatility Canadian Equity CAD (ZLB) 8.3% 4.5% Wisdomtree US Total Return Dividend USD (DTD) 22.5% 8.1% iShares Japan Fundamental Index CAD (CJP