Monthly Commentaries

“Don’t gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don’t go up, don’t buy it.” …Will Rogers I recently read an article that compared investment marketing to the manufacture of fishing lures. The comparison, so the article goes, is that the […]

“The investor’s chief problem and even his worst enemy is likely to be himself.” …Benjamin Graham There’s an old saw about two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys, how’s the water?” And the two young fish swim […]

“There are two different types of people in the world, those who want to know, and those who want to believe.” …Friedrich Nietzsche Laurus prefers to describe our investments as “emerging blue chip companies” as opposed to the traditional industry term “small cap”. Our deep fundamental investment process uncovers businesses that create long‐term wealth for […]

“The thing I find most interesting about investing is how paradoxical it is: how often the things that seem most obvious—on which everyone agrees—turn out not to be true.” …Howard Marks One of the most misunderstood investment allocations in Canada is Canadian equity. Over the past few years, institutional investors have been reducing their Canadian […]

“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves.” — Peter Lynch A recent blog post by Sam Altman, CEO of Y Combinator, turned the phrase “the days are long but the decades are short”. Now, being admittedly sardonic, Sam is […]

“The speculator’s primary interest lies in anticipating and profiting from market fluctuations. The investor’s primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices.” — Benjamin Graham While we seldom like to make specific market comments, the recent deterioration in stock prices merits a brief observation. At mid‐year, the SP500 Index was 75 […]

“In business, I look for economic castles protected by unbreachable moats.” — Warren Buffett Webster’s dictionary defines a moat as “a deep, wide ditch that is usually filled with water and that goes around the walls of a place (such as a castle) to protect it from being attacked” (emphasis added). Obviously, the wider and […]

“[…] more thoughtful decision-making will lead to better overall results, and more thoughtful decision-making can be encouraged by evaluating decisions on how well they were made rather than on outcome.” — Robert Rubin, Former US Treasury Secretary We were recently sent a comment from a mutual fund company discussing returns for their small cap product. […]

We couldn’t help smiling at the recent Dilbert cartoon, especially given this past month’s 7.2% return. Scott Adams’ sardonic humour has always provided a regular source of chuckles. Being somewhat technologically challenged, I was a particular fan of the strip where the pointy‐haired boss announces the new password policy for the company: “Starting today, all […]

“Confronted with the challenge to distil the secret of sound investment into three words, we venture the motto, Margin of Safety.” — Benjamin Graham While many investors claim to wait for the “fat pitch”, history shows few actually act when the opportunity presents itself. The concept has its roots in baseball; waiting at the plate […]

“Successful investing is anticipating the anticipations of others…” — John Maynard Keynes Unless you’ve spent the last number of weeks cocooned in some far away locale without access to media (for which I would offer my congratulations), the ongoing saga of OPEC oil production and its resulting impact to oil prices has, no doubt, reached […]

“The four most dangerous words in investing are: ‘this time it’s different.’” — Sir John Templeton In his book “The Most Important Thing” Howard Marks opines that there is far too much randomness in the world for the future to be predictable. So, as we gradually pull away from the recent market correction on the […]