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The objectives of this website are to encourage you to take more responsibility for your financial future, to help you learn how to invest on your own, and hopefully to make at least a modest contribution to achieving your financial goals.
See also: A Primer for Canadian Do-It-Yourself Investors
Comments? Questions?
Financial Webring Forum or 
Bogleheads Forum |
Bogle for BI [Information Management, 26Jun09] "Over the years, I've accumulated some of Bogle's wisdom. Among his maxims...
• We investors as a group get precisely what we don't pay for.
• Performance comes and goes, but costs are forever.
• The stars produced in the mutual fund field are rarely stars; all too often they are comets.
• The first shall be last. And they were.
• The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of the perfect plan."
Discuss on FWF
Is Vanguard Sailing in Uncharted Seas? [WSJ, 13Jun09] "What on earth was Vanguard thinking? That is what investors in Vanguard Group, the nation's largest mutual-fund company by assets under management, have been asking ever since Vanguard emerged as one of the bidders for the iShares family of exchange-traded funds last month... Is Vanguard's management recklessly pursuing market share? I don't think so."
Discuss on FWF
The danger of leveraged ETFs [Ellen Roseman, 12Jun09] "FAIR Canada, a new group that speaks for investors, doesn’t want to see leveraged ETFs sold to the buy and hold crowd. Check out its its investor alert, which is very readable. The advocacy group is asking securities regulators to beef up prospectus disclosure... Now the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada has put out its own warning to investment dealers, as has a U.S. financial regulator."
Discuss on FWF
Capitalism Evolving: Be a Cockroach, Not a Dinosaur [Psi-Fi Blog, 02Jun09] "In the end to avoid being out-evolved you either need to be lucky enough to be a dinosaur during one of the long periods of unchanging market conditions – 1949 to 1969, for instance – or you need to be a cockroach, well adapted to surviving under any circumstances. Just don’t think you’re an indestructible insect when you’re actually a lumbering giant lizard with a brain in your bottom."
Discuss on FWF
If you can't beat 'em, why not try the passive approach? [Scotsman, 01Jun09] "Miller was paid £3.3 million in 2003 as chief investment officer and manager of New Star's Hedge Fund. Thus for New Star's investment clients it was quite an eye-opening declaration when he let it be known that he has been investing his money in Exchange Traded Funds and index trackers for years while – as Alan Dick, head of Glasgow-based independent financial adviser FortyTwo Financial Planning, bluntly put it to me last week – 'earning massive fees and bonuses for under-performing the market with other people's money'."
Discuss on FWF
The Drunkard's Walk [Perimeter Institute, 06May09] "Acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, change, and probability reveal a tremendous amount about our daily lives, and how we misunderstand the significance of everything from a casual conversation to a major financial setback. As a result, successes and failures in life are often attributed to clear and obvious cases, when in actuality they are more profoundly influenced by chance. By showing us the true nature of chance and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives us the tools we need to make more informed decisions." See also a similar CBC podcast that ran on 13May09
Discuss on FWF
Can You Trust Your Financial Advisor? [CBC, 10May09] "Have your investments lost money recently? Many Canadians facing serious financial hits on their life savings are starting to wonder how much they can really trust their financial adviser or broker. We bring you first-hand accounts of how big companies may be taking advantage of investors in small ways - and big ones too. And we debunk some of the myths surrounding those 'trusted people' who are investing your money."
Discuss on FWF
Jack Bogle's Last Crusade? [BusinessWeek, 09Apr09] "Bogle's latest mission may be his most ambitious yet: to persuade regulators to overhaul the U.S. retirement-savings system by simplifying account options, clamping down on fees, and making risk more understandable. It also might be his last. Bogle tells BusinessWeek his body has started to reject his 13-year-old transplanted heart. The attack, which began last summer, has landed him in the hospital on four separate occasions. Not that he's looking for sympathy. 'I'm not introspective about my health, nor do I live in fear of dying,' he says. 'Your life expectancy is not enormous when you're 80.'"
Discuss on FWF
Unintended Consequences of Public Policy 
[EdgePoint, 03Apr09] "The McGuinty government is proposing the harmonization of Ontario’s provincial sales tax with the federal GST. The decision to jam an additional 8% tax on the management expense ratios (MER) of your investment products is shockingly unwise and dangerous." But that's almost nothing compared to the even more shockingly unwise and dangerous effect that high MERs have on your portfolio as explained on FWF 
'It will sell': A tipoff for bad investment products [Globe & Mail, 04Apr09] "My purpose here is to illuminate some of the tradeoffs investors make when they go beyond plain vanilla... I liken structured products to Viagra. The industry is hooked on them because they stimulate sales. They're a specialty product that should be used by few, but are sold to many. And the buyers get instant gratification, but pay for it in the long run."
Discuss on FWF
Greed and Stupidity [NY Times, 02Apr09] "What happened to the global economy? We seemed to be chugging along, enjoying moderate business cycles and unprecedented global growth. All of a sudden, all hell broke loose. There are many theories about what happened, but two general narratives seem to be gaining prominence, which we will call the greed narrative and the stupidity narrative."
Discuss on FWF
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Older Stuff
Other Stuff
Asset Correlation Data for Canadian InvestorsBuying US Mutual Funds and Stocks from Canada
Bylo's contribution to improving Canadian literacy
Can you afford to invest in mutual funds?
Can you find an honest advisor or broker?
ASL Direct offers mutual fund trailer fee rebate
CIBC's special MER rebate offer to index fund clients with large accounts
How Much Can You Safely Withdraw From Your Savings During Retirement?
How To Measure The True Cost Of Holding A Fund
Exchange-Traded Funds and Indexes
Investment Aphorisms
Low-MER No-Load Index Funds Available in Canada
On MERs, Taxes and Partners
Mutual Fund Fee Impact Calculator
updated Performance of Indexed vs Actively-Managed Portfolios for 15 years ending 31Dec07
Real Return Bonds for Canadian Dummies
Rogues' Gallery
The Stromberg Files
Why Diversify?
Random Stuff
Fama Factors Out French: "I Did All The Work"Bylo rebuts Index-fund pros and cons (and con jobs?)
Bylo rebuts Indexing caused "devastating losses"
Bylo rebuts The problem with indexes
Confessions of a Former Mutual Funds Reporter
Bylo rebuts Investment Café
Dear Bylo
On Buy-and-Hold
Top ten reasons NOT to index
Bylo rebuts Index funds have their dark side, too
Seven Investing Principles
Investing with hindsight
What's in the bag?
Plain language risk disclosure
Securities markets revealed
Improbable probabilities
Investing's rule-of-40
What's a billion?
Something to think about
Warren Buffett's Quiz for Investors
Most clients lost with Lynch? Call it the Magellan Myth
Dilbert, Alex and Herman on Investing
More cartoons on: Investing, Mutual Funds, Retirement, Stocks, Finance
Bylo in the News
We did it! They heard us! Finance department news release of 07Sep00Thank you to everyone who spoke up against the proposed tax changes to US funds and ETFs held by Canadians. With your help we made the Finance department listen to ordinary Canadians before they introduced legislation that would have devastated many of our portfolios. See also Revised Draft of Legislative Proposals for the Taxation of NRTs and FIEs and Proposed rules on treatment of FIEs.
new Primer on ETFs: Some help amid the bear market [Globe & Mail, 21Mar09] "bylo.org: A do-it-yourself investing advocate known as Bylo Selhi maintains this site, and the emphasis is on index funds and ETFs. You'll find a helpful list of links to the websites of the Canadian and U.S. companies offering ETFs, as well as to a web page with a complete inventory of ETFs listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. If you want to better understand the indexes that ETFs track, this site has links for them as well."
Seven essential websites for becoming a better investor [Globe & Mail, 29Jul08] "Financial Webring Forum is the online financial-discussion board with the highest level of discourse on investing subjects in Canada, thanks in large part to frequent contributions from knowledgeable participants such as Bylo Selhi (an index-fund advocate), Shakespeare (the author of an online investment primer) and Yielder (a dividend investor). And they don’t mind answering questions."
Index investing: 'Just set it and forget it' [Toronto Star, 19May08] "Index funds are suitable for those who have little money to invest and want to buy small amounts on a regular basis. You can find links to low-cost index funds at www.bylo.org/idxfunds.html... Index investing makes sense for people who don't find finance fascinating... It's the perfect 'set it and forget it' strategy, giving satisfactory results and requiring very little attention, so you can get on with your life."
 No big deal - you don't have to worry about risking your life savings. We do it for you. National Post, 19Feb01 |  National Post, 07May03 |
 Investing web site of the month • March 2002 |
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