Steadyhand Blog

Bradley's Brief — Q1 2026

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 10:21:32 PDT

by Tom Bradley

For a professional investor and student of cycles like me, it’s a fascinating time to be alive. Consider what capital markets were chewing through in the first quarter alone.

The fear of AI disruption took hold in February, with the market vigilantes selling first and asking questions later as they rotated through the industry sectors deemed most vulnerable.

As part of the hunt, sentiment shifted violently away from capital light businesses, the market darlings of the last decade, and refocused on industries perceived to be impervious to AI. Software is now a dirty word while the hot new acronym is HALO – heavy asset, low obsolescence.

The world of private assets was in turmoil. More people want out of credit funds than could be accommodated, and private equity managers were stuck holding companies far longer than planned.

Gold continued on a tear until the thing most people hold it for happened. We had a geopolitical crisis and the price went down.

Budgets for data center spending, which has turned into the mother of all capital spending cycles, increased despite a view by many that it was already excessive.

And of course, investors made decisions in the fog of war where the most important market factor was, how long will President Trump be willing to continue?

You get the picture. There’s a lot going on. The war has been blamed for recent stock and bond market declines, but as always, it isn’t quite that simple. The first bombs hitting Iran were clearly a trigger, but markets were already running on fumes. Bond and stock valuations were stretched, risk-taking was extreme (leverage; options trading; AI and bitcoin hype), and uncertainty around trade policy was moving into a second year.

As you’ll see in this report, stocks were down across the board in the first quarter, with the exception of ones related to energy. I expect client returns will vary widely across the industry due to the war, and the rapid shifts between the narratives mentioned above.

Our funds were cautiously positioned to start the year, not because we anticipated a war and energy crisis, but rather because of high valuations and excessive speculation. A larger than normal cash position served the Founders Fund well, as did an on-going focus on profitable companies trading at reasonable multiples.

What hasn’t yet helped is the Founders Fund’s full allocation to high quality bonds. Bonds are usually a safe haven at times like this but returns were flat as worries about inflation pushed interest rates up and overshadowed an increased chance of global recession. Bonds don’t like inflation but thrive during periods of economic weakness.

How do we plan to deal with what’s going on? We will stay well diversified, and recommend being a little more cautious than usual, which means the Founders Fund is conservatively positioned and our retired clients have their spending reserves topped up. And as always, our fund managers and team here at Purpose remain laser-focused on long-term value, no matter how noisy it is around us.

Bonds were supposed to save the day. Here’s why they haven’t – yet

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 07:02:36 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on April 10 2026. It is being republished with permission.

In an article December last year, I wrote about government bonds: “They’ll be times when you wonder why you own them. That is, until they show up to save the day.”

Well, today is one of those times when you have every right to wonder. The world is in turmoil. Stocks have been weak. Your portfolio needs diversifiers to kick in. And so far, bonds have done nothing. Even I am disappointed, as I have them in my Founders Fund.

Before analyzing the letdown, let’s start with some basics.

Why bonds

When you own a bond, you’re lending to a government or corporation. In return for tying up your money and taking the risk that you won’t get paid back, you receive a rate of interest, as measured by the bond’s yield.

There are three components to a bond yield – real yield, inflation adjustment and credit spread. The first two are connected. The yield has to more than offset what you expect inflation to be over the term of the loan so that you get a positive real (after-inflation) yield. In other words, when you get your money back, you’ll have more buying power than when you lent it.

The credit spread, or extra yield, compensates you for the risk that the borrower defaults on the loan.

Credit spreads vary widely, depending on the quality of the issuer. Government of Canada bonds and U.S. Treasuries offer little or no extra yield because they’re strong countries that have the ability to tax.

For corporate bonds, spreads range from small premiums for high-quality issuers such as utilities, banks and mega-tech firms (half to one per cent) to double digit percentages for less established and/or more cyclical borrowers where the chance of default is considerably higher.

When adding the components together, bonds provide steady income and portfolio protection during economic slowdowns or crises.

How much protection

The mix between income and protection, however, varies depending on the quality of the issuer and term of the bond. There’s no free lunch. To get more of one, you get less of the other.

On one end of the spectrum are Government bonds which offer a modest income but plenty of protection. When interest rates fall to stimulate a failing economy, these bonds react immediately.

On this note, I need to review something that confuses many people. When interest rates drop, existing bonds go up in price (and vice versa). Consider a simple example. If you buy a bond that yields 5 per cent and rates subsequently drop to 4 per cent, you’ve got a more valuable piece of paper. The price adjusts up until it too yields 4 per cent, which is the going rate.

How much the price rises depends on the term of the loan. The longer the bond, the more sensitive it is to changes in interest rates and the more protection it provides when rates fall.

If government bonds are at one end of the income-versus-protection trade-off, riskier bonds are at the other. High yield bonds, which woo investors with their annual income, offer substantially more income but provide little or no insurance. They trade more like stocks than government bonds.

Where’s my diversification

Now, back to the letdown. When bonds disappoint at crunch time, it’s usually because they’re too short term and have too much credit risk. They don’t benefit enough from interest rate declines to offset expanding credit spreads.

But that hasn’t been the case this time. Credit spreads on corporate and provincial bonds have increased surprisingly little considering the turmoil. Bond investors appear to be looking beyond the current headlines and assuming the world economy is still on solid footing.

Rather, what has held bond returns back is an increase to the inflation component. The linkage between higher oil prices and inflation expectations is unequivocal.

What next

Right now, there is a tug of war going on in the bond market. Those concerned about inflation are gaining ground, but the question is, will the issues at the other end of the rope win out over time? Will reckless fiscal management and an unstable geopolitical landscape cause an economic slowdown, such that interest rates need to come down substantially to stimulate growth?

The strategies that have worked so far include holding cash, market neutral funds and resource stocks. If the outlook deteriorates further, however, longer-term, high-quality bonds are likely to be an important diversifier. Real yields will come down and more than offset any changes to credit spreads and inflation expectations.

The thin line in markets – and how smart investors navigate it

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 07:26:14 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on March 28 2026. It is being republished with permission.

Canadians have just suffered through two overtime losses in gold medal hockey games. Goal posts, missed breakaways and bad checks all played a part. The line between winning and losing was ridiculously thin.

Investing is like sports in this regard. The line between profit and loss, great and average, and bullish and bearish is razor thin, even though commentaries usually paint everything as being decisive, and having a clear cause and effect.

There’s a big difference between sports and investing, though. For investors, there’s no final buzzer or sudden-death overtime. The game keeps going. Winners and losers are declared at quarter-end and year-end, but it’s meaningless in the context of what you’re trying to achieve. What worked last year and made the numbers look great may be a detractor this year.

Longer-term results are the only thing that matters. A winning stock or fabulous year will contribute but won’t show up on a chart of your 10-, 15- or 20-year returns. The flukes and upsets disappear into the bigger trend.

I’m always careful about bragging (or commiserating) about what happened last quarter or last year, because of how quickly things can change. Here are other examples about how easy it is to go from one side to the other.

Narratives

Short-term stock market moves are all about narratives. For instance, one month the world is running out of copper, and then AI is going to destroy software companies, and this month, it was Jevon’s Paradox making everyone bullish on AI again. And regarding the Middle East war, the energy markets seem to have a different tone almost every day.

Robert Shiller, the American economist and academic, wrote a book called Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events. If you think monthly economic data is unpredictable and prone to revision, narratives around the economy and capital markets are even flakier. They can turn on a dime.

I’ve used this example before. At the beginning of 2025, Apple AAPL-Q (+0.11% increase) was falling behind in the AI race, and the stock was lagging other mega-tech stocks. Later in the year, when concerns about a data centre spending bubble took hold, Apple became the anti-AI stock and regained the lost ground. Apple’s approach and positioning didn’t change, just the narrative.

Fear and greed

I use investor sentiment as a reality check and risk management tool. I follow Warren Buffett’s simple advice, “Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy only when others are fearful.”

Unfortunately, sentiment indicators are bouncing around more and getting harder to read. The difference between greed, when buyers are highly motivated, and fear, when sellers are more urgent, can flip from week to week. All it takes is a few good or bad economic statistics, a couple weeks of strong or weak markets, or a change to an important narrative.

Good and great

It’s said that a great fund manager gets their stock picks right 60 per cent of the time. It’s not as simple as that, but the point is valid. Every portfolio has some stars, some dogs and a bunch of stocks in between. Two funds that have essentially the same holdings can have vastly different short-term returns based on a couple more stars or fewer dogs, or by having different allocations to the same set of stocks.

The hot managers garner most of the attention and appear to be smarter, so knowing how tenuous that brilliance can be, I try to watch and talk to managers on both sides of the industry medians.

Trust the process

Good sports teams like to talk about process. When they’re winning, it’s because they stuck to the process. If a few years go by and a championship doesn’t come, however, the process gets tossed out and they start again. It’s called rebuilding.

You shouldn’t be too quick to rebuild your investment process, though. You’re playing a game where there’s no end and the goalposts keep moving. Perceived success and failure can bounce from one side of the line to the other, influenced by narratives, surprises and extreme behaviours.

The results you care about are measured in decades and are tightly linked to having a plan, being disciplined and consistent, and controlling costs. Along the way, you’ll dance on both sides of a very fine line.

Navigating Uncertainty: Markets and Staying the Course

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 07:19:56 PDT

Our March 3rd post, Boots vs. Bombs, by my colleague, Craig Bassinger, ended with the following conclusion.

“We don’t know how this conflict plays out; it could be short or it could become drawn out. Nobody knows. The longer it goes on, the higher the probability of a risk-off event [weak markets], which may be a buying opportunity given the economic backdrop. As the Chinese proverb goes: “We’ll see.”

More than two weeks later, we still don’t know where this conflict is going, although the human and economic toll is in full view.

While the initial market reaction was muted, as Craig pointed out, markets have been declining more recently. The Founders Fund is down about 5% since the bombs hit Iran on February 28th (down 1% year-to-date). Stocks are down everywhere, with market declines (in local currencies) ranging from 5% in the broad U.S. market to almost 10% for Canadian stocks and 12% for European. Our all-equity Builders fund is down 7.8% since February 28th.

As investors holding Founders will know, we adjust our allocations to the underlying funds based on our assessment of the investment landscape, valuations and investor sentiment. In recent months, we’ve had the risk dialled down with stocks making up about 55% of the total fund (5% below the long-term target). The remainder is invested in bonds (35%) and cash instruments (10%).

We certainly weren’t anticipating a middle east war when we positioned the fund this way. Our caution was based on stretched valuations in both corporate bonds and stocks, and a highly charged investment environment characterized by short-term speculation (i.e. risk taking) and an increasing use of leverage.

Cash and bonds generally protect portfolios when stocks are weak and investors are risk averse, each helping at different times in different ways. During this crisis, the cash has moderated Founders’ declines but concerns about rising inflation based on higher energy prices has caused longer-term interest rates to rise. As a result, bond prices are down and the Income Fund has not yet provided a buffer.

Energy prices and inflation may stay higher than expected for longer, but if the world economy weakens significantly, we continue to believe that the high-quality bonds in the Income Fund will provide a safe haven for Founders.

We anticipate maintaining Founders’ positioning for the time being. If further declines occur and the buying opportunity Craig referenced appears, the fund is in a good position to take advantage.

Why are Canadian bank valuations so low?

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:37:31 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail March 13 2026. It is being republished with permission.

I want to build on a March 6 article on bank valuations by David Berman. Canadian bank stocks have done exceptionally well over the last year and a half. Their businesses have been strong, but the biggest factor has been expanding valuations. As David pointed out, RBC is trading at 14.1 times earnings, well above the long-term average of 11.9.

To most investors, both these numbers seem low, especially compared to companies in other industries that don’t appear to be nearly as good. Indeed, if someone described the attributes of a Canadian bank to me in a blind test, I’d likely say the company should trade at either side of 20 times earnings. What’s not to like?

The Canadian banks have unassailable franchises. They provide a necessary service, have sticky customers and can raise prices with impunity. They’ve become high-octane marketing machines and operate in a government-supported oligopoly characterized more by co-opetition than competition. And for income-oriented investors, they provide healthy and growing dividends.

So why do these powerhouses trade at such low multiples?

Risk and leverage

First and foremost, banks are highly levered. The amount of money they lend out is many multiples of their common equity. Small errors, while unlikely, can turn into huge loses.

Unlikely, but it can happen, as Hugh Brown, one of Canada’s best bank analysts, pointed out in a 2011 exit interview. “In 1982, Third World debt collapsed. The Big Five Canadian banks had 2.5 times their equity invested in Third World loans, and those loans plunged to 50 cents on the dollar. On a mark-to-market basis, the banks were insolvent.”

Back then, banks weren’t required to market down distressed loans and were able to work their way out of the hole in the years that followed.

Citigroup, the global financial services giant, wasn’t so lucky. Shareholders were severely diluted during the 2008 financial crisis and two decades later, the stock trades 80-per-cent below its 2007 high.

Banks report their results in great detail but there’s little transparency around the most important risk, loan losses.

Structural mismatch

Customer deposits are a wonderful source of funding, but banks must manage a liquidity mismatch. The money coming in from individuals and companies (bank accounts; GICs) is plentiful and cheap (low or no interest cost) but can be withdrawn at any time. On the other hand, investments made with the deposits (loans and mortgages) aren’t so easily liquidated.

Because of the leverage and mismatch, banks must maintain depositor and investor confidence in their lending practices and financial management. A crisis of confidence like the one Silicon Valley Bank suffered three years ago can have a dramatic effect.

Economic and market sensitivity

Banks’ fortunes are closely linked to the strength of the Canadian economy. If borrowers are losing their jobs and can’t make their payments, and the collateral is not easily sold, as is the case with real estate today, banks will feel it.

The good news is they’re more diversified today than they were decades ago, but wealth management and capital markets have their own sensitivity to the stock market.

The next wave of growth

Canadian banks have done an amazing job of expanding into new business areas, including brokerage, wealth management and insurance, and increasing their share of Canadian wallets. The question is: Where will the growth come from?

On the asset side of customer balance sheets, banks already have a huge share of savings and investments. On the liability side, they’ve been so successful that borrowers are running out of room to add more debt.

The Canadian banks could find themselves in the same box as the multinational consumer product companies that have run into a growth wall. After squeezing every bit of revenue and profit out of their customers, leading companies like Nestlé, Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Pepsi and Coca-Cola have little room to raise prices and are struggling to grow.

Foreign expansion is a potential growth area although the historical record is mixed. There have been plenty of missteps (and write-offs), and the successes are far less profitable than the home market.

A core holding

Canadian banks are great businesses and should be core holdings in your portfolio. Like any investment, paying a reasonable price is important so you want to add when you can’t believe how cheap they are (and yields are high) and hold off when analysts are rationalizing why they should trade at a market multiple. Remember, there are structural reasons why banks trade at low valuations.

The fake website you didn't know you almost visited

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 06:01:40 PST

Picture this: it's a regular Tuesday morning. You search for Steadyhand, click the first result, and log in. The page looks right. The logo is there. You enter your username and password without a second thought.

But the site wasn't ours.

That's how these things happen. Not because someone was careless, but because fraudulent websites are built specifically to look like the real thing. Industry regulators have recently flagged a rise in exactly this: fake login pages that closely mimic legitimate investment firms, sometimes appearing at the top of search results through paid ads. You don't need to be doing anything wrong to be caught out.

The good news is that a few simple habits make a real difference.

What to check before you log in

✅ Type the address directly. Always reach us by typing steadyhand.com into your browser, not through a search result or a link in an email or text message.

✅ Use a bookmark. Save our site once and you'll never need to search for it again.

✅ Check the address bar. Look-alike URLs are designed to be easy to miss — an extra word, a slightly different ending. A quick glance before logging in is worth it.

✅ Slow down if something feels off. Close the tab, type the address directly, and start fresh.

Red flags worth knowing

These sites are built to look normal, but sometimes something feels slightly out of place — a font that's not quite right, a layout that's almost familiar, a message creating unexpected urgency ("Your account requires immediate action"). Any request for your password outside of a normal login page is also worth pausing on.

Trust that instinct. If something seems off, it probably is. Close the page and start over.

If you're not sure what just happened

If you've entered your credentials somewhere and aren't certain it was our real site, change your password right away and call us. We'd much rather hear from you and confirm everything is fine than have you stay quiet and wonder.

And to be clear: Steadyhand will never ask for your login credentials by email, phone, or text. If you receive a message asking for that information, don't engage — call us directly.

A shared responsibility

Online security is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. We stay on top of it on our end. These simple steps on yours make a real difference.

As always, if something doesn't feel right, we're just a phone call away.

Questions or concerns? Call us at 1.888.888.3147 or visit steadyhand.com.

Boots vs. Bombs

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 06:21:04 PST

This article is authored by Craig Basinger, Chief Market Strategist at Purpose Investments, on March 3, 2026.

It’s Tuesday morning, and we won’t be rehashing details of the events. There’s a lot of great content out there to put things into perspective from folks who know tons more about waging war, the political dynamics of the region, and/or the states/people involved. Instead, we’re going to talk markets, because we’re portfolio managers, not fighter pilots. My wife knows one who is both, but it’s rare.

Markets managed rather well on Monday. After a weak start for the first trading day since hostilities broke out, North American markets managed to finish in the green. Oil was up, as were safe havens, including gold and the USD. Tuesday looks like another weaker start, with everything down from overseas markets to bonds, gold to North American equities. Rebounding from this one may be an even bigger challenge. The U.S. dollar and oil are just about the only things higher.

Why the Initial Muted Response From Markets?

#1 The conflict is not really a surprise – Tensions had been building over the past few months and weeks, with military assets increasingly moved into the region. Add this to a U.S. administration that appears to want to use its military more, and the surprise would have been if there wasn’t a conflict.

Markets generally move when surprised. Perhaps Iran’s retaliation on some of its neighbours is a bit of a surprise, or a few signs that the conflict is spreading. More U.S. casualties would have been a negative surprise, as would the targeting of energy infrastructure, which is possibly starting to show up now. The magnitude is clearly greater than the brief bombing of nuclear development sites last year or the Iran-Israel missile exchanges of April 2024, but so far, not many surprises.

Obviously, this can change; that’s why they are called ‘surprises.’

#2 A learned response of boots versus bombs – The market remembers, with short-term memory much more dominant than long-term. Putting boots on the ground leads to much longer and more painful market reactions. Dropping bombs can end as quickly as it started.

The following chart shows the past five times Iran has been bombed and the path of oil prices. The turquoise line is the current situation, already off to a bigger start than past episodes. The general trend is for a spike, then oil prices come back down. It’s a very different chart if you go back in time to boots on the ground in the next set of charts, which had often seen a doubling of oil prices.

One reason the energy markets may endure this supply disruption a bit better is the amount of global supply versus demand. A surplus of two million barrels a day certainly makes managing a temporary supply disruption much easier.

Final Thoughts

We don’t know how this conflict plays out; it could be short or it could become drawn out. Nobody knows. The longer it goes on, the higher the probability of a risk-off event, which may be a buying opportunity given the economic backdrop. As the Chinese proverb goes: “We’ll see.”

Sources: Charts are sourced to Bloomberg L. P.

The content of this document is for informational purposes only and is not being provided in the context of an offering of any securities described herein, nor is it a recommendation or solicitation to buy, hold or sell any security. The information is not investment advice, nor is it tailored to the needs or circumstances of any investor. Information contained in this document is not, and under no circumstances is it to be construed as, an offering memorandum, prospectus, advertisement or public offering of securities. No securities commission or similar regulatory authority has reviewed this document, and any representation to the contrary is an offence. Information contained in this document is believed to be accurate and reliable; however, we cannot guarantee that it is complete or current at all times. The information provided is subject to change without notice.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investment funds. Please read the prospectus before investing. If the securities are purchased or sold on a stock exchange, you may pay more or receive less than the current net asset value. Investment funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated. Certain statements in this document are forward-looking. Forward-looking statements (“FLS”) are statements that are predictive in nature, depend on or refer to future events or conditions, or that include words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “could,” “expect,” “anticipate,” intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate” or other similar expressions. Statements that look forward in time or include anything other than historical information are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results, actions or events could differ materially from those set forth in the FLS. FLS are not guarantees of future performance and are, by their nature, based on numerous assumptions. Although the FLS contained in this document are based upon what Purpose Investments and the portfolio manager believe to be reasonable assumptions, Purpose Investments and the portfolio manager cannot assure that actual results will be consistent with these FLS. The reader is cautioned to consider the FLS carefully and not to place undue reliance on the FLS. Unless required by applicable law, it is not undertaken, and specifically disclaimed, that there is any intention or obligation to update or revise FLS, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Dear younger investors: There’s a better way to rebel

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 06:43:58 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on February 27 2026. It is being republished with permission.

This column is aimed at younger readers, and children and grandchildren of older readers, who are sick of hearing about how their parents’ generation built wealth owning homes and riding the stock market (while leaving a huge debt load behind).

Some have rebelled by embracing things parents don’t understand and/or can’t do, such as cryptocurrencies, meme stocks and day trading.

I’m old enough to be a grandparent but do understand these approaches and think there’s a far better way to rebel. It involves using the advantages young investors have – time, cost and product choice – and doing some basic, return-enhancing things that previous generations didn’t fully embrace.

Start earlier

From my observation, too many investors have their “come to Jesus” investing moment in their 50s or early 60s, when retirement is in sight. It’s not too late to get organized, but by getting a plan in place decades earlier and executing on it, you’ll be cruising by that age.

If you establish a routine now, it will last a lifetime. For instance, setting up automatic monthly contributions forces you to save, and takes the emotion out of decision-making.

When I look at statements of our long-standing clients, what screams out at me is the power of compounding. A portfolio that averages a 7- to 9-per-cent annual return doubles every 8 to 10 years. Even small amounts invested today will have huge impact decades from now.

Take risk

My generation has a love affair with GICs and other products that offer minimal volatility. Stable returns make sense for older investors, but your time frame is much longer. You’re not hurt by short-term market declines, and can focus on owning assets that will grow over time. For your TFSA and RRSPs, that means a diversified portfolio of stocks.

Stay steady

For older generations, return expectations go up and down like a yo-yo. After a good year or two, they expect double-digit returns until retirement. After a bad one, they’re never going to meet their goals.

You can do better. The reality is, long-term returns don’t change much after either type of market. Over your 30- to 50-year investing career, you’ll experience four to seven bull markets and the same number of bear markets. You can expect the bears to be brief and jolting, and the bulls to be long and rewarding. This combination adds up to unbelievably good odds.

Stay invested

Your predecessors ask about one thing almost as much as the weather – what is the market going to do? The question appears innocent enough, and is often a good conversation starter, but it leads to poor behaviour.

The problem is, it comes from a desire to avoid something that’s impossible to predict, a bad market. It causes investors to abandon those great odds I mentioned in pursuit of something that’s unattainable.

Bear markets, as painful as they are, are the price of admission for bull markets. Learning to embrace them may be the most important skill you’ll develop. Remember, lower prices are a blessing when you’re accumulating assets.

Find a fee fit

In the popular Questrade ads, breaking from your parents equates to doing it yourself. For certain, buying stocks and ETFs online is a great way to keep costs down, but only if you have the time, ability and confidence.

If you need advice and reassurance, you’ll have to pay for it. Unlike your parents, however, don’t be afraid to ask how much it costs and what you’re entitled to receive. You don’t want to pay for what you’re not getting or for the same thing twice (i.e. two full-service advisers).

Slay it

One disadvantage you have, which is controllable if you choose, is the amount of distraction around you. Today, there is more than ever. Hyperbolic newsfeeds and social media, a fire hose of notifications, and day-trading colleagues. They all talk about short-term, non-urgent, rapidly changing, distracting stuff.

This is where you can really rebel. Instead of getting caught up in the next interest-rate cut, political hype, or heaven forbid, what the market is going to do, stay laser-focused on the prize. What are you going to do to generate long-term investment returns? More specifically, how are you going to save, what you’re going to own, how much you’re going to pay, and what information are you going to focus on?

Cryptocurrencies, meme stocks and day trading may be part of your success, but only a part. The habits and routine you establish early on will pay far bigger dividends.

Living out of multiple closets (And pretending it’s fine)

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 06:45:32 PST

Let's try a thought experiment.

Imagine you stored your clothes in four different closets.

One at home. One at your office. One at your parents' house. And one in a storage locker across town that you visit maybe twice a year.

Would that work? Technically, yes. Would it be super frustrating? You bet.

You'd spend half your life wondering where you put your good jacket. You'd buy duplicates of things you already own because you forgot you had them. And every time you needed to get dressed for something important, you'd have to mentally map out which closet had what.

Now here's the uncomfortable part: that's how a lot of people manage their money.

An RRSP from a job you left in 2015. A TFSA at the bank that you opened because they gave you a free tote bag. An investment account with an advisor you haven't spoken to in three years. Maybe a GIC that auto-renewed last December and you didn't even notice.

Each one made sense at the time. But together? It's chaos pretending to be a system.

And just like the closet situation, you don't realize how counterproductive it is until you need to make a decision. Then you're logging into four different accounts (password reset, password reset, security question you definitely made up and can't remember), trying to figure out what you actually own and whether any of it makes sense anymore.

Consolidation isn't about being tidy. It's about not making your life harder than it needs to be.

When you bring your scattered accounts to Steadyhand, something shifts. Questions get clearer. Decisions get simpler. And when you call us, you talk to an actual person who knows your situation—not a call center three provinces away reading from a script.

The 1% Match Promotion is designed to remove the friction that keeps people living out of multiple financial closets. We'll reimburse your transfer fees up to $150 + taxes, do most of the paperwork, and help you finally get everything in one place.

Once that's done? You'll wonder why you waited so long.

(Spoiler: it's because moving accounts sounded tougher than it is. We get it. That's why we handle it for you.)

Register for the 1% Match Promotion

How to bring private assets to individual investors? Carefully

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 07:44:32 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on February 13 2026. It is being republished with permission.

The Ontario Securities Commission is attempting to do something that’s harder than finding ice cream without calories or building a great relationship without compromise. It’s exploring how best to bring private assets to individual investors.

Before I explain the challenge, some background.

Go private, young man

Funds investing in private assets offer the potential for higher returns if investors are willing to make a long-term commitment. It’s known as an illiquidity premium.

As a recent article in the Report on Business pointed out, there’s pressure on the Ontario Securities Commission to approve this new category of funds for broader distribution because private markets are now a large part of the investment landscape. Companies are staying private longer and growing to be very large, while the number of publicly traded companies is in decline.

The pressure is coming from both industry and government. Managers of private equity and debt, along with infrastructure and real estate, desperately want access to a big, untapped market, individual investors, and the federal government wants to see Canadians provide more long-term capital to build infrastructure and support innovation.

Clink, clink, clunk

It all sounds good but there’s a giant elephant in the room – the liquidity mismatch. There’s no way around it. Putting assets that are not easily tradable in funds that investors can move in and out of is a huge mismatch.

Investing in private assets requires long-term capital that allows fund managers to buy unique assets, fix them up, scale them and then sell them opportunistically. They need to know the capital will be there while doing that.

Without that assurance, managers are forced to water down their process – keep more cash in reserve; use less leverage; forego opportunities that will take years to play out; and at times, be forced to sell when they’d rather be buying.

In private funds that offer redemptions, everything works well when markets are good and more money is coming in than going out. But if the worm turns and investors are queueing up to redeem, however, the cash reserves suddenly look too small, and investment strategies go out the window. Like good publicly-traded companies, private funds can get through tough times and come out the other side even stronger, but not if the recovery time is cut short.

Imperfect solutions

The OSC is looking for an unattainable balance that requires fund managers to offer more client-friendly products and buyers to understand what they’re getting into. It’s unattainable because if they put too much emphasis on constraining managers, investors will get a watered-down product that has little hope of meeting its promise. It’s already hard enough, and costly enough, to generate extra returns, without the challenge of uncertain capital, restrictions on leverage and diversification, and the additional cost of compensating advisers.

In my view, the compromises should mostly be on the client side, these ways:

Make it harder. Buying a private fund shouldn’t be as easy as an ETF or mutual fund. There needs to be symmetry between buying and selling. If it takes months or years to get out, after notice periods and redemption limits, buying should also have extra steps that signal what’s ahead. That’s certainly been my experience with private investments. The paperwork and lawyers are painful, which always prompts me to ask, is this worth it?
Restrict liquidity. The OSC shouldn’t assume that investors need monthly liquidity. Indeed, illiquidity should be positioned as a benefit, not a detriment. After all, it’s an illiquidity premium, not discount. If investors want the returns, they have to give up something. Certainly, if I’m buying, I want to know that my fellow investors are in for the long haul. Otherwise, I have no interest.
Clearly state the consequences. Institutions have a safety value. They can sell their private holdings to other investors in the secondary market at a discount to net asset value. Individual investors should also be penalized for changing their mind. Perhaps, something like this: If they want out in 30 days, the price is discounted by 20 per cent, with the foregone value staying in the fund to compensate the remaining unitholders. After one, two or three years, the discount goes to 10 per cent. And so on – the shorter the notice period, the larger the discount. Like GICs, investors can get their money back any time, but there are consequences.

If investors want to access private assets and earn an illiquidity premium, they need to be the ones to compromise. These funds belong in a different bucket than their bonds, stocks, ETFs and mutual funds. For individual investors, it should be labelled: “Don’t touch.”

Job Opportunity: Investor Specialist (Vancouver or Toronto)

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 06:38:15 PST

Word is getting out that there’s a real benefit to having a steady hand on your portfolio! We serve a growing base of clients across Canada and are continuing to expand following our integration with Purpose and our shared commitment to deliver thoughtful, long-term investment guidance.

We’re excited to share that we are currently hiring an Investor Specialist in our Vancouver or Toronto office.

The successful candidate will play a key role in building and maintaining strong client relationships, providing ongoing investment guidance, and supporting clients with portfolio construction, asset mix decisions, and portfolio monitoring as clients’ goals evolve. Working closely with our internal teams, the Investor Specialist will also connect with new investors and support referrals, helping ensure clients continue to receive consistent, personal advice as our client community grows.

If this opportunity sounds like a good fit for you, or someone in your network, we encourage you to take a closer look. Full details are available here. Interested candidates can apply through Dayforce by submitting a resume and cover letter. While we thank all candidates for their interest, only selected individuals will be contacted for follow-up.

Steadyhand tax documents: All you need to know

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 06:10:31 PST

To help with your tax filing this year, here is a list of the documents Steadyhand clients will receive based on the type of account(s) held, along with a brief explanation of their purpose.

Please note: All documents are now provided electronically via our client portal, rather than by mail. This allows us to deliver them to you faster, more efficiently, and securely.

Non-Registered Investment Accounts

T3 Slip

If you hold a non-registered investment account (an investment account other than a RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, or FHSA), we send you a T3 slip for each Steadyhand fund you hold. T3 slips show realized capital gains, dividend income (and any corresponding dividend tax credit, if applicable), and other investment income that you must report on your tax return. Timeline: These slips will be uploaded to our client portal the week of February 16.

T5008

T3 slips do not include any capital gains (or losses) that you may have incurred from selling or switching units of Steadyhand funds in your non-registered account. If you made such a transaction(s), we send you a T5008 slip for each applicable Steadyhand fund. Timeline: These slips will be uploaded to our client portal the week of February 16.

RRSPs

Contribution Receipt

If you made a contribution(s) to your RRSP between March 4, 2025, and December 31, 2025, we provide you with an RRSP Contribution Receipt for the total amount of contributions you made over this period. Timeline: These slips were uploaded to our client portal in late January.

If you made a contribution (or plan to make one) between January 1, 2026, and March 2, 2026, we send you a separate receipt for any contributions made in the first 60 days of the year (this amount can be applied to your 2025 tax return, or to a future year if you choose). Timeline: These ‘first 60 days’ receipts will be uploaded to our client portal around mid-March.

T4RSP

If you made a withdrawal from your RRSP in 2025, we send you a T4RSP slip. This slip shows the amount of any withdrawal(s) you made and any withholding tax remitted to Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) on your behalf. Timeline: These slips were uploaded to our client portal in late January.

RRIFs

T4RIF

If you hold a RRIF, we send you a T4RIF slip. This slip shows the amount of your withdrawals (including your minimum payment and any additional withdrawals) and any withholding tax remitted to CRA on your behalf. Timeline: These slips were uploaded to our client portal in late January.

FHSAs

T4FHSA

If you hold a FHSA, we send you a T4FHSA slip. Timeline: These slips were uploaded to our client portal in late January.

TFSAs

If you hold a TFSA, you do not receive any tax slips from us. These accounts are exempt from tax, and any contributions/withdrawals do not generate any tax-related documents. However, be sure to adhere to the maximum contribution limits for these accounts and the rules relating to re-contributions if you do make a withdrawal.

If you can’t find a slip/receipt you think you should have, or if you have any questions about a specific document, please contact us at 1-888-888-3147 from 7am - 5pm PT Monday to Friday.

2025 Surprised Everyone — Here’s What We’re Doing for 2026

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 06:39:49 PST

As we look back on 2025, Tom, Salman, and Lori share their reflections on a year that turned out to be stronger than expected. In this short year‑end video, Tom provides an update on our integration with Purpose, Salman walks through market results and recent portfolio moves, and Lori highlights the real‑life decisions that you (our clients) made that helped keep their plans on track.

If you’re interested in what drove returns this year, how we’re positioned for 2026, or simply want a steady perspective on navigating uncertainty, we hope you enjoy the conversation.

And if you’re thinking about consolidating your investments, don’t forget we’re currently offering a 1% match on eligible asset transfers until May 31, 2026—a simple way to give your portfolio an immediate boost. Learn more here.

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The quiet cost of scattered accounts (Or: How did I end up with four places to log into?)

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 06:45:12 PST

Most investors don't set out to make their finances complicated.

It just happens.

You start your career and your employer sets you up with an RRSP. Great. A few years later you switch jobs, and that RRSP just... stays there. Because dealing with moving it seems like a hassle, and also, how’s it even doing? You're not sure. You'll check later.

Then at some point you open a TFSA at your bank because the person at the counter was very enthusiastic about it and you were there anyway. Later, you work with an advisor for a while. That relationship doesn't quite work out, so you move on—but the account stays where it is because, again, moving it sounds like too much time and too much frustration.

None of these decisions are wrong. They all make sense at the time.

But ten years later, you've got investments in four different places, three different passwords you can never remember, and a creeping sense that you should probably pay more attention to what you own than you currently do.

Welcome to portfolio fragmentation. It's extremely common and quietly expensive.

When accounts are scattered, basic questions become surprisingly hard to answer:

How much risk am I actually taking? (No idea—I would need to log into three places and add it up manually.)

Am I diversified, or do I just own the same stuff in different accounts? (Probably both?)

How much am I paying in fees? (Let's not think about that right now.)

Are these accounts working together? (They're definitely not working against each other. Probably.)

Here's the thing: scattered accounts don't feel like a problem until you try to make a decision. Then suddenly you're squinting at four different statements, trying to figure out what you actually own, and wondering why this is so complicated.

Bringing all your assets together fixes that. Not in a boring, administrative way—in a "oh, I can actually see what's happening now" way.

When everything is in one place, you can see your real asset mix. You know where your risk actually lives. You can make changes without logging into a bunch of different portals and hoping you didn't miss something.

At Steadyhand, we've built our entire approach around this kind of clarity. Our portfolios are designed to work together, not compete. Our fees go down as your assets grow, not up (wild, we know). And our team invests the same way our clients do—we eat our own cooking, as they say.

To make consolidation easier, we're offering a 1% Match Promotion on assets you bring over by May 31, 2026. We'll also reimburse transfer fees up to $150 + taxes and handle most the paperwork, because the paperwork is genuinely the worst part of this.

The 1% bonus is nice. But honestly? The real reward is never having to remember four different passwords again.

Learn More About the 1% Match Promotion

The benefits of diversification — 2025

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 06:50:37 PST

No explanation required.

Note: The above table shows the returns of our five long-standing funds: Steadyhand Savings Fund, Steadyhand Income Fund, Steadyhand Equity Fund, Steadyhand Global Equity Fund, and Steadyhand Small-Cap Equity Fund. The Steadyhand Founders Fund is not included in the table, as it was not launched until 2012. The Global Small-Cap Equity Fund and Builders Fund are also not included, as they were launched in 2019.

Management fees and expenses all may be associated with mutual fund investments. Please read the prospectus before investing. Mutual funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. The indicated rates of return are the historical annual total returns including changes in unit value and reinvestment of all distributions and do not take into account sales, redemption, distribution or optional charges or income taxes payable by any securityholder that would have reduced returns.

Your GIC just renewed (And you probably didn’t notice)

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 10:03:46 PST

Here's something that happens to thousands of Canadians every December 31st:

Their GIC matures. And immediately reinvests. At whatever rate the bank is offering that day.

No phone call. No email. No "hey, just so you know, your 5% GIC from 2022 just renewed at 2.8%."

It just... happens.

Many of us set up a GIC years ago when rates were decent, then completely forget about them. Which is fine when rates are stable or climbing. But when they drop? That automatic renewal quietly locks you into lower returns for another term.

And here's the thing: a maturing GIC is one of the easiest assets to move.

No complicated transfers. No selling positions. No tax complications if it's in an RRSP or TFSA. The money is just sitting there, waiting for instructions.

If you had a GIC mature in late December (or if one is coming up soon), this is actually the perfect time to consolidate your investments. Move that GIC to Steadyhand, put it to work in a real portfolio, and through May 31, 2026, you'll get a 1% bonus on top when you make the switch.

That's $500 on a $50,000 GIC. $1,000 on $100,000. And instead of locking into another term that quietly renews without you noticing, you'll have money that's actively managed and part of your overall investment strategy.

We'll handle most of the paperwork. We'll also reimburse transfer fees up to $150 + taxes. You just need to register first so we know you're coming.

Register for the 1% Match Promotion

If your GIC renewed automatically and you didn't notice, you're not alone. But now you know you have better options.

Five questions every investor should ask themselves right now

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 10:44:20 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on January 30 2026. It is being republished with permission.

January is a good time to tune up your behavioural game. Your investment routine, along with periodic actions and reactions, are key factors in your investment results. They’re even more important than picking a good stock or fund, or keeping fees down.

At a time when there are so many unanswered, or should I say, unanswerable, questions about AI, cryptocurrencies, trade and geopolitics, I’ve got five questions that are eminently answerable. They’re not necessarily easy, but if addressed honestly, will improve your long-term returns.

Does my strategy match my skills, experience and available time?

It’s never been easier and cheaper to be a do-it-yourself investor. You have access to great information on the web and can trade stocks in seconds on your phone. But does going it alone fit with your situation?

You need to make sure you have time to devote to the process, week after week, month after month and year after year. The more periods when you can’t (travel; family; work), the less of your portfolio you should manage yourself.

And then there’s skill and experience. You need to have a good sense of valuation, the most reliable predictor of future returns, and portfolio construction. It also helps if you’ve been through a few cycles and seen different types of markets.

If you don’t have good answers to these questions, keep your trading account small and take time to test your approach over a full market cycle.

What is the objective and time frame for the money?

This is ground zero for any investment decision. Together, these two things determine what risk is for you.

If your time frame is short, risk is stock market volatility. The priority is security and limited downside. If your investment horizon stretches over decades, then stable short-term returns are unimportant. Your biggest risk is not having enough exposure to assets that will grow. In other words, not taking enough risk.

Can I maintain my current risk level through all types of markets?

It’s one thing to have a portfolio that fits with your goals, but theory can be quite different than reality. Can you stick to your strategy in noisy market conditions when emotions are running high? It’s best to assess your staying power ahead of time because your asset mix is only appropriate if it can be sustained.

Look in the mirror and ask how you felt previously when your portfolio was down. What actions did you take during the 2008 financial crisis, during COVID-19 and on Donald Trump’s Liberation Day? Did you stick to your plan in 2025 when FOMO was running rampant? And did you take advantage of weak periods by rebalancing your portfolio?

If you abandon your plan and bail out (or go all-in after being too conservative), there’s a high likelihood it’ll be done for emotional reasons and at the wrong time.

Do my adviser and I know enough about each other?

When you put your financial future in someone else’s hands, you need to know a lot about that person, and vice versa. I’m not talking touchy-feely, just basic stuff that goes beyond your goals. Your investment personality, communication preferences and what’s important in life.

Is your adviser or portfolio manager willing to answer all your questions without reservation? After regaling you about the winners, do they also discuss the losers? And do they openly talk about your long-term results and the fees you’re paying?

If you’re not there yet with this person who will shape your retirement, then fix it. Spend more time together. Clarify how you want to be communicated with, and at what level. Remember, there’s only one boss. You.

Who do I rely on to tell me what the stock market is going to do?

Regular readers will know right away that this is a trick question. If you’re basing your strategy on what the market is going to do next month, you’re behavioural game needs work. Timing the market is one of those unanswerable questions.

Important TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA numbers for 2026

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 12:23:26 PST

As we do every year, it is time to highlight a few important financial numbers for 2026.

TFSA contribution limit: The maximum contribution limit for Tax-Free Savings Accounts this year remains at $7,000. This brings the total lifetime cumulative contribution room to $109,000 for eligible investors. TFSAs offer a valuable tax break that all investors should take advantage of. In the past, we discussed just how powerful a tool these accounts have become in our article, The eye-opening difference of using your TFSA for investing vs. saving.

RRSP contribution limit: The maximum you can add to your Registered Retirement Savings Plan this year is the lesser of 18% of your 2025 earned income or $33,810 (unless of course you have unused contribution room from previous years).

If you’re unsure which account is best for you, our TFSA vs RRSP Calculator can help.

FHSA contribution limit: For those who have opened a First Home Savings Account, you can contribute $8,000 in 2026. If you opened one of these accounts in previous years and didn’t maximize your contribution, you can carry forward up to a maximum of $8,000 unused contribution room to this year. For a refresher on the rules and benefits of these accounts, check out our guide.

As a reminder, you can contribute to your accounts with us by calling 1-888-888-3147 between 7am and 5pm PT, Monday to Friday. We can electronically transfer money from the bank account we have on file to your Steadyhand accounts.

Same fund, slightly different cup

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 08:57:56 PST

We recently made a small behind-the-scenes change to the Purpose Cash Management Fund held inside our Savings Fund.

The good news: nothing changes about your day-to-day experience. Your account works the same way, your expected yield stays the same, and the fund continues to do what it’s always done — provide a reliable place for cash inside a portfolio.

That said, we believe in being transparent, so here’s what changed and why.

What changed?

Previously, the Savings Fund held MNY — the ETF version of the Purpose Cash Management Fund.

We’ve now switched that holding to PFC7901, which is the mutual fund version.

Same underlying strategy. Different wrapper.

Why we made the change

The fund itself hasn’t changed, but the mutual fund structure makes distributions simpler and more predictable.

With the ETF version, distributions occasionally included a small return of capital component—meaning part of the payout was a return of the investor’s own money rather than investment income. That isn’t unusual in the ETF world, but it can add complexity and make payouts a little less straightforward.

With the mutual fund version, distributions are cleaner. They more consistently reflect earned interest, without the occasional return of capital element.

Just to underline the most important point:

✅ Your expected yield hasn’t changed
✅ The management fee hasn’t changed

The easiest way to picture it

Think of it like two cups of the same coffee:

Paper cup = ETF (MNY)
Ceramic mug = mutual fund (PFC7901)

The coffee tastes exactly the same, but the ceramic mug tends to be steadier and less messy.

Bottom line

Here’s what this means for you:

The fund you hold remains the same quality and performance you expect
There is no impact on your account or expected yield
We switched from the ETF to the mutual fund version to keep distributions more consistent and the structure simpler

Transparency matters

We’ll keep sharing updates like this as they come up, even when they’re small, because we believe good investing is built on trust, clarity, and staying informed.

Why those consensus market predictions can be way off the mark

Wed, 21 Jan 2026 06:01:36 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on January 16 2025. It is being republished with permission.

It’s been said that if you hear something 30 times, you’ll think it’s true. I traced the root of this notion to a scientific theory called the Illusory Truth Effect, which refers to the human tendency to believe false information if it’s repeated often enough.

This is an important concept in our world of high-velocity media where we’re increasingly barraged with fake everything. False narratives and images get in the way of truth, help maintain the status quo, entrench the elite, and, in the case of investing, lead to suboptimal decisions.

Here are some things you may have heard 30, or three thousand, times that may not be quite right.

It’s the economy, stupid

Speaking of elite, economists are royalty on Bay and Wall Streets. The assumption is, where the economy is going, the stock market will follow.

Unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that. The relationship is tenuous at best because the stock market is looking farther out than the next three to six months and is influenced by events and trends not contemplated in economic models.

For certain, economic activity affects corporate profits, which are in turn the fuel for stock prices, but market moves in the near-term are driven by changes in valuation – how much investors are willing to pay for those profits – more than their earnings variability.

Interest rates are going down

Like older generations who remember buying a Canada Savings Bond with a 20-per-cent coupon, borrowers today remember how low their mortgage rate was three years ago. Since rates jumped in 2022, the recurring question in conversations and commentaries is, when are rates going back down? It seems like it’s only a matter of time before we return to 2021 levels, they say. But history suggests otherwise.

The level of interest rates today is pretty normal, maybe even below normal. The laws of economics suggest that lenders should expect to have more buying power when the loan is repaid. In other words, they’ll have more than kept up with inflation. Today, if a bank makes a loan, or you lend money via a bond or GIC purchase, the yield is generally above the expected inflation rate (although not by a whole lot). This is normal.

Interest rates may go down because of recession or political expediency, but it shouldn’t be an assumption in your financial plan.

The economy is holding up

I hear it regularly. The U.S. economy is doing amazingly well in face of all the disruption and uncertainty. Perhaps, but it’s useful to liken the economy to a neighbour who seems to be doing well. They just put in a new kitchen, have a fancy SUV in the driveway, and are enjoying beach vacations in the winter and European adventures in the summer. What you don’t know is how they’re doing it and what their balance sheet looks like.

The U.S. government is living it up like that neighbour, but in this case, we know exactly how it’s doing it. The numbers are there for all to see. The federal government is spending 33 per cent more than it’s taking in, which amounts to 5 to 6 per cent of the overall economy.

The next time you hear how miraculous the U.S. economy is, remember that you’re hearing about the top line, not the bottom line. Washington is running up its credit cards and line-of-credit, and certainly not maxing out its TFSAs and RRSPs.

2026 – another good year

We’re coming to the end of the 2026 forecast season. You might have noticed that almost every investment professional seems compelled to make a pronouncement about the year ahead. After you hear 30 forecasts, almost all of which anticipate a positive year, you start to believe there are people who know what’s going to happen.

Regrettably, the 30-times rule fails miserably in this regard. Short-term stock market forecasts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. An overwhelming majority of them project a return of seven to 10 per cent, which seems reasonable given that the long-term average is at the top end of that range, but a more detailed analysis suggests otherwise.

Since 1960, calendar year returns were within 7 to 10 per cent only two times (sourced from our Volatility Meter – 50 per cent Canada stocks/50 per cent global). Two out of 65. Meanwhile, on 20 occasions, annual returns were up over 20 per cent and 14 times were in negative territory.

The investment industry is delusional about market forecasting, as it is about the importance of recent economic data. Don’t go down the same rabbit hole. If you want fiction, read a good book instead.

Bradley's Brief — Q4 2025

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 07:17:34 PST

by Tom Bradley

It’s been a wild and wacky year. As I pointed out in a recent Globe & Mail column, 2025 ended up very differently than it began, and certainly tested our team and clients’ conviction and discipline along the way. It was a test for our fund managers because change came fast and unpredictably, abetted by AI and violent policy shifts. But there was more. What was popular in 2025 were assets that are difficult, maybe even impossible, to value. Things like gold, bitcoin, and AI-related businesses. These aspirational assets, as they’re referred to, are all different in their economic role and potential, but share one common trait – they don’t currently produce any cash flow to put a multiple on, and in some cases, are burning through cash.

The challenge of investing in aspirational assets goes beyond an assessment of usefulness and growth potential. Their prices are untethered by the constraints of historical valuation measures and therefore are driven by the mood of investors, a powerful but fickle force. For firms like ours that are attracted to profits, solid balance sheets and reasonable valuations, 2025 was bewildering.

Another challenge is that the foundation on which the economic and market system sits is deteriorating. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the short-term outlook is strong or weak, government and consumer debt keeps accumulating and is approaching unsustainable levels. Government policy is increasingly erratic and short-term in nature. And global leadership in a growing list of technologies is being ceded to China, including EV’s, renewable power, and perhaps in the not-too-distant future, AI and semiconductors.

These things were on our clients’ minds too, but the bigger tests for many of you were behavioural. While we were advising to stay on plan, you were being barraged with a firehose of negativity and uncertainty, both of which are dragging on. There’s been no resolution on how de-globalization will play out or what AI will mean for employment and human interaction.

FOMO was hard to avoid in 2025. The allure of quick riches fueled by volatile markets, a plethora of new products, and the ease of trading on handheld devices was hard to resist. These temptations made it more difficult to stay diversified, as did the wide dispersion of returns between industry sectors and asset types. And to top it all off, we surprised our clients with the sale of Steadyhand to Purpose Unlimited.

If you’re dazed by 2025, you’re not alone. We are too, but it hasn’t dampened our excitement for what’s ahead in 2026. Last year, our team worked tirelessly to analyze the opportunities our Purpose partnership could bring, and to transition our systems and operations (hopefully behind the scenes). There’s more to do on these fronts, and the benefits will be more obvious this year, particularly with regard to our client-facing technology and advice capabilities. Needless to say, it’s been a crazy year. No matter how 2026 plays out, we’re well positioned to take advantage in terms of both investing and serving clients. Happy New Year to you and yours.

I encourage you to read the rest of our Q4 Report, where we provide more details on our specific strategies and what we've been doing in each of our funds.

Earn 1% when you bring your money over

Fri, 09 Jan 2026 10:34:00 PST

If you've ever felt that your finances are more complicated than they need to be, you're not alone.

Most people accumulate accounts over time—an RRSP from a former employer, a TFSA at the bank, investments spread across different institutions. Each one made sense at the time. But collectively, it becomes hard to see what you actually own or whether your portfolio is working together.

Bringing everything into one place changes that. You see your full asset mix clearly. You understand your diversification. You make decisions with the complete picture—not fragments of it.

To make that easier this year, we're offering a 1% bonus when you transfer (or contribute) $25,000CAD or more (per account) by May 31, 2026.

That's $500 on $50,000. $1,000 on $100,000. $2,500 on $250,000.

We'll also cover your reasonable transfer fees (of up to $150 plus HST), and we handle most of the paperwork. You just need to register first—assets only qualify after you're registered.

Important Information:

All investments with us are in Steadyhand proprietary mutual funds.
The bonus is paid in two installments (July 2026 and February 2027) directly into your account.
You must register for the offer before transferring assets.
This offer is intended to help offset transfer costs and is not a recommendation to consolidate. Please consider whether this is suitable for your financial situation.
Consolidating accounts may have tax implications or affect your investment strategy. We encourage you to speak with a qualified advisor before making changes.

Questions? Call us at 1-888-888-3147.

Steadyhand

P.S. The bonus is paid in two installments (July 2026 and February 2027) directly into your account. Full details on the program page.

A clearer view of your investment costs

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 07:50:03 PST

What’s changing?

Previously, our website and your client statements show the fees you pay for our advice and services, including costs of managing the fund, operational expenses, fund manager costs, and taxes. We refer to this as the One Simple Fee - commonly known as the Management Expense Ratio (MER). Unlike most firms that layer advice fees on top of the MER, we roll it all together so you know exactly what you’ll pay upfront.

Starting this year, it will also include Trading Expense Ratio (TER) – the variable cost of buying and selling securities within the fund, which is incurred as part of trading activities. These costs have always existed and are already reflected in your fund returns, though they were previously reported “under the hood.”

When combined, the MER and TER make up the Fund Expense Ratio (FER).

Under a new regulatory requirement called Total Cost Reporting, all firms must now show these fund-level costs in dollar terms in your statements. We’re big fans of this new disclosure and have advocated the regulators for it. Going forward, you can think of the FER as the One Simple Fee — a complete and transparent view of the total cost of investing in the fund.

To make it clear, your fees are NOT going up — nothing new is being charged. You’ll just see a more complete breakdown, combining both the fees you pay Steadyhand and the fund-level expenses. Think of it like an airline ticket: the total price you paid has always included things like airport fees and fuel charges, even if they weren’t shown separately. Total Cost Reporting is simply itemizing those components so you can see how the total is made up.

Why the change?

The goal is to have the greatest transparency possible. While fund expenses have always been disclosed in documents like Fund Facts, many investors have not seen them clearly summarized in a single place. Regulators believe the new requirement gives a complete view of what it costs to invest, without having to dig through multiple sources. And we agree.

At Steadyhand, we continue to prioritize straightforward communication with investors. We support this change because we believe investors should have an easy-to-understand view of all their fees, without fine print or extra effort. In many ways, it brings the rest of the industry closer to the standard we’ve always upheld.

There’s nothing for you to do — we’ll continue to handle the reporting, and you’ll start to see the updated format on the website in January 2026 and in your 2027 client statements.

As always, our team is here to answer any questions and help you understand your statements. Please call us at 1-888-888-3147.

Investors end 2025 asking: Who thought that would happen?

Tue, 23 Dec 2025 09:02:05 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on December 19 2025. It is being republished with permission.

I write regularly about the disconnect between how predictable investors think markets are and how unpredictable they actually are. If I needed concrete examples to make my case, 2025 was a treasure trove. At the beginning of the year, sentiment on important issues was very different than it is today, with many twists and turns along the way.

In January, who’d have thought that the Alberta government and Ottawa would finish the year in a pipeline love-in. And that our Prime Minister, who was previously a world leader in championing sustainability for global businesses, would push harder for fossil fuels than renewables.

On a lighter note, who’d have thought three of the most dominant athletes in the world would be Canadian: swimmer Summer McIntosh, basketball player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and hockey player Connor McDavid.

Who’d have thought MAGA would end up being MEGA, at least from a stock market point of view. European stocks are up more than 30 per cent in U.S. dollars year-to-date compared with the S&P 500 at 15 per cent. In January, U.S. exceptionalism was the topic du jour. Now the conversation is more about how U.S. policy is fuelling China’s ambitions in renewable energy, semi-conductors, electric vehicles and artificial intelligence.

Who’d have thought the stock market would be so good with such little resolution on trade issues and that Canada would be at the head of the pack. Just as surprising is that the S&P/TSX composite index did so well – up 30 per cent including dividends – without the usual stalwarts. The railroads lagged, dividend mainstays BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. had miserable years, as did perennial favourites Constellation Software Inc., Thomson Reuters Corp. and Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. Banks, gold and natural gas led the charge.

Who’d have thought the market for initial public offerings would fail to ignite against such a perfect backdrop. The pickup in IPOs was modest despite raging animal spirits, high public valuations and the desperate need for private equity funds to sell companies.

In 2025, the consensus on AI moved around more than Patrick Mahomes in the pocket. It turned out to be the tale of two halves, with the focus shifting from a desperate need for more computing power – for training generative AI models – to a focus on the financial viability of data centres and where their power is going to come from. Companies investing aggressively in AI were rewarded in the first half and penalized in the second.

Oracle Corp. was one of those. It initially got a boost when it announced it would spend a king’s ransom on AI infrastructure, but more recently has been hammered for the same reason. CoreWeave Inc., a pure play on the data centre buildout, is down almost 60 per cent from its June high.

Conversely, Apple Inc., the anti-AI company, is finishing a great run after lagging behind hyperscalers Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon Inc. for most of the year. But the best AI-related performer was Alphabet, a company derided for ceding its technological leadership. It stumbled out of the gate but now has the best large language model and is by far the stock market winner.

Crypto’s year also had very different halves. Believers were euphoric about the possibilities when the crypto-friendly U.S. President was sworn in. Prices skyrocketed and bitcoin treasury companies, which never made any economic sense, multiplied like rabbits. Strategy Inc., the archetype for the category, was up more than 50 per cent by mid-July, but with bitcoin now in the red for the year, its stock is down 45 per cent since the beginning of the year.

Leading players in the sports betting epidemic, DraftKings Inc. and Flutter Entertainment Plc (which owns FanDuel), also started the year on a roll. More recently, however, they’ve been a bust as growth shifts to the prediction markets, which operate in the more regulatory-friendly environs of finance. What were the odds of that?

The biggest takeaway from 2025 for investors is to be wary of bold pronouncements and confident forecasts about what’s going to happen in 2026. Many, maybe even most, will prove to be wrong, ill-timed or temporary in nature.

I’ll end with a story from Morgan Housel of the Collaborative Fund. In one of his newsletters in 2022, he referenced the night before the D-Day invasion in 1944 when Franklin Roosevelt asked his wife Eleanor how she felt about not knowing what would happen next. She said, “To be nearly sixty years old and still rebel at uncertainty is ridiculous, isn’t it?”

What’s the best fixed income tool for you? Breaking down the options

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 06:44:47 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on December 5, 2025. It is being republished with permission.

I use the word “diversification”’ a lot. I know it’s basic, even boring, but I’m a believer. For over four decades, I’ve watched clients with diversified portfolios build their wealth and achieve their goals.

But the word’s meaning is more nuanced than I sometimes let on, particularly with regard to fixed income.

When I started in the 1980s, two asset types made up the secure section of portfolios – government bonds and T-bills. Today, there’s a plethora of products with different features and use cases.

All have a fixed obligation to pay interest and repay principal, but they diverge from there. In balanced portfolios, some help smooth returns, some protect against market meltdowns, and some provide no diversification at all.

Let’s look at the fixed-income tool kit through a diversification lens.

Savings vehicles

There are many options in the short-term savings category – T-bills, GICs, money market funds, and cash management products.

These are simple to understand. The yield is clearly stated and the principal holds steady, even in bear markets. In a portfolio, they help smooth out the bumps and provide ready liquidity for spending and rebalancing.

There’s a cost, however, to holding savings products in investment accounts. The yield will generally be below your required return and may not fully offset inflation.

Government bonds

Government bonds are longer-term loans (five to 30 years). Like the savings vehicles above, there’s no risk of default. You know you’ll get your money back.

But government bonds are a more valuable offset to stocks because they’re sensitive to changes in interest rates. Remember, when market yields drop to stimulate a faltering economy or deal with a crisis, the bonds you already own become more valuable. With turbulence all around, government bond prices go up (the longer the term, the more a bond responds to rate changes).

Government bonds are the place to be at crunch time, but there are trade-offs. They provide a steady income, but again, the potential return is less than most portfolios hope to achieve. And the returns can be volatile as interest rates change. They’ll be times when you wonder why you own them. That is, until they show up to save the day.

I’ve talked so far about one source of return – interest rate risk. There’s another useful tool in the kit – credit risk, or the risk that a borrower defaults on a loan.

Investment-grade bonds

Corporate bonds have credit risk and holders are compensated with higher yields versus comparable government bonds. The extra yield is called a spread. How much spread depends on the reliability of the borrower. Investment-grade borrowers such as banks, insurers, telcos and utilities are unlikely to default and therefore have a modest spread – 0.5 to 1.5 percentage points. For bonds issued by less reliable and/or cyclical borrowers, spreads range up from three percentage points.

Spread product is a valuable part of any portfolio but it complicates the diversification picture. When the economy and markets are weak, investors worry about defaults and spreads go up, which negates some of benefit derived from falling interest rates.

High-yield bonds

Riskier “high yield” bond funds have an excellent return record, in some cases rivalling equities.

One of my rules of thumb, however, is that if something has equity-like returns, it also has equity-like risk, and most likely is highly correlated with the stock market. That’s the case here.

High yield generally has shorter terms-to-maturity, which means it benefits less from rate declines. The biggest swing factor is changing sentiment towards defaults. Growing negativity can push spreads from the mid-single-digits to the low- to mid-teens. Yes, five to 10 percentage points.

High yield is great return generator but not a great diversifier. It’s technically in the fixed-income bucket but behaves more like stocks.

Private credit

Private debt funds, which hold loans that aren’t publicly traded, have been the fastest growing asset class over the past decade. As the category matures, the differences between private debt and high-yield bonds are narrowing.

There is one big difference, however – private loans usually have floating rates. The yield goes up and down with interest rates. In a falling rate environment, holders get hit by dropping yields. If spreads are also rising, these funds, like high yield, are not dependable diversifiers.

I’ve left convertible bonds, mortgages and preferred shares for another day. In the meantime, I hope you’ll assess your fixed-income holdings with a more discerning eye. Be clear on their purpose, and ask yourself whether they’re there to enhance your returns or provide downside protection.

Year-end fund distributions

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 06:01:34 PST

The year-end distributions for all our funds, except the Savings Fund, will be declared on Wednesday, December 17th and paid on Thursday, December 18th. The Savings Fund will pay its regularly scheduled monthly distribution on Wednesday, December 31st.

Understanding distributions

As a quick refresher, distributions are how mutual funds transfer accrued interest income, dividend income, and realized capital gains over the year to unitholders. Most investors choose to reinvest these distributions into additional fund units, though you can also opt to receive them in cash.

Impact on fund prices

It’s important to note that immediately following a distribution, the fund’s price drops by an amount equivalent to the payment. However, you will receive additional units in the fund equal in value to the amount of the distribution. The result is that the value of your investment doesn’t change, you just own more units in the fund at a lower unit price.

For example, assume you own 100 units of a fund valued at $10.00/unit (your investment is worth $1,000). If the fund pays a distribution of $0.10/unit, its price will drop to $9.90 following the distribution. However, if you follow the common practice of reinvesting your distributions, you will receive an additional 1.01 units in the fund ($10.00/$9.90), so the value of your investment remains unchanged (101.01 units x $9.90/unit = $1,000).

Estimated distributions

The estimated distributions for our funds (to be declared on December 17th) are as follows:

Income Fund: $0.17/unit (bringing the year-to-date total to $0.38/unit)
Founders Fund: $0.95/unit (bringing the year-to-date total to $1.08/unit)
Builders Fund: $0.69/unit
Equity Fund: $0.79/unit
Global Equity Fund: $0.08/unit
Small-Cap Equity Fund: $1.60/unit
Global Small-Cap Equity Fund: $1.00/unit

Please note that these are estimates only and are subject to change.

Important note for investors

If you are considering purchasing units in the funds in a non-registered (taxable) account, you may want to wait until after the distributions are declared. Fund units purchased on or after December 18th will not receive distributions.

If you have any questions about distributions, please call us at 1-888-888-3147.

The magic of the holidays (And how it mirrors investment success)

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 07:53:15 PST

Each December, roofs shimmer with twinkly LEDs, Mariah Carey emerges from hibernation, and even the most cynical among us feels a flicker of… something. Nostalgia? Wonder? Relief that they can soon put on their out-of-office and ignore work emails? Hard to say.

We tend to think the “magic” of the holidays comes from a single cinematic moment — the perfect snowstorm, the surprise gift, that part in The Family Stone where Diane Keaton looks past Sarah Jessica Parker’s strange throat tick and finally accepts her into the fold.

But the truth (the unglamorous, vaguely anthropological truth) is something a little less Hollywood. The magic comes from repetition, ritual, and the layering of experience over time.

It’s the result of consistency: the same rituals repeated year after year.

The same ornaments pulled from the same box. The same movie watched on the same couch. The same recipe that never quite turns out the same, no matter how sternly you glare at it.

Each repetition layers memory upon memory. The first time you bake cookies with your kids, it’s fun. The tenth time, it’s tradition. The twentieth time, it’s ✨nostalgia. ✨

In short: tradition compounds.

That’s how investing works, too.

There’s no single “magical” moment when wealth appears. No perfectly timed trade. No secret handshake into your cousin’s-barber’s-nephew’s stock-picking syndicate. And probably no meme stock rocket ship ready to whisk you, GameStop-style, to instant fortune.

Wealth is built quietly, through repeated habits: saving regularly, staying invested, and resisting the urge to reinvent everything each season.

Each contribution over the years, each decision not to panic, each moment of patience — it all layers together into something meaningful (and hopefully lucrative).

Holiday magic, and success in investing, both rely on the same principle: steadiness.

Compounding doesn’t care about excitement. It rewards consistency.

Investing success is much less about finding the perfect moment and far more about not interrupting the process. Think of it as the financial equivalent of resisting the urge to open the oven every five minutes while the turkey is baking.

For a guiding principle referenced as predictably as the fruitcake that makes its annual rounds: the Rule of 72 reminds us that at roughly a 6% return, it would take about 12 years for your money to double.

Not because of cleverness or shock or spectacle. Just because time and consistency are quietly powerful.

So as the year winds down, pour the cocoa, build the snowman, and enjoy the Mariah.

Because the best holiday memories — and the best investment results — aren’t flashy. They’re faithful.

Vanessa ☃️

Finally, freedom to move your money

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 07:33:32 PST

Big news out of Ottawa: the federal government has announced that investment account transfer fees are being eliminated. These pesky charges, usually around $150 per account, have long been a thorn in the side of investors who want to move their money. Starting soon, Canadians will be able to switch firms without paying what amounts to a penalty for exercising choice.

This is good news. Great news, actually. But let’s be honest: it’s also a little frustrating that it took government intervention to make this happen. The wealth management industry could have done this years ago. Instead, most firms clung to transfer fees as a way to keep clients from leaving. It wasn’t about covering costs. It was about creating friction.

At Steadyhand, we’ve never charged transfer fees. Ever. In fact, we’ve joked for years that we’re the easiest company to leave. If you don't think we're doing a good job and want to move your money out, we’ll process the paperwork promptly and wish you well. No drama. No penalties. Because that’s how it should be.

So, while the rest of Canada celebrates this change, our clients can smile knowing they’ve had this freedom all along. You’ve always been able to move your money without paying a toll. And if you’re coming to Steadyhand from another firm, we'll continue to reimburse any qualifying transfer fees they charge you (up to $150) until this new rule takes effect. Conditions may change.

The bottom line: competition is good for investors. Removing transfer fees is a step toward a more open, client-friendly industry. We just wish it hadn’t taken a federal budget to get here.

Why private equity funds offer hybrid mediocrity to investors

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 07:47:40 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on November 22 2025. It is being republished with permission.

I used to think that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were the perfect solution. They have enough battery life for city driving and no range anxiety for longer trips.

I thought this until a friend in the auto industry pointed out that hybrids are the worst of both worlds. They’re more expensive than gasoline-powered cars, have a battery that degrades, are heavier so highway mileage is worse, and the costs of tires and brakes are higher. They also still require oil changes and maintenance, like gas-powered cars.

I haven’t totally bought into his argument for cars yet, but for something I know far better, investment products, he’s spot on. There are plenty of products that are hailed as being the best of both worlds but are below average in both (I’ve written previously about index-linked notes).

The analogy is relevant for the new darling on the investment landscape: private assets. As private funds open their doors to individual investors, they may be heading down a similar path to hybrid mediocrity.

Private is where it’s at

First, some background. I’ll focus on private equity, which has served institutional investors and wealthy individuals well for decades.

There are many attractions to private investing. Investors get access to assets not available in public markets, and by sacrificing liquidity, they have the potential to earn higher returns (known as an illiquidity premium). Fund holdings are also valued less frequently, which smooths out returns and provides diversification.

For fund managers, it means guaranteed capital for 10-plus years, which allows them to operate outside of the public eye. They can use more leverage to enhance returns and reduce taxes, and they can make changes without worrying about quarterly earnings calls – disruptive things such as management changes, restructuring, new operating systems or acquisitions.

There’s a lot to like, but do these strengths hold for the private equity funds being offered to smaller investors?

Unlocked and opened up

It’s not yet known whether these retail funds will use less leverage and/or be required to do more quarterly reporting. Almost certainly there will be more regulatory and adviser scrutiny.

The biggest compromise will be liquidity. Funds designed for individual accounts need to be open ended to allow for flows in and out. This is a critical difference considering the huge advantages that go with permanent capital, and it creates a mismatch – illiquid assets in a liquid fund.

Open-ended funds can take precautions to manage the mismatch. To provide liquidity and protect the capital base, they usually hold liquidity sleeves that invest in publicly traded securities that can be sold to raise money. They also have redemption rules (how much, how often and how much notice) to discourage active traders.

When investors start lining up to take money out, however, the game totally changes. Long sleeves suddenly feel like short sleeves, and fund managers are forced to take two unpleasant steps: close or limit redemptions and sell assets at an unfavourable time. I’m sure managers who deal with long redemption queues, such as Romspen, Hazelview Investments and KingSett Capital, would prefer to be buying instead of selling.

Bumpier ride

For open-ended funds to be fair to buyers and sellers, prices must be current. A delayed pricing mechanism doesn’t work. The more often investors can transact, the quicker assets need to be repriced and, thus, the more exposed funds are to the whims of investor sentiment.

I haven’t mentioned cost, but suffice it to say an already expensive endeavour, private investing, will be more expensive. Accessing small investors is costly and comes with more mouths to feed.

Due diligence

Private assets make sense for institutions and wealthy families, but the jury is out on how they’ll work for smaller investors who don’t have the same resources and clout. Undoubtedly open-ended structures water down some of the advantages that institutional investors count on.

If you want to invest privately, pay attention to the structure and who you’re investing with. It pays to be contrarian. Look for funds that offer limited liquidity, at least in the initial years. The tougher the exit, the fewer performance chasers you’ll have with you and the more effective your manager can be. If you want to avoid hybrid mediocrity and capture that valuable illiquidity premium, make sure your investment is truly illiquid.

Skin in the game: Your 2025 co-investment update

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 06:29:22 PST

If there’s one thing investors and investment managers can agree on, it’s this: talk is cheap. What really matters is what you do with your money. That’s what this blog is all about — our annual check-in on how we invest with our clients.

At Steadyhand, we don’t just talk about alignment, we invest it.

Let's be honest: it's common marketing to claim that our interests are aligned with yours, but few firms practice what they preach. Co-investment is one of our clearest signals. It means we’re incentivized to act not just as managers, but as fellow investors, right alongside you.

Here’s what co-investment means to us and why it matters:

Skin in the game. Steadyhanders feel fund performance directly. That’s a powerful motivator to act responsibly, think long-term, and tune out short-term noise.
Credibility and confidence. When you hear us say we believe in this approach, we’re not just theorizing; we’ve backed it with our own dollars.
Shared risk, shared reward. Co-investment reinforces that we succeed when our clients succeed. It’s not a marketing line, it’s a conviction.

That said, as of June 30, 2025, here’s where things stand: 82.3% of our team’s financial assets are invested in our funds. In total, our employees and their families have $63.2 million invested alongside our clients.

So yes—when markets get bumpy and headlines get noisy, our team is right there with you, as fellow investors with the same goals in mind.

To us, co-investment is more than a number or an annual update. It’s a reminder of what sets Steadyhand apart: we’re in this together, following the same principles, navigating the same markets, and sharing the same results.

So, thank you for reading, trusting, and staying invested in every sense of the word.

See you in the next one,

- Patty

New perspectives, the same ‘steady’ commitment

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 08:53:04 PST

Hi, I’m Patty, and I’ve recently joined the team at Steadyhand. If you’re imagining me hunched over spreadsheets, furiously cranking out market updates… think again. My job’s a little different: to keep you in the loop on what’s happening, with honesty, plain language, and a dash of personality.

I was excited to join because the team has a reputation for something rare in finance: clarity. Real, human, no-fluff clarity.

When I first started reading Cutting Through the Noise, I was struck by how different it felt. No corporate clichés. No dense charts. No scare tactics. Just straight-up insights, told with warmth, wit, and a good dose of common sense. That’s the kind of writing I want to help carry forward.

I’ve spent years in content and communications, in industries where words often complicate instead of explain. Joining a firm that believes investors deserve honesty and plain language? Refreshing doesn’t even begin to cover it.

And speaking of clarity, let’s talk about what’s likely on your mind: the recent updates to our Savings Fund.

At Steadyhand, every decision starts with one question: Will this help our investors achieve better outcomes?

The Savings Fund is evolving to serve you even better—offering higher yields and lower fees, while keeping the same personalized advice and simplicity you’ve always valued. With Purpose Investments—a pioneer in cash management—now overseeing the fund, your savings remain secure, flexible, and professionally managed in good hands.

It’s this combination of expert oversight and genuine care for investors that makes Steadyhand what it is.

Here’s to new perspectives—and the same “steady” commitment you’ve always known.

- Patty

Protect Your Retirement from Bad Financial Advice

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 10:44:28 PST

Some financial advice is more profitable for the advisor than it is for you. In this eye-opening Steadyhand Coffee Break, we discussed the uncomfortable truths behind sales quotas, hidden fees, and poor withdrawal strategies that could be draining your retirement savings. Watch now to avoid costly mistakes.

Investors have no excuse for not preparing for a bear market

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:35:38 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on November 7 2025. It is being republished with permission.

There is so much talk about bubbles these days that it’s almost certain not to happen. It may be like the imminent recession of 2023, 2024 and 2025. Right or wrong, there’s one useful thing that comes out of all the speculation. You have no excuse for being unprepared when the bear market arrives.

In that vein, there are things you can do now that will prove invaluable when markets are weak. Indeed, most of the work needs to be done ahead of time.

Preparing doesn’t mean selling everything. That may seem like the obvious solution, but there’s a problem. Timing the market is impossible. The next bear market could start tomorrow or be years away. And even when you get the sale right, you’re faced with an even bigger decision – when to get back in? If you time the first decision poorly and miss a year or two of returns, the second becomes psychologically crippling.

So, what can you do?

Preparation

When not if: The first thing to do is eliminate the word ‘if’ from your vocabulary. Don’t sugar-coat the future by saying “if the market goes down.” This little word limits your ability to mentally prepare. It should be “when my stocks are dropping, when the headlines are ugly, and when it feels like my plan isn’t working.”

In SAM we trust: Rather than sell all your stocks, it’s time to make sure you’re at or near your strategic asset mix (SAM). SAM matches your portfolio to your life circumstances and personality. It’s a best guess at what mix of asset types, industries and geographies will help you reach your goals.

This step seems basic, but after a long run in the stock market characterized by huge disparities in sector returns (gold and technology versus telecom and health care), there’s a good chance your mix has drifted from where you intended. Your bonds, which provide income and crisis protection, are likely below target. Your stocks may be tilted too far toward the U.S. and technology.

A properly diversified portfolio won’t avoid a down market, but is assured of recovering in the years that follow.

Ask hard questions: If a bet on a particular theme or sector doesn’t work out, will it devastate your returns? When your $250,000 portfolio drops to $200,000 (down 20 per cent), will you be able to stick to your SAM? If you can’t confidently say yes, then you have the wrong mix (being fully invested in stocks works brilliantly as long as you have enough time and fortitude to stick with it).

Plan to spend: If you have coming spending needs (travel, kitchen renovation, university tuition), set the money aside in a money-market fund or GIC. This isn’t market timing, just sound financial planning. If the money needs to be there some time in the next three years, it shouldn’t be subject to the vagaries of the stock market.

Similarly, if you’re retired, make sure your spending reserve, the money you set aside to pay yourself, is topped up. You’ll be using it when your portfolio is down and bills need to be paid. We generally suggest maintaining the reserve at two years of spending until it’s called into action.

Automate your routine: Make your process automatic via monthly preauthorized contributions. A PAC is convenient and saves time, but it really helps in bad markets. It takes the emotion out of the process and ensures that you average down.

Implementation

When the ‘when’ comes, most of the work should already be done, but doing the right things when your portfolio is down is hard. Emotions are high and negativity is everywhere. Nothing heroic is required, but it’s still difficult sticking to your process under adverse conditions.

Keep making contributions: This is where the automatic thing comes in.

Rebalance: Use contributions (and withdrawals) to stay close to your SAM. The worst mistake you can make is being fully invested on the way down and partly invested on the way up.

Baby steps: Investing is never about perfection, and pursuing precision during difficult times can be especially debilitating. One way to loosen up is break your moves into smaller steps, none of which will be perfect, but all of which will be rewarding years later. As the saying goes, you make your money in bear markets. You just don’t know it until later.

It’s important to know what you’re going to do in bad times so you can sit back and enjoy the good times.

Portfolio of horrors: Beware these market monsters

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 09:15:20 PDT

Every October, we decorate our homes with skeletons, don elaborate costumes, and pretend we enjoy being scared. But investors — the poor, thrill-seeking creatures that we are — don’t need haunted houses. The markets provide their own jump scares, complete with flickering charts, eerie acronyms, and the occasional ghost of financial decisions past.

If you listen closely, you can hear the whispers: “Buy the dip… diversify later…”

As an avid horror movie buff and a darkly amused observer of investor behaviour, let me use the excuse of the Halloween season to draw mildly clever analogies that guide you through the haunted corridors of modern investing.

The Rise of the Quirky Acronyms

The stock market is many things — a pricing mechanism, a global capital allocator, and, occasionally, a stage for some truly bizarre theatre. It doesn’t just produce returns; it produces stories.

Once upon a time, the powers that be discovered that if you string together a few promising stocks or countries and give them a catchy name, people will believe in them forever.

In the 1960s, it was the “Nifty Fifty,” a set of blue-chip darlings considered so indestructible you could buy them at any price and allegedly never lose. In the 2000s, there were the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China), randomly packaged together for quick consumption as the world’s next growth engines. More recently, FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) evolved into FAANG, then into MAG7, because apparently seven is the new four.

Acronyms are comforting. They make investing sound like a club, or at least a Scrabble game. But they’re often catchier than they are useful.

Decoding them can feel like playing Sudoku where someone’s swapped out a few digits: you convince yourself there’s a pattern, even as the puzzle stops making sense. Investors do the same — holding on to old labels long after they’ve stopped adding up.

Horror movie equivalent: The Cabin in the Woods — you think you know the genre, but it’s really just another elaborate setup.

The Meme Stock Séance

For a brief, caffeinated moment in 2021, the stock market became a grade school sleepover. Everyone stayed up too late, dared each other to buy GameStop, and claimed they could talk to the spirit of Warren Buffett through Reddit.

Valuations rose from the grave, untouched by fundamentals or basic arithmetic. It was democracy meets chaos, with emojis. When it was over, the hangover was brutal. Many learned this ancient investing truth: just because something is trending doesn’t mean it’s immortal.

Fads fade, but strong companies with durable earnings, bought at a reasonable price, tend to serve long-term investors much better.

Horror movie equivalent: The Scream series – self-aware, overhyped, and ultimately a cautionary tale about confusing irony with safety.

The Fog of U.S. Overconcentration

We all know the classic horror trope where the house that looks perfectly normal is actually sitting on cursed ground. Now I’m not saying that’s the U.S. equity market… but let’s dig in.

We know we’re supposed to diversify, still it can be hard to resist the warm glow of American exceptionalism. The S&P 500 has become the financial equivalent of a pumpkin spice latte: comforting, everywhere, but not nearly diversified enough (all I’m saying is don’t sleep on the brown sugar oat milk latte).

Consider this:

The U.S. equity market has never been more top-heavy with largest ten top stocks making up roughly 38% of the total market capitalization.
Canadian investors can’t seem to get enough of U.S. markets, pouring about $59.9 billion CAD into American equities and debt between January and May of this year alone.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world’s markets languish in the basement, covered in cobwebs, mumbling, “Remember us?” But overconcentration is a quiet kind of horror. It doesn’t jump out and scream — it just slowly takes over the plot until there’s nowhere left to hide.

If you want a deep dive on this spooky reality, check out Purpose Associate Portfolio Manager Brett Gustafson’s recent article The Comfort Trap.

Horror movie equivalent: Get Out – you think you’re in a safe, unremarkable environment, until you realize you should have left 20 minutes ago.

How to Keep the Monsters at Bay

If you’re retired, or on the way there, your goals are probably simple: protect your capital, generate a steady income, and sleep at night.

But real nightmare fodder can disguise itself. So, what can a sensible investor do?

Don’t chase ghosts. If an investment comes with a catchy name, it’s already been discovered. Ask what’s underneath the white sheet.
Revisit your portfolio’s cast of characters. If U.S. stocks have quietly taken over the starring role, consider adding some global exposure to balance the plot.
Talk to your advisor before you act. Especially if you find yourself thinking, “Everyone’s doing it.” That’s usually when the lights start flickering.

As the pumpkins glow and the markets twitch, remember: the scariest thing in investing isn’t volatility. It’s forgetting that markets, like haunted houses, are designed to make you panic.

Stay calm. Stay diversified. And if you hear whispering in the dark, it’s probably just the ghost of your GameStop investment.

Happy Halloween. 🎃

PS: You didn’t ask but my all-time favourite horror movie and top spooky recommendation is the 2014 horror/comedy Housebound. Check it out.

Vanessa

Higher yield and lower fees: Here's how we're improving the Steadyhand Savings Fund

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 13:23:32 PDT

Higher Yield and Lower Fees: Here’s How We’re Improving the Steadyhand Savings Fund

When you invest with Steadyhand, your money is managed with one goal in mind – helping you achieve better financial outcomes with confidence and clarity. To keep your cash working harder, we’re evolving the Steadyhand Savings Fund to deliver higher yields and lower fees.

On October 31, 2025, the fund will transition to be managed by Purpose Investments to take advantage of its dedicated money-market expertise, institutional scale, and a process that has produced higher yield while preserving security. With this transition, the One Simple Fee on the fund will be reduced from 0.45% to 0.40% as of January 1, 2026.

This change strengthens how we manage your cash investments by connecting them to one of Canada’s largest, most trusted and innovative cash management platforms.

Who is Purpose Investments?

Founded in 2012, Purpose Investments is a Canadian-owned, independent asset manager focused on delivering innovative, high-quality investment solutions. In 2013, Purpose launched the world’s first high-interest savings ETF, the Purpose High Interest Savings Fund, redefining how investors think about cash management and setting a new standard for yield, stability, and accessibility.

Today, Purpose manages over $27 billion across a broad range of ETFs and mutual funds. The firm is led by entrepreneur Som Seif and operates as part of Purpose Unlimited – a modern financial services platform that leverages technology to empower Canadians. Through its businesses in asset management, advisor services, and small business lending, Purpose is committed to helping investors, entrepreneurs, and advisors grow with confidence and take control of their financial futures.

Why this transition is a good thing for investors

This update is about improving outcomes for Steadyhand clients while keeping the experience simple and familiar. Here’s what it means for you:

✅ Competitive yields – The Steadyhand Savings Fund will hold the Purpose Cash Management Fund (MNY), which has historically outperformed the Steadyhand Savings Fund by 5–15 basis points per year (that’s 0.05% to 0.15%), even after fees, thanks to its active money market strategy.

Funds Comparison

Performance Comparison	YTD	1 Year	2 Years	3 Years	Since Common Inception*
Purpose Cash Management Fund Class A	2.07%	3.05%	3.94%	4.07%	4.05%
Steadyhand Savings Fund	1.97%	2.93%	3.81%	3.97%	3.99%
Difference	0.10%	0.12%	0.13%	0.10%	0.06%

Source: Morningstar Direct as at September 30, 2025
*Common inception: 2022-09-15 to 2025-09-30
Purpose Cash Management Fund 7-day Gross Yield: 2.97%; 7-Day Net Yield: 2.50% as at October 28, 2025
Steadyhand Savings Fund 7-Day Gross Yield: 2.62%; 7-Day Net Yield: 2.17% as at October 28, 2025

✅ No taxable impact – This transition is seamless and won’t result in realized gains.
✅ Professional oversight – Your investments continue to be professionally managed within a trusted, disciplined framework.
✅ Aligned fees – Your fees will fall from 0.45% to 0.40% on January 1, 2026 – no new costs or hidden charges.
✅ Liquidity – You’ll retain full flexibility and access without any disruption to how you manage your account.
✅ Long-term confidence – By integrating with Purpose’s Cash platform, Steadyhand clients benefit from the same innovation, scale, and efficiencies that have made Purpose a leader in the Canadian cash market.

Our shared philosophy

This transition reflects our shared belief that investing should be transparent, accessible, and client-focused. Purpose and Steadyhand both believe in simplicity – managing money without unnecessary complexity – and in putting client interests first.

By working together, we’re building a more unified and resilient platform that will continue to evolve with your needs. The change enhances performance potential while maintaining the same principles of clarity, discipline, and trust that define Steadyhand.

The bottom line: your money stays safe, accessible, and professionally managed – now on a platform designed for the future.

Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investment fund investments. Please read the prospectus and other disclosure documents before investing. Investment funds are not covered by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government deposit insurer. There can be no assurance that the full amount of your investment in a fund will be returned to you. If the securities are purchased or sold on a stock exchange, you may pay more or receive less than the current net asset value. Investment funds are not guaranteed; their values change frequently, and past performance may not be repeated.

Immutable market truths for judging the effects of tariffs, AI and more

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 12:32:42 PST

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on October 24 2025. It is being republished with permission.

Like everyone, I’m trying to sort things out. What impact will tariffs have? How fast and far will AI grow? Can the stock market keep going up? Are we in a bubble? And is there anything I can do to find my bearings?

I don’t have answers to these questions, but there are some immutable market truths that can be useful in processing what’s going on.

Mind the gap

Markets react immediately to policy announcements and socioeconomic events, but there’s a time lag before the true impact is felt. During this gap, the reporting and analysis can be sloppy, speculative and of questionable value. Commentators and analysts jump to conclusions far too quickly in search of a convenient cause and effect.

It’s not useful to hear that last month’s economic data point was on track, or a company is doing well, when huge changes are ahead. Just because the effect isn’t immediate doesn’t mean it isn’t coming.

When navigating the gap, be prepared for big swings in investor sentiment because there’s no concrete data to restrain it. There will also be plenty of other changes, many of which previously seemed improbable. The longer the lag, the wilder the ride and the greater need to be discriminating in what you believe.

Bull market bluster

Indeed, beware of bold pronouncements from investors riding the market wave. Extended bull markets have a way of making people look (and feel) smarter and as such, risks and rich valuations can be confidently rationalized away.

And it’s common to see causality reversed, as Joe Wiggins points out in his Behavioural Investment blog about gold: “Price moves come first and then the narratives to justify it second.”

Action breeds reaction

We’re all guilty of predicting the future using one or two variables and assuming everything else remains constant. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. If you’re assuming big changes in one area (new technology or products), you need to expect equally meaningful shifts elsewhere (inputs, competition, substitutes, customer preferences). No variable in an economic equation is fixed. For every action, there’s a reaction.

Think exponential

It’s human nature to think of growth and change as being linear, but when it comes to social and technological innovation, you need to push yourself to think exponential. The internet, social media and digital mobility didn’t grow x per cent a year, they grew x per cent a month.

When assessing the impact of AI and tokenization (crypto) for instance, it’s fine to be skeptical, but do it with a mindset of explosive growth and ever-expanding applications.

The market can’t keep going up

Well, it can and will. The pattern is consistent on any stock market chart. Prices rise as time accumulates to the right. What we never know is how large the zigs and zags will be. We only know that they can last longer and go further than ever thought possible.

Which leads me to the question of the day: Are we in a bubble? Are stocks out of touch with economic reality and going to fall precipitously when the bubble bursts?

Stock prices may be ahead of themselves but keep in mind that bubbles are not about numbers and math, they’re psychological. Stock valuations are at the high end of their historical range but that, in itself, doesn’t constitute a bubble.

A bubble is when enthusiasm knows no bounds. Certain stocks or assets are deemed to be great at any price. Confidence and optimism reigns supreme. It’s all about the upside, and the fear of missing out is palpable.

Right now, gold, bitcoin and AI are certainly ticking some of these boxes.

Gravitational forces

Numbers may not be as relevant at this stage of the market cycle but are valuable guideposts when looking further out. Current yields are an accurate indicator of prospective fixed-income returns. Price-to-earnings multiples are good at framing future equity returns. And the amount of capital being spent on production capacity shapes the next profit cycle. A dearth of investment leads to shortages and price shocks in subsequent years (that lag again), and overinvestment has the opposite effect. The boom in data centre spending is being carefully watched right now, as should the bust in condo and rental housing construction.

As you sort through today’s changing landscape, recognize what’s driving asset prices in the short term, but don’t lose track of concrete things that will determine returns over the medium to long term, namely profits, dividends and financial strength.

Have entrenched investing views? Try admitting the other side might be right

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 13:17:37 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on October 10, 2025. It is being republished with permission.

In this increasingly polarized world, it can be difficult to have open and probing discussions about important issues. To resist this trend, I’ve latched on to a useful suggestion from Shane Parrish’s Farnam Street newsletter. “The next time someone disagrees with you or criticizes you, just shrug your shoulders and say, ‘you might be right,’ and watch the energy change. If you care about the outcome, focus on what’s right, not who is right. Keep the goal in mind.”

Investing has its entrenched views that, like in politics, get in the way of sound decision making.

That’s because nothing is clearcut about the economy, markets and the relationship between the two. There’s no room for one-sided, all-or-nothing, dare I say, naive views.

With this in mind, let’s explore some topics where both sides are deeply entrenched and neither has a monopoly on the truth.

Real estate versus stocks

Real estate devotees believe it’s the surest road to wealth. You can feel and touch it. It will always have value because people need a place to live. Prices don’t bounce around from day to day, and it holds its value when stocks are down.

Stock investors also point to strong past returns along with ease of implementation. There’s no upkeep required. Buying and selling is easy, cheap and instant. And outcomes are driven by a wide range of economic and geographic factors.

“You may be right.” Both are wealth generating asset classes and belong in long-term portfolios. They’re cyclical and take turns leading and lagging, which makes them good diversifiers for each other (as we’re currently seeing). Given that most investors are homeowners, it makes sense from a diversification perspective to have a reasonable sized portfolio of financial assets before adding income properties to the mix.

ETFs versus mutual funds

Index investing is on a roll. Broad-based ETFs have low fees, are predictable (you get the index return minus a fee), and have been generating better returns than actively managed funds for more than a decade.

It’s been the case that actively managed funds (mutual funds are my proxy here) don’t go up as much in hot markets but generally hold up better in weak markets. They access asset categories and markets where indexing is difficult and/or less effective. And they don’t require trading expertise – investors see their fund’s net asset value (to four decimal points) at the end of each day.

“You may be right.” Both fund structures (they are fund structures, not investment strategies) have their strengths, depending on the portfolio need. Some markets, such as U.S. large-cap stocks, are extremely hard to beat whereas others need more management discretion (small-cap stocks; emerging markets; high-yield and private credit). Also, as ETFs have proliferated and gotten more specialized, the fee advantage over F-class mutual funds (advice charge not included) has narrowed. And in PACs (pre-authorized contribution plans) where transaction sizes are small, mutual funds work better.

It’s not clear why you would limit yourself to one fund structure when you can take advantage of the strengths of both.

Private versus public

Like ETFs, private assets are winning over the hearts of investors and media. Private equity, debt and real estate funds offer the potential for higher returns combined with less volatility due to different pricing mechanisms (prices are struck less frequently and based on different factors).

Public bonds and stocks have also done well. They are cheap, easily accessible and highly liquid, and there’s no paperwork to sign or redemption windows to monitor. They too benefit from the buildup of private capital, which brings more bidders to the table when assets are being sold or whole companies taken over.

“You may be right.” Both approaches give you an ownership interest in a variety of businesses.

A low-cost, broadly diversified stock portfolio is the core of any investment strategy. Private funds can be an excellent complement, especially when they’re invested in companies and industries not available in public markets and they’re truly private. Indeed, the more illiquid the better. To capture an illiquidity premium, you want to ensure that other unitholders in the fund can’t bail out on you at an inopportune time.

There are other factors where views are highly polarized – Canadian stocks versus foreign, top-down research versus bottom up, growth versus value – where there’s useful and fruitful middle ground to tap into.

When it comes to investment dogma, remember Mr. Parrish’s words – keep the goal in mind. It’s what’s right for your portfolio, not what makes you right.

Is the cash bucket strategy right for you?

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 08:30:32 PDT

Too many retirees hold back on their spending out of fear – and it’s taking a toll on their quality of life. Behind the Advice is a new series from Steadyhand that brings you closer to the team working directly with our clients. In this first episode, David Toyne sits down with Evan Parubets, Head of Advisory Services, to unpack one of the most important – and often most stressful – transitions for Canadians: shifting from saving to spending in retirement.

An investor's solution for never-ending uncertainty

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 10:44:41 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on September 26, 2025. It is being republished with permission.

In the fall of 1999, I was a newly minted CEO of a large Canadian asset manager and feeling pretty good about myself. That was until an important client, a prominent Vancouver businessman, called to introduce himself and tell me: "Tom, your firm isn't relevant any more."

He was referring to the fact that we didn't own enough tech stocks such as Cisco, Nokia, Intel and, of course, Nortel. We just didn't get the dot-com era.

Irrelevant? It turned out to be far from the case, but his words hit hard because we weren't keeping up with the high-flying U.S. market at the time.

Today feels a lot like that moment. If you're a portfolio manager and don't own enough tech, specifically AI, it's a struggle to keep up with the market. And you're reminded of it every day by clients and the media.

What do I do in situations like this? The first thing is remind myself of what got me here. If I've learned anything from previous cycles, it's not the time to fold your tent.

During the tech boom, more than a few value managers changed their stripes and shifted to where the action was. After growth stocks rolled over, their franchises never recovered. The renowned hedge fund Tiger Management took a bigger step. It closed its doors in March, 2000, which turned out to be days before the market turned.

What else? Well, I pray for rain (a cooler market would help) and talk to veterans who have been through this before.

I also pull out a trusty old file folder called "KEEP. RE-READ." It contains reports and articles I've saved. While rummaging through it last week, I came across a Peter Bernstein interview in Money magazine from November, 2004. Mr. Bernstein is the author of Against the Gods, a seminal book about financial risk. To quote the article's introduction, he's "patient wisdom personified."

Mr. Bernstein has long since passed, so we don't know what he'd say about today's investment landscape, but his words from 2004 are still useful and timely. I'll curate the interview through a 2025 lens.

When asked what important things he had to unlearn over the years, he said, "That I knew what the future held, I guess. That you can figure this thing out. … I've become increasingly humble about it over time and comfortable with that."

He elaborated, "Anything can happen. There really is such a thing as a 'paradigm shift,' when people's view of the future can change very dramatically and very suddenly. That means that there's never a time when you can be sure that today's market is going to be a replay of a familiar past."

Fortunately, he has a solution for never-ending uncertainty. "That's what diversification is for. It's an explicit recognition of ignorance. And I view diversification not only as a survival strategy but as an aggressive strategy, because the next windfall might come from a surprising place. I want to make sure I'm exposed to it."

Diversification is out of vogue today because markets have been led by a handful of U.S. tech stocks. I'm sure Mr. Bernstein would be frustrated by how long it has taken for those other windfalls to emerge, but they will.

His understanding of investors' behaviour, specifically their inconsistencies, has always stuck with me. He observed that investors generally know their fallibility in calmer markets, but become confident in their views and bolder in their actions at points of extreme panic and euphoria.

I would put today's investors in the latter camp. I listened to a tech-oriented podcast recently in which the panel agreed that investors won't make any money owning the S&P 493 (the S&P 500 minus the Magnificent 7). According to them, AI and crypto are the only places to be.

Mr. Bernstein's most interesting comments tap into the speculative times we find ourselves in, when return is the sole objective and risk is swept under the carpet. "You have to think about the consequences of what you're doing and establish that you can survive them if you're wrong. Consequences are more important than probabilities."

In other words, there's always a chance you'll be wrong. If you are, and your portfolio is devastated, it's not a justifiable strategy.

And when Mr. Bernstein was asked 21 years ago if investors have gotten smarter, he said, "I think my answer would be no. The day-trader phenomenon would not have developed out of a population that was thoughtful about how the stock market works."

A farewell to David Toyne

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 08:11:32 PDT

When David Toyne and I had breakfast in the fall of 2009, it was an important moment for me. At the time, Steadyhand was barely 2 years old and was struggling to get on investors’ radar. Here I was sitting across from a senior Bay Street executive who wanted to join our small team. His desire, or should I say, insistence, was reaffirming.

This month, David is wrapping up his day-to-day job at Steadyhand. As he said in his note to clients and friends, “It’s been a joy to build Steadyhand’s presence in Canada, connect with clients across the country, and help shape how we talk about planning, investing, and retirement—not just in portfolios, but in real life, with real Canadians!”

I first met David when he was with State Street Trust Company Canada. I saw him in action as he piloted the company through an amazing period of growth. We became friends while he was President of Thomson Financial Canada.

In 2012, David wanted to do something meaningful and not have to report to a boss in the U.S. His pitch was simple. He’d give us an instant presence in Toronto, Canada’s largest market, and provide much-needed sales DNA.

And what a presence it was. David knows a zillion people and is a natural connector. Both attributes contributed mightily to why a Vancouver-based company has almost half its clients in Ontario.

It was also clear that David would bring energy to the firm. It reached all the way from a shared office in Toronto to the headquarters in Vancouver. We all fed off his drive and positivity, and needless to say, Christmas parties were a lot more fun.

David’s claims to Steadyhand fame were numerous.

His interview with Neil and me was done with all of us wearing ‘duck bill’ N95 masks. No, it wasn’t Covid. One of Neil’s kids had been exposed to SARS, and we were being careful. It looked and felt ridiculous.

David single-handedly pushed us to start the Founders Fund in 2012, which turned out to be an important part of our success.

He became a champion of the advice-only planning (AOP) community. He searched for AOPs that could help our clients, organised semi-annual round-tables where planners could share with and learn from each other, and he spurred us to set up an AOP directory.

David also championed (along with Lisa and Salman) our YouTube channel and has been the face of it right from the start.

And of course, he was ever present with clients in person and on the phones, and at our ‘Where to from Here’ and ‘Steadyhand Intro’ presentations.

David’s imprint on Steadyhand will include a long list of ‘Davidisms’. For example:

“Our goal is to serve millions of Canadians, not just Canadians with millions.”
“I’d rather have a thousand experiences than one experience a thousand times.”
“We should be relentlessly curious”

David and I had a lot of fun doing things together, although at times we bickered like an old married couple. We pushed each other to be better, which meant I’d always hear when I screwed up or needed to pick up my game.

As a Purpose shareholder and Steadyhand client, David moves on to pursue his other passions, knowing that the leadership and client service teams he helped build are pushing forward to improve the client experience. And we know that he’ll continue to bring his usual energy and passion to whatever he’s doing, including a few Christmas parties, I hope.

If indicators are fallible, are they valuable?

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 06:43:45 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on September 12, 2025. It is being republished with permission.

Investors use all kinds of indicators to help them make decisions. Economic data, charts, ratios and even tea leaves. I keep a close eye on valuation metrics such as price-to-earnings multiples and credit spreads, as well as measures of investor sentiment.

Unfortunately, none of these tools work all the time, which raises the question: If they’re fallible, are they valuable?

Investing is tough in this regard. You can do the research, assess all the variables and still get a bad result. The stock goes down and never recovers, or the fund underperforms for years. Similarly, you can do no research and be rewarded. A tip from a friend works out even though you know nothing about what you bought.

With the WNBA season heading into the playoffs, I’ll reinforce the point with a basketball analogy. A player can take a high-percentage shot and miss or a low-percentage shot and make it. The outcome doesn’t make the missed shot a bad decision or the made shot a good one. Over the course of a season, teams taking better shots win and players hoisting hope shots end up on the bench.

Successful coaches and investors focus on what they can control. They put the odds in their favour and let randomness and luck even out over time.

One-offs

Doing this means pursuing a strategy in which the odds get better with time, as opposed to deploying many one-off tactics, each with a lower chance of success. Many indicators fit into the latter category. Win or lose, the odds are no better the next time.

Betting on what the stock market will do each day is a coin toss. Markets are up about 50 per cent of the time, down 48 per cent and flat 2 per cent. It’s the same lousy odds every day. But if you base your strategy on what stocks will do over 10 years, your odds approach 100 per cent.

Similarly, it’s great if you get an economic call right (hard) and predict how the market will react (harder), but it doesn’t make the next call any easier.

Day trading and short-term strategies generally depend on one-of indicators such as interpreting a piece of news or searching for price momentum on a chart – things that might affect a stock price minute by minute but have no impact on a company’s ultimate success.

Like fine wine

Fortunately, investors with longer time frames can look to more concrete indicators that will affect outcomes – things that have no predictive value in the short term but, given time, increase chances of success.

Stocks for the long term: The most obvious example of ever-improving odds is owning stocks. The evidence is overwhelming – stocks beat bonds and GICs. It only works, however, if the time horizon is years, not days, and you stay with it through all types of markets. Getting in and out quickly reduces the odds back to those of a coin toss (or worse if emotions are running high).

Valuation: For a good company to be a good investment, the price paid must make sense in the context of future profits and dividends. Similarly, higher-yielding bonds only make sense if the additional income fully compensates for the increased risk of default.

Capex cycles: For cyclical industries, I keep an eye on the level of capital investment. When everyone is building factories or mines, excess supply and lower profits are on the horizon. Conversely, when times are tough and companies are pulling back on capex, the outlook for investors gets more interesting.

Cost: And you shouldn’t forget about the most controllable variable of all. The cost of investing is part of the equation for determining what you’ll have to spend in retirement. When it comes to trading commissions, fund fees and adviser compensation, don’t pay for anything you don’t need or aren’t getting.

At the beginning, I mentioned investor sentiment. It fits in between the two categories. It isn’t fundamental to a business’s success, nor is it a precise timing tool, but knowing how greedy or fearful investors are puts other indicators in perspective. Are you getting swept up in the narrative or sticking to strategies that have the best chance of success?

One of my favourite television ads starts with Michael Jordan saying, “I missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.” Like the greatest baller of all time, investors will have bad outcomes. It’s inevitable. The best way to deal with fallibility is to first accept that not everything will work out. Then, focus on taking high-percentage shots.

5 habits that build real wealth (from a 40-year investor)

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 08:09:02 PDT

Decades of investing wisdom distilled into five simple habits. In this Coffee Break episode, David Toyne – drawing on 40+ years of experience – reveals what academic research, behavioural finance, and real-world investor outcomes can teach us about building lasting wealth in Canada.

The markets are binging on data-centre spending. Is there a hangover to come?

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 12:08:39 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on August 30, 2025. It is being republished with permission.

I’ve been writing a lot about what’s abnormal in the investing landscape. After 40-plus years following markets, there are things that jump out at me as being extreme, irrational, or just plain silly.

I’m referring to themes and products that are far off trend or disconnected from basic financial fundamentals.

Some irregularities play out at the fringes (meme stocks; SPACs) but are good indicators of investor sentiment and risk taking, while others have a meaningful impact on the economy and capital markets. My topic here, the amount of capital being spent building data centres, is in the latter category.

It’s a phenomenon that can’t be ignored by any investor. It’s unprecedented and will be an important factor for future returns.

Economic impact

The need for data centres has been growing with the shift to cloud computing, but the demands of artificial intelligence are taking it to a new level.

The numbers are staggering. McKinsey & Co. says, “by 2030, companies will invest almost US$7-trillion in capital expenditures on data-centre infrastructure globally.” In 2025, spending on data centres contributed more to economic growth than consumer spending, the main engine of the U.S. economy.

I’ve seen capex booms before in mining, energy, real estate and automobiles, but nothing like this.

Many unknowns

There’s a long list of questions to answer in determining whether this spending boom will prove to be a new order for capital allocation or just the mother of all cyclical surges.

Demand: Will demand be as high as anticipated? Will the shift of emphasis from training AI models to inference, the process by which AI systems respond to user requests, have an impact on demand and the type of chips required? As I understand it, training is more computationally demanding but inference brings with it huge volumes.

Bottom line: Will companies be able to monetize their models? The efficacy of AI isn’t in question but the pathway to profitability is less clear. It will require that users generate enough incremental revenues and savings to justify the cost.

The big valley: Assuming an affirmative on the previous question, how big will the gap be between spending and profits? There will likely be a valley to cross, and history suggests that innovation leaders don’t always make it to the other side. Think back to the fibre-optic developers (Worldcom and 360 Networks), and the railroads a century before them. The mega-tech companies will navigate it, but there are other players in the ecosystem that aren’t as sturdy. They’ve become too dependent on the trend and/or are using debt liberally to increase capacity.

The losers: We don’t know who the winners will be. Several companies may be on the podium, or it will be winner take all. Either way, there will be losers, which prompts further questions. What happens to the capacity being used to train their models? How will it be absorbed, and at what price?

There’s more.

Who will benefit: The economy benefited hugely from the fibre-optic buildout and the railroad boom. The rising stock market tells us that AI will have a similar effect. What we don’t know is who will benefit the most. Will it be the providers who are putting the infrastructure in place or the end users?

Power: AI is moving at lightning speed. Power generation not so much (especially as the development of renewables is being discouraged in the U.S.). McKinsey points out that US$3-trillion of the total spend will go toward peripheral investments such as power infrastructure and real estate. Can power also grow at an unprecedented rate, and if not, how will it affect the spending cycle?

Obsolescence: There’s a chance that the power-hungry chips of today will be usurped by more efficient versions tomorrow. We can’t expect the innovation cycle for semiconductors to stop. Will the current crop of data centres become the equivalent of high-cost mines and oil fields?

The hangover

After every binge, there’s a morning after. If the hangover is severe, it will reach far beyond the tech darlings of today. The skewing of capital spending at the macro level have an impact on allocation decisions at companies, decisions that hinge on answers to the questions above. Many companies’ success, including Canada’s Celestica, is tightly linked to the data-centre boom.

There are always unanswered questions in investing. As Bob Hager, my former partner, used to say, “If you wait for certainty, you’ll miss the market.”

What’s so interesting with this uncertainty is the size of the ante. It’s a big bet and one that investors must keep an eye on.

What banks don't want you to know (CBC investigation explained)

Fri, 29 Aug 2025 09:01:08 PDT

Are Canada’s banks giving advice in your best interest or theirs? In this Coffee Break episode, David Toyne sits down with advice only planner Sandi Martin, featured in CBC Marketplace’s hidden camera exposé, to unpack what the investigation revealed and what regulators are saying in a new 2025 OSC/CIRO report.

A love letter to public markets

Wed, 20 Aug 2025 11:24:37 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on August 16, 2025. It is being republished with permission.

The cool kids are all going private. It’s the place to be.

I’m referring to the increasing popularity of and media attention on private debt and equity funds. David Swensen, the chief investment officer of Yale University from 1985 until his death in 2021, kick-started what became known as the endowment, or Yale, model. The difference? The Yale portfolio included a healthy amount of private assets and alternative strategies.

Over the past three decades, other institutional investors have been playing catch-up, to the point where U.S. endowments and many pension funds are now all in on private debt and equity. And now the next phase: Privates and alternatives are becoming available to individual investors, aided by U.S. President Donald Trump’s move this month to open retirement plans to illiquid assets.

The appeal of private assets is twofold. First, returns can be better (not guaranteed) by capturing an illiquidity premium. In other words, if investors are willing to sacrifice daily or even quarterly liquidity, fund managers are freed up to make bold business decisions outside the public eye and use more leverage, which reduces taxes and potentially leads to higher returns.

And second, private assets act as a diversifier. The underlying fixed income and equity investments are affected by the same economic forces as public securities, but the funds’ pricing mechanism lags the hair-trigger public markets. Holdings are repriced less frequently based on factors such as cash flow and recent transactions. Stale pricing tends to smooth out returns.

This week, there was a good example of this. Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan reported first-half results that meaningfully lagged other balanced portfolios and didn’t align with rising stock prices. The reason? Negative price adjustments to private assets, the same holdings that allowed OTPP to have a positive return in 2022 when bond and stock markets were weak and most portfolios were deep in the red.

These features are particularly appealing in light of today’s stock market volatility and a growing consensus that the U.S. market, everyone’s favourite, is expensive. The conclusion seems clear: Private is the way to go. Stocks are so yesterday.

A little love

Well, not so fast. Let’s give stocks their due.

Easy access: Buying or selling a stock is a few clicks away on your phone. No extra paperwork. No holding periods or redemption dates to remember. Your shares are completely liquid (with the possible exception of micro-cap stocks).

Opportunity: Access, when combined with price volatility, is a wonderful thing for investors who have an extended time horizon (a requirement for private investing). Unlike private funds that must put money to work a short time after they raise it, there’s no pressure for stock investors to buy. They can stand at the plate and wait for a pitch down the middle. They can take as many pitches as they want and not strike out. For long-term investors, volatility is a gift, not a scourge.

Price transparency: With public securities, your broker or investment manager doesn’t have discretion as to how and when stocks are priced. The marks are there for everyone to see. If you buy a stock or equity fund, you can be assured the price reflects the current news.

The amount of leverage is also in plain sight. It’s on the balance sheets of the companies you own, not layered through the portfolio.

Cheap: Access and transparency come at a modest fee. Trading costs are now de minimis, and professionally managed funds, whether active or indexed, range from cheap to reasonable. The expensive part of wealth management, which applies to all types of investing (especially privates), is the cost of advice.

Wealth creation: Stock returns are well above inflation for any period you want to pick. Not including this year’s strong returns, a half-Canadian/half-global portfolio has earned 9.8 per cent per annum since 1960 (a double every seven years), 8 per cent since 2000 and 9.9 per cent since 2020. All these time periods include years with negative returns.

Depending on your objectives, alternative asset classes such as private equity and debt, infrastructure and real estate can be great complements to your public holdings, as can alternative strategies such as long/short and market-neutral funds (I own two market-neutral hedge funds as part of my fixed-income holdings).

But low-cost, publicly traded equities should form the core of any portfolio. They’re simple, easy and transparent. They’ve offered excellent long-term returns and endured every industry trend that’s come their way, no matter how cool they were.

The em dash, ChatGPT, and why investing shouldn’t feel like an Ironman

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 12:36:11 PDT

This image was generated by ChatGPT

One of the downsides of working in the year 2025 is spending a regrettable amount of time on LinkedIn — and thus, being subjected to a regrettable amount of LinkedIn thought leadership.

The latest controversy lighting up the feed? The em dash.

Yes, the punctuation mark. Apparently, it’s now the telltale sign that someone used AI, as if our robot overlords were forged in the fires of Emily Dickinson’s diary.

Somewhere between the rise of ChatGPT and corporate Karenism, the em dash has gone from charmingly informal to “suspicious.” It’s less a breezy punctuation mark, more a scarlet letter pinned to the chest of anyone accused of AI-assisted laziness.

To this I say: who cares??

I use ChatGPT. I might’ve even used it for the first draft of this post. Why wouldn’t I? If the machines are destined to make me obsolete in ten years, I might as well use them to make my life easier in the meantime.

It’s called working smarter.

Same goes for investing.

There’s a long-standing belief, mostly perpetuated by men with overly extensive watch collections, that investing is complicated. If it’s not complicated, you’re not doing it right.

But effort does not equal virtue.

Investing doesn’t need to feel like a part-time job. You shouldn’t need to decipher Greek letters or keep up with all the latest stock acronyms (FYI: check out a great take on the meme craze here).

At the end of the day, we’re all just trying to protect what we’ve earned, see it grow, and maybe go on that bike trip through Europe Tom was talking about.

The good news is this: Over the long run, disciplined investors — the ones who stay diversified, invest consistently, and avoid overreacting — tend to outperform the over-caffeinated stock pickers.

Morningstar’s annual Mind the Gap study repeatedly shows that investors often underperform the very funds they’re invested in, simply because of poor timing decisions driven by emotion.

The rules of punctuation haven’t changed, and neither have investing fundamentals.

Save regularly
Invest often
Stay diversified
Avoid emotional decisions
Talk to someone who thrives on the details (e.g., Steadyhand Investor Specialists are masters of these technicalities)

The trick isn’t in making it exciting — it’s making it sustainable.

So go ahead — use the em dash. Use ChatGPT to write your anniversary toast or a mildly stern letter to your condo board. And opt for a clear, straightforward investment approach that doesn’t demand your attention every time markets wobble.

There’s no trophy for making life harder than it needs to be.

Ease isn’t cheating. Ease is, very often, the point.

(And for the record — 7 em dashes. All intentional.)

— Vanessa

Remarried? Don’t Make These Estate Planning Mistakes

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 08:35:56 PDT

Starting over later in life comes with more than just new beginnings — it can mean revisiting your estate plan, too. In this Coffee Break episode, David Toyne is joined by Money Coaches Canada’s Janet Gray to uncover the 7 most common mistakes people make when entering new relationships.

Many investors are running hot. Time for a cold shower

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:16:20 PDT

This article was first published in the Globe and Mail on August 1, 2025. It is being republished with permission.

I rarely find myself in a state of equilibrium. I’m either talking people up or bringing them down. When markets are weak and the tone is dismal, I’m reminding clients and readers that long-term returns will be higher — it’s a good time to invest. When things are going well and investors are euphoric, I’m dialling down oversized optimism.

Market extremes, when expectations are unrealistically bullish or bearish, are when the biggest mistakes are made. I’m not talking about buying a stock that doesn’t work out or a fund that underperforms, but rather crippling errors such as getting caught up in the news and diverging from your long-term plan. Going to cash because of what’s happening in Washington or chasing a theme to the point of being undiversified. Strategies that, if wrong, set you back years in terms of achieving your long-term goals.

Today’s landscape is unusual in that I find myself playing both roles. For long-term investors who are freaked out about the state of the world, I’m reminding them of the positive factors (as I did in a recent column) and the benefits of owning a variety of companies from different industries and regions.

And then there is the other end of the spectrum: investors who are caught up in the speculative fervour. Those who are running hot and in need of a cold shower. I say that because animal spirits are running high. There are many indications that speculation and risk-taking are at extremes.

Head-scratchers

For instance, meme stocks are back. These heavily shorted stocks are rocketing higher even though company fundamentals are weak. In 2021, it was GameStop Corp. and AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. leading the way. This time around, it’s GoPro Inc. and Kohls Corp.

Special purpose acquisition companies are back in vogue. SPACs, which were also popular in 2021, are a type of initial public offering in which a well-known business or investment person is given a blank cheque to go out and make an acquisition. SPAC issuance is occurring despite a history of abysmal returns and an incentive structure that’s stacked heavily in the sponsors’ favour.

At Robinhood, a popular U.S. discount broker, options and crypto trading made up 84 per cent of transaction-based revenues in the first quarter. Yes, you read that right: 84 per cent. Stocks accounted for just 10 per cent.

As for cryptocurrencies, people are making money with the rise of Bitcoin, but the risks in the digital ecosystem are also rising. There’s been a surge of companies abandoning their core business and becoming Bitcoin proxies (Strategy Inc., formerly known as MicroStrategy, is the model). This tactic has pumped up their stock prices because investors are valuing the Bitcoin holdings at double the market price. And if you find this perplexing, stay tuned because investment bankers are feverishly looking for other assets that might trade at a premium when held in a public vehicle.

As my former partner, Bob Hager, told me years ago, when something doesn’t seem to make sense, it usually doesn’t. These premiums will inevitably disappear and go to discounts, and for companies that are highly leveraged, the ride for shareholders will be painful.

No profits, no worries

As I’ve noted before, the hot sectors in the stock market are the ones that are unburdened by earnings expectations and price-to-earnings ratios. They don’t yet have earnings to value. Companies linked to crypto and artificial intelligence are being driven more by investor optimism than business fundamentals. A Goldman Sachs index of unprofitable tech companies is up more than 50 per cent since April 8 — its highest level since 2022 (a year when it halved in price).

For stocks that already have a P/E ratio, there are bargains to be found, but most risk assets are expensive relative to their history. Stock markets have been driven as much by rising P/E’s as expanding profits and dividends.

Similarly, corporate bond yields are low relative to more secure government issues. The extra yield they offer, called a spread, is the reward for accepting a higher chance of default. Today, the reward is near an all-time low across the risk spectrum (from investment-grade bonds to high-yield bonds and private loans).

Look in the mirror

With everything going so well, it’s a good time to ask yourself: Are you being greedy like investors around you, or are you using this time as a cue to be more cautious, like Warren Buffett counsels? Are you far off the plan you (and your advisor) laid out a few years ago? Are you taking more risk today than ever and using more leverage? Are you no longer well diversified? And if you’re wrong about a strategy or theme, will it wipe out years of returns?

If the answer to those questions is no, then stick to what you’re doing and remember the old adage “Markets climb a wall of worry.”

If you answered yes to some or all of those questions, you may be operating without a net. It’s time to hit the shower and turn on the cold water.

An important update (that’s not about your retirement plan)

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 07:06:48 PDT

If you landed here expecting a fresh take on how much you really need to retire, or another gentle reminder to stay the course – this isn’t that kind of post.

This one’s a little more personal.

After 18 years and over 700 posts, Scott Ronalds – our long-time writer, communicator-in-chief, and internal jargon cop – has stepped away from Steadyhand. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, chances are he’s made you think, laugh, or see investing through the lens of salmon spawning or something equally Scott-like.

With Scott’s departure and Steadyhand’s recent acquisition by Purpose Unlimited, you might be wondering, what’s next?

Allow me to introduce myself.

👋 Hi, I’m Vanessa. I’m the head of communications at Purpose.

Yes, Purpose is a firm that does crypto.

Yes, we have more than three people in our marketing department.

And yes, we occasionally use financial slang. We also have a surprising number of water polo enthusiasts, and our staff fridge often runs out of Diet Coke.

Here’s what is also true: Purpose and Steadyhand are more alike than you might think.

I started at Purpose about five years ago, fresh off the plane from London, England, and interviewing from my parents’ basement in LaSalle, Ontario.

Even though I was coming from the industry, I remember my skepticism: what would these Toronto asset management types be like? And more importantly, will I have to hide my pug tattoo?

Turns out my preconceptions were entirely off-base.

Purpose was built to challenge the traditional investment and wealth landscapes – because too often, Canadians are left with solutions that are too generic, too complex, or just plain impersonal.

Here, we wear a few hats.

There’s Purpose Investments, where we build products for Canadians who want investment solutions tailored to their real-life needs. And there’s Purpose Unlimited, our broader platform for innovation in finance, fintech, and beyond.

We also have a wealth management arm and a small business financing branch, all built with the aim of setting a higher bar in the financial services sector.

On paper, it can sound big. Ambitious. Maybe even a little… corporate.

But here’s the truth: we’re not a faceless machine. We’re people.

People who care deeply about fixing what’s broken in finance, about putting the investor first (really). And about challenging the old way of doing things – not just for the sake of disruption, but because Canadians deserve better.

You’ll hear us talk a lot about helping Canadians win. We’re in it with you. For you.

Like Steadyhand, we know the industry still has work to do, and that trust is earned one decision at a time.

We’re not here to imitate what came before, but to build on it. To take the clarity and the candour that defined this blog and carry it forward in new ways, with new voices and new energy.

Now, I guess this is the part where I tie this all into an investing allegory, right?

How about this: diversification is a good thing.

No? Is this starting to read too Carrie Bradshaw?

My apologies. Scott’s wit and storytelling will be hard to replicate, but this space will continue to be what it’s always been: thoughtful, plainspoken, and occasionally a little weird.

If we start sounding like a glossy brochure or slip into too much lingo, you have my full permission to call me out.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to earn your trust. We’re excited to build something great together.

– Vanessa

Downsizing in retirement? Avoid these common mistakes

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 11:26:08 PDT

Thinking of downsizing – or helping a loved one through a major life transition? In this Coffee Break episode, we sit down with Adam Gordon of Gordon’s Downsizing to explore what really goes into decluttering and letting go.