“October: This is one of the particularly dangerous months to invest in stocks. Other dangerous months are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February – Mark Twain Here we are in the first week of October and my phone is ringing off the hook with concerned investors...
There has been no shortage of business media buzz around Carl Icahn (famous investor and businessman) over the last year. While he has a long history as an activist investor over the last 30 years, his bold move on Herbal Life has made him an outright celebrity. For those not familiar with the story, Bill Ackman (an American...
Gold has been in a material bear market for over 2 years. We have now seen some capitulation selling that has seen gold print below $1200.00 in late June. Since the low, gold has been retracing back to its 50 day moving average, which has been resistance for its entire decline during 2013. After such a prolonged bear market, it...
The Canadian banks find themselves feeling a substantial hangover as the Canadian stock market continues to lag. The ongoing stories of the risks to the Canadian real estate market awaken fears of a U.S. style correction that would certainly leave question marks about the bank balance sheets. Debt continues to be a dominant...
The last 2 months have been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride for Canadian investors. For most of 2013, the resource stocks have been struggling while the bank stocks were a glimpse of hope. That was short lived as February rolled in as a new round of selling started pressuring the darling Canadian banks. We have now seen...
On February 28th, 2013 we wrote a blog discussing if Royal Bank was worth investing in. To read the blog, click here: http://optionmatters.ca/blog/2013/03/01/royal-opportunity/ Our focus was to find an interesting way for investors to play Royal Bank. At that time in February, these were the facts: Royal Bank was trading at...
The Canadian market has continued to complacently forge ahead. Overall we have seen little progress higher throughout March as the international geopolitical circumstances in Cyprus and Korea have started to slowly taper investor enthusiasm. In past blogs, the current state of the implied volatility priced into index options...
The global stock markets have been kind to investors over the last 3 months as many international markets are up 2-10% in the first quarter alone. But not every investor can share in the celebration. When looking at the average investment portfolio for a Canadian, it has been a mixed picture. This is because the average...
SNC-Lavalin has once again made headlines as scandals with the Montreal’s new megahospital remain unresolved. The news certainly has contributed to SNC-Lavalin’s recent price weakness. Investors fear that if the plot to rig the megahospital contract in SNC’s favor is true, the company would face penalties and material...
No sector has experienced more pessimism over the last year than the gold mining sector. This has left intelligent investors feeling like deer in headlights. Gold bulls will sight countless reasons as to why gold should be at $2,500 and why gold mining companies should be flourishing. Yet central banks around the world continue...