The Frontier

Episode 10: Value versus Momentum Investment Strategies with Equium Capital

Episode 10: Value versus Momentum Investment Strategies with Equium Capital by CapIntel

Episode 9: Investing in Debt with Celernus’ Gord Martin

Gord brings 22 years of investment industry experience to his role as founder and Managing Partner of Celernus. Prior to founding Celernus Investment Partners, Gord spent over ten years with DundeeWealth in roles that included, Branch Manager, Regional Manager, Investment Advisor, Portfolio Manager and ultimately Chief Operating Officer of the Retail Division. He holds an Honours B.A in economics from the University of Waterloo and a MBA from The Simon School at the University of Rochester in the State of New York. As an Investment Advisor and Portfolio Manager with Dundee he advised and managed approximately one hundred million dollars of client assets. 1:50 Opening 1:55 What is a mortgage-backed security? 3:51 What is a mortgage-based Mutual Fund? 7:58 How are these funds structured? How do you buy a mortgage? Why would a creditor sell a mortgage? 10:05 Why would a someone invest in a mortgage? 11:43 Can you walk through some of the benefits and drawbacks of investing in a mortgage-based mutual fund? 15:40 At Celernus, you manage a number of funds. Specifically, I wanted to ask you about the Celernus Mortgage and Income Trust Fund. Why did you choose to manage this fund? In other words, why invest in mortgages, and other debt? 23:16 Can you walk our listeners through how you evaluate a mortgage for investment? Does it differ based on the underlying asset (commercial vs. residential, etc.)? 26:10 Why do you have a positive outlook on this approach? Why continue to invest with it as a focus? 28:27 Based on my understanding, real estate prices, and interest rates would affect the performance of your fund. In that context: What do you think some of the primary opportunities and threats are to real estate prices and interest rates in Canada in the near term? 32:42 Describe the ideal investor for a debt-based fund in your mind. 33:55 What are some of the challenges facing retail equity investors in the current markets?

Episode 8: Derivatives 101 with Croft Financial Group's Jason Ayres, Part 2

Jason Ayres is a Derivative Market Specialist by designation, Director of Business Development and an Investment Review Committee member. Jason also sits on the R.N. Croft Financial Group Inc. Board of Directors. In his roll as Director of Business Development, Jason is responsible for the overall management of all strategic and operational marketing and partner/client relationship activities. As a member of the Investment Review Committee, Jason contributes as a market technician and derivative strategist. In addition, Jason has been one of the lead instructors for the TMX Montreal Exchange for the last 9 years, Jason continues to travel across Canada actively advocating the use of options as an important tool in effective portfolio management. Jason is also president of one of the largest and longest running trading and investing educational services in Canada and founder of a successful online resource for pro-active stock and option traders. 2:04 Opening 2:05 At Croft, you actively use derivatives as part of your portfolio management strategies. Why do you believe this is a methodology that will provide superior returns? In other words, why do you use derivatives? 11:04 What factors (market timing, sentiment, etc.) tend to drive Croft’s use of derivatives in client portfolios? 12:45 Describe one (or a few) ideal situation(s) to incorporate derivatives into your portfolio in your mind. 16:41 What are some of the challenges facing retail equity investors in the current markets?

Episode 7: Derivatives 101 with Croft Financial Group's Jason Ayres, Part 1

Jason Ayres is a Derivative Market Specialist by designation, Director of Business Development and an Investment Review Committee member. Jason also sits on the R.N. Croft Financial Group Inc. Board of Directors. In his roll as Director of Business Development, Jason is responsible for the overall management of all strategic and operational marketing and partner/client relationship activities. As a member of the Investment Review Committee, Jason contributes as a market technician and derivative strategist. In addition, Jason has been one of the lead instructors for the TMX Montreal Exchange for the last 9 years, Jason continues to travel across Canada actively advocating the use of options as an important tool in effective portfolio management. Jason is also president of one of the largest and longest running trading and investing educational services in Canada and founder of a successful online resource for pro-active stock and option traders. 2:07 Opening 2:10 Most people think of Derivatives from high school math. What are derivatives in the context of finance? 3:21 Based on my understanding of derivatives, there are four primary types: options, swaps, futures and forward contracts. Can you walk us through an example of each? 14:34 How is the price of a derivative determined? 21:32 To drive the point home, why do derivatives exist? Why would someone want to create one? 25:34 Derivatives have a bit of a bad wrap in the public eye. For example, depending on the context you believe, some people think Warren Buffet described them as “financial weapons of mass destruction”, or that they took part in causing the Financial Crisis. Can you walk through some of the benefits and drawbacks of derivatives in general?

Episode 6: Behavioral Economics and how you can benefit, with Richardson GMP's Chris Kerlow

Chris graduated from Saint Mary’s University with a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, double majoring in finance and entrepreneurship. He began his career with Scotia Asset Management in 2008 and had progressing roles before becoming a senior analyst in the Investment Consulting Group. Chris was awarded the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation in 2012 and is now an equity Portfolio Manager with Richardson GMP. In addition, Chris is now teaching finance at the Lazaridis school of business and economics at Wilfred Laurier. 0:00 Opening 1:47 What is the study of behavioral economics? How does it differ from traditional economic thinking? 4:28 Understanding now that humans aren’t technically “rational” in the traditional vacuum-economic sense, what are some of the aspects that make us “irrational”? a. More specifically, what are some of the most important biases that impact investor behavior in the marketplace? 13:15 Presumably not everyone has every bias, or, more delicately put, not every person has the same bias to the same extent. Do people generally have the same biases? Or would something like risk tolerance, which seems to be the differentiator for investors, have a role to play in the biases I have? 16:16 At Richardson GMP, you co-manage the Redwood Behavioral Opportunities Fund, which incorporates these behavioral economics aspects into the trading strategy. Why do you believe this is a winning strategy? 20:16 How do you identify when behavioral bias is affecting a stock’s value, and that there is an opportunity capitalize on it? 34:10 What is one piece of advice you would like to leave our listeners with for investing on their own? 35:55 Closing