This Toronto condo in the Entertainment District is going for $800K. Here’s why it’s a hard sell + MORE Mar 11th

Buying value stocks

First, when you buy a stock, you do not buy a piece of paper. You buy a slice of a company. You do not buy a stock as a trader; you buy as an owner. And if you buy as an owner, you’d better be interested in the company.

Because it is humanly impossible to fully understand many companies, value investing implies a portfolio containing a small number of stocks; a not-well-diversified portfolio. If you look at Warren Buffett’s portfolio back in the 1960s, it was 90% invested in five stocks; now Berkshire Hathaway—of which Buffett is chair and CEO—is about 65% invested in five stocks. This is not a well-diversified portfolio. In fact, Buffett argues that once you achieve competence, diversification is undesirable, because diversification limits your upside…

Schwab and the economic impact of war

I often go to Schwab for market commentary. (My favourite account on Twitter is Liz Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab & Co. Sonders tweets incredible charts, studies and commentary.) Schwab provides a very good overview with some high-level thinking on the war in Ukraine—and just what the heck is going on. The title of the article is “War: What is it Good For? Absolutely Nothing.” Of course, nothing is more important than the tragic situation on the ground in Ukraine. At the same time we will consider the economic and investment impacts. Here are a few highlights from the article:

“While it may indeed be true that pessimism has historically been consistent with stronger gains for equities, we’d emphasize that a positive catalyst is typically needed to provide a lift.”

Bearish sentiment is spiking…