2013

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December 30, 2013 Comments

On Monday, markets were relatively flat. Constellation Software rose 4.4%. The Canadian dollar rose about a half. This reversed a

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October 20, 2013 Comments

The U.S. markets finished the week at all time highs. Nothing surprising there, stock markets don’t reach new all time

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October 12, 2013 Comments

Wells Fargo is updated and rated Strong Buy. It just reported another excellent quarter of earnings. Revenues did decline in

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October 6, 2013 Comments

This week we should expect more nervousness due to the U.S. government shutdown and the pending debt ceiling limit. As

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September 30, 2013 Comments

So far the budget show-down and government shutdown theatrics have been something of a non-event for North American stock markets.

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September 21, 2013 Comments

My personal portfolio composition is updated. My four largest positions, Wells Fargo, Canadian Tire, Melcor and Toll Brothers make up

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August 20, 2013 Comments

On Tuesday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% and Toronto rose 0.6%. Canadian Tire rose 2.6%, more than recovering yesterday’s decline.

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August 15, 2013 Comments

On Thursday the S&P 500 was down 1.4% while Toronto was up 0.5%. Several companies including Walmart reported weak results

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July 30, 2013 Comments

On Tuesday the S&P 500 was about unchanged while Toronto was down 0.7% Potash corporation fell 16% on news that

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July 29, 2013 Comments

The most recent of the free newsletter was sent out… http://www.investorsfriend.com/nl-july-28-2013 On Monday the S&P 500 was down 0.4% and

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July 14, 2013 Comments

Alimentation Couche-Tard is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $61.88. This company has rather quietly grown int a giant. It

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July 13, 2013 Comments

On Friday, markets were relatively flat. Among our stocks picks most of them fell somewhat on Friday. Our two U.S.

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July 11, 2013 Comments

Ben Bernanke the FED chair indicated that accommodative monetary policies (probably meaning low short-term interest rates) will remain in place

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July 7, 2013 Comments

The train derailment in Quebec is obviously very tragic. It seems clear that dozens were killed. (I find it strange

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July 6, 2013 Comments

RioCan is updated and rated Buy at $25.49. It seems like a reasonable investment choice. The biggest risk factor is

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July 4, 2013 Comments

U.S markets were closed today. Toronto was up 0.2%. No large movements among our stock picks but it was nice

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June 29, 2013 Comments

On Friday the S&P 500 was down 0.4% while Toronto was up 1.0%. Interesting moves included Shaw Communications up 5.4%

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June 23, 2013 Comments

I have updated the article on long-term historical asset class performance for the first half of 2013. Given the weak

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June 19, 2013 Comments

So, apparently the FED has signaled that the “quantitative easing” consisting of the Feds buying $85 billion per month worth

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June 11, 2013 Comments

Canadian National Railway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at CAN $100.44 or U.S.$ 98.54. It’s an excellent company with

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June 10, 2013 Comments

I’ve completed and update for Canadian National railway and will upload the report tomorrow evening. The rating will be (lower)

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June 4, 2013 Comments

Our report on global exchanged traded funds has been updated. Most of our stocks were down today. The S&P 500

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May 30, 2013 Comments

Markets were relatively flat today. However, several of our Stock picks did very well. Wells Fargo was up 1.2% to

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May 28, 2013 Comments

It seems crazy just how good the U.S. market and out stock picks have done this year, especially after doing

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May 27, 2013 Comments

U.S. markets were closed today for Memorial day. Toronto rose 0.2%. It’s interesting that Valeant Pharmaceuticals has risen so much

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May 26, 2013 Comments

FirstService Preferred is removed from the list because the company has redeemed them. Investors in the preferred shares received cash

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May 25, 2013 Comments

Stantec is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $44.50. I have now been watching this company grow steadily for fourteen

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May 23, 2013 Comments

Today the U.S. markets showed some resistance to negative manufacturing data from China and worries about a slowdown in the

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May 22, 2013 Comments

Today started out with markets up substantially as Ben Bernanke signaled he would keep on stimulating the economy. But markets

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May 21, 2013 Comments

Markets did well today with Toronto up 1.0% and the Dow up 0.3% Toll Brothers will report earnings before the

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May 19, 2013 Comments

Canadian Western Bank preferred shares are updated and rated Sell at $26.38. I believe the bank will redeem these next

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May 18, 2013 Comments

My analysis of the valuation of the Dow Jones Industial Average is updated. It suggests that the DOW is about

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May 16, 2013 Comments

Melcor is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $18.62. I may add to my position in this company. Constellation Software

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May 11, 2013 Comments

Friday was another good day on the markets with Canadian Tire up another 1.7% and Melcor up 1.9% and Bombardier

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May 9, 2013 Comments

As most will have heard, Canadian Tire came out with decent earnings today but more importantly announced plans to spin

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May 8, 2013 Comments

Another decent day in the markets. Thursday should be interesting as a some of our companies will report earnings. I

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May 6, 2013 Comments

Our stocks picks did better than the market today. Bank of America was up 5.2% after it settled a dispute

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May 5, 2013 Comments

Weather is always interesting… Here in Edmonton Spring refused to arrive in April and winter hung on strongly. We got

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May 2, 2013 Comments

Markets recovered the ground lost yesterday. Our Stock Picks had a particularly good day with Toll Brothers up 3.1%. Almost

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May 1, 2013 Comments

Markets were down today. They can’t rise everyday. The Melcor Real Estate Investment Trust started trading today. It was issued

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April 22, 2013 Comments

On Friday, Melcor‘s new Melcor Real Estate Investment Trust posted its final prospectus. The REIT will yield 6.75%. It appears

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April 21,2013 Comments

Bombardier Inc. is updated and rated Speculative (lower) Buy at CAN $3.89. This is an interesting company that certainly makes

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April 17, 2013 Comments

Today’s market decline seems more sensible than yesterday’s gain… It is perhaps an encouraging sign that Toll Brothers managed a

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April 2, 2013 Comments

I spent some of my travel time carefully re-reading a book called Buffett the Making of an American Capitalist. Buffett’s

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April 1, 2013 Comments

A  moderately weak day in the markets. Most of our stocks were down. Melcor, Boston Pizza and Walmart were among

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March 31, 2013 Comments

Day 6 in Manhattan: NBC studios tour, SOHO, Chinatown and a show (The Book of Mormon). One disappointment the green

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March 29, 2013 Comments

The stock markets were closed today, but Manhattan was certainly open. Day 4 in Manhattan: Short bus tour of downtown…

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March 27, 2013 Comments

Markets were a little negative today. My American Banks and Berkshire were down. No big losses overall though. Day Two

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March 21, 2013 Comments

Melcor Developments reported today that it has filed a preliminary prospectus for the proposed partial spin-off of its rental properties

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March 18, 2013 Comments

As expected, markets were weak today due to the Cyprus bail-out situation. But overall the reaction was modest and not

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March 16, 2013 Comments

Toll Brothers is updated and is rated Speculative Buy at $34.13. As the report indicates, this luxury home builder is

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March 14, 2013 Comments

Today, Thursday saw another good day in the markets. Most of our stock picks were up nicely although nothing spectacular.

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March 10, 2013 Comments

Melcor Developments is updated and rated (higher) Buy at $18.61. This is a very well-managed Edmonton-based company that has traded

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March 7, 2013 Comments

Two of our Stock Picks were down noticeably today. Canadian Western Bank was down 4.8% and Constellation Software was down

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March 3, 2013 Comments

Berkshire Hathaway is updated and rated (lower) Buy at $102.05. For the reasons given in the report this rating may

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February 26, 2013 Comments

Markets were generally strong today. Toll Brothers was up 3.3% on strong reports regarding U.S. housing prices and new home

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February 20, 2013

Markets fell today on fears that the FED would stop buying back bonds and interest rates would rise. Well, maybe

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February 14, 2013 Comments

In today’s news, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is partnering with another outfit to buy Heinz. This is not a huge

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February 7, 2013 Comments

I’m featured in the business section of the Edmonton Journal tomorrow. http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Lamphier+sides+coin+this+stock+picker/7940653/story.html Our stock picks have ended out the week

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February 4, 2013 Comments

Markets were negative today. It’s certainly not something that worries me. I think any pull-backs right now might prove to

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January 31, 2013 Comments

Markets were generally down on Thursday. This hardly seems surprising after all the recent gains. There was unfortunate news for

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January 30, 2013 Comments

Markets were moderately down today. Notably (especially to me, since it is my largest position) Canadian Tire was down 1.8%.

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January 24, 2013 Comments

Not surprisingly, Constellation Software recovered from the little dip it took yesterday, rising 3.7%. Canadian Tire did well, up 2.1%.

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January 23, 2013 Comments

Constellation Software was down 3.3% today. This occurred in the last hour of trading and was on relatively small volume.

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January 21, 2013 Comments

U.S. markets were closed today for the Martin Luther King holiday. The Toronto stock exchange index rose 0.5%. With Canadian

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January 14, 2013 Comments

Shaw Communications announced after the close that it had sold its Mountain Cable franchise in Hamilton to Rogers for $400

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January 10, 2013 Comments

It was another strong day for stocks… Melcor continues to bounce around. Yesterday I mentioned that having seen Tuesday’s closing

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January 9, 2013 Comments

Today would have been a mildly negative day for our stock picks except for one stock. Several alert subscri9bers emailed

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