Financial Competency

1. Financial Competency • Lifelong Learning Centre • Wednesdays, November 7 to 28, 2012 • 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. • Gallery Room 106 • Dr. Cyril Kesten • Education 334, Faculty of Education • Cyril.kesten@uregina.ca • Wiki: http://finlitllc.wikispaces.com/ • 306 585 4532

2. TDWaterhouse • https://webbrokercpo.td.com/waw/idp/login.htm?execution=e1s1

3. Active Investing (Management) • the active manager exploits market inefficiencies by purchasing securities (stocks etc.) that are undervalued or by short selling securities that are overvaluedhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_management • Active Management means investors are looking for: • Value • Growth • Income

4. Active Investing (Management) • The Standard & Poor's Index Versus Active (SPIVA) quarterly scorecards demonstrate that only a minority of actively managed mutual funds have gains better than the Standard & Poor's (S&P) index benchmark. As the time period for comparison increases, the percentage of actively-managed funds whose gains exceed the S&P benchmark declines further. This may be due to the preponderance of closet-index funds in the study.[1][2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_management

5. Research by Alfred Cowles in the ’30s and ’40s suggested that professional investors were in general unable to outperform the market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Efficient-market_hypothesis

6. The Globe and Mail • http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

7. DJIA, TSX, S&P500 • A group of stocks put together in a standardized way to provide a useful window into a sector or market's performance at a glance. That is, a stock index groups together a certain list of stocks and usually takes an average of their prices so as to provide an idea of how the industry or market represented in the stock index is doing. Very often, stock indices are weighted to prevent a few data points from overwhelming it. For example, the S&P 500 is weighted according to market capitalization, while the DJIA is weighted for price.

8. Passive Investing • Index mutual funds and ETFs basically mimic the index by buying the same basket of stocks at corresponding proportions and adjust accordingly.  The reason why index ETF’s/mutual funds can keep their fees (MERs) lower is because normally the buying/selling is done automatically by computer and not an active fund manager.

9. Benefits of Passive Investing • It’s relatively easy and takes very little time. • Betting on the index beats an active mutual fund the majority of the time. • Indexing costs a lot less than active investing, thus increasing returns over the long run. • It takes the emotion (thus mistakes) out of investing.

10. global couch potato strategy • the portfolio is split into 4 parts.  Each part of the portfolio consists of an index.  This includes a Canadian Index, US Index, International Index, and Canadian Bond index.  • The percentage of equity/bonds really depends on your risk tolerance.  The lower your risk tolerance for volatility, the higher your bond allocation.  However, over the long term, the higher the bond allocation the lower your portfolio returns. http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/investment-strategies-i-passive-investing.htm#ODxEHT7DWwIKoQsr.99