Category Archives: Blog

Crude oil has experienced some of the wildest price swings in history. In April 2020, during the opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. crude oil futures turned negative for the first time in history, with sellers offering $37.63 per barrel. Fast forward two years and fears that Russia will invade Ukraine have sent crude […]

The consumer-led pandemic recovery is in high gear. You only need to look at the inflationary data to see that. In January, Canada’s inflation rate hit a 30-year plus high, with the consumer price index up 5.1% from a year earlier. This exceeded market expectations of 4.8%. What Is Canada’s Inflation Rate? This marks the […]

Investors might be afraid of what rising interest rates will do to the stock market but they’re more afraid of Russia invading Ukraine. It’s a Black Swan event that could see the stock market crash 20%. A Black Swan event is an unexpected, rare event that triggers a stock market crash. The last Black Swan […]

This earnings season has been nothing short of unpredictable with some big-name tech stocks selling off and others being some of the top performers. This had led the tech-heavy Nasdaq into one of its most tumultuous stretches ever. In fact, January was the worst month for the Nasdaq since 2008, with shares of Amazon down […]

Whether stocks are rising or falling, most investors have learned not to “fight the trend.” It’s a maxim that has helped investors for centuries. If stocks are bullish, don’t bet on a downtrend. If stocks are bearish, don’t bet on an uptrend. Or, put another way, the “trend is your friend.” Which brings us to […]

Investors entered 2022 with great optimism, with the Nasdaq, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and TSX all trading at, or near, record levels. By all accounts, it looked like the Santa Clause Rally would dovetail in nicely with the January Effect—a theory that stocks go up for most of the first month of a […]

Despite the pandemic the broader stock market had a great run in 2020 and 2021, closing out the year near record levels. The tides have turned though. Stock market rallies have been cobbled with the Nasdaq in correction territory, which is defined as a drop of more than 10% but no more than 20% from […]

To combat a recession or other economic Black Swans, central banks artificially lower their key lending rate, in an effort to encourage borrowing and spending, which in turn, juices the economy. Central banks around the world slashed their rates to near historic lows during COVID-19 to do just that. The Bank of Canada has held […]

How Did Stocks on the TSX Do in 2021? In 2020, Canada’s benchmark stock index, the S&P/TSX composite, eked out a 2.17% gain during the worst economic and health crisis in 100 years. Vaccines rolled out in 2021 but the pandemic raged on with the highly contagious delta and omicron variants sweeping the planet. This […]