Investor Empowerment, U.S. Home Foreclosure Forecast

Investor Empowerment

An article in Toronto's Globe & Mail titled 'Investors Grab The Steering Wheel' says that the number of new accounts opened by both BMO InvestorLine and Qtrade Investor (online brokerages owned by the Bank of Montreal and Qtrade Financial Group respectively) have seen in the case of:

·           BMO Investorline, over 100% growth in new accounts in its October 31, 2009 fiscal year - attributed by a Bank of Montreal poll to (#1 reason) that investors felt the market environment dictated they 'take more control of their financial investments'; and,

·            Qtrade, an asset increase of over 100% and a trading volume increase of over 50% in the past year - attributed by the CEO of Qtrade Financial Group to 'a lot of people not seeing their portfolios moving in the right direction and thinking it was right for them to take more control'.

Those of you who regularly read my e-mails know I could not agree more that in the current (and what I see as prospective) world economic environment that anyone with money 'invested' in the world equity markets needs to take an increasingly meaningful role in the management of their equity investments.  In the context of 'Investor Empowerment' I offer the following comments for your consideration:

·           I believe anyone who does not spend serious time thinking about their investment philosophy, where their money should be invested to accomplish their objectives, and what their individual risk tolerance and resultant investment criteria should be simply should not participate directly or indirectly in the equity (read 'stock') markets;

·           I believe many Investment Advisors are both competent and well intentioned, although I believe not so many of them meet these criteria as the Investment Community would have us believe.  I further believe investors should carefully assess what their advisor really knows about the state of the world economy at any given point in time, how they derive their views about it - i.e. from their own research and due diligence, or from what others (analysts, etc.) tell them - and how their investment advisor's conclusions are reflected in the investment advice he/she provides.  Personally I am far more attracted to smart people who form their own views and can discuss them intelligently than I am to people who simply are 'good talkers' who parrot the views of other 'experts'.  Some months ago I set out 15 criteria I recommend investors use when selecting an Investment Advisor.  Very few, if any, Investment Advisors will satisfy all 15 criteria - read that list of criteria here;

·           Research Reports on individual companies can be very useful investment tools if put in what I believe to be proper context, and are read with full knowledge that the firm the analyst works for may be 'first in line' to participate in fee generation from the next financing that company embarks on.  In my view, 'empowered investors' should read analyst reports not to be 'told what to do', but rather to confirm or deny their own investment views on a company - and importantly to learn whether the analyst has picked up on material facts the investor has missed, or discusses one or more concepts or facts of significance the investor has not considered; and,

·           investors increasingly should invest important research time on the Internet and elsewhere 'thinking for themselves' about their investment philosophy, criteria, and industries and companies that, based on those things, suit them as individuals.

I believe that in the coming years carefully selected Resource Stocks are 'as good as it is going to get' from the point of view of equity investments.  Could I be wrong - of course.  That said, I am betting a lot of time and money in developing the StockResearchPortal.com website as a serious 'Investor Empowerment' tool in the context of the Resources sectors, which if nothing else says I am putting 'my time and money where my mouth is'.  Our mantra in developing and continually making our website ever more User Friendly and Useful is entirely about that Empowerment.  Any help you can give us to accomplish this always will be greatly appreciated.  E-mail us anytime at info@stockresearchportal.com.  If you do that, you will gain immediate access to  me and other decision makers - and your comments and suggestions all will be carefully considered.

U.S. Home Foreclosure Forecast