MUTUAL FUNDS PROVIDED THROUGH:
Do I go with Canadian equities, resources or precious metals? Do I invest in Europe? Which is the hot fund this year? These are some of the questions that many of us have asked ourselves. Deciding which investments to include in your portfolio is a difficult proposition and to do so properly requires a theory and approach that does not change based on how the investment markets are performing.
In Canada there are more than 5000 investment funds available to the average investor to choose from. Virtually all of them (excluding money market and bond funds) can be segmented in to one of four categories. Value, Growth, Momentum and Small Capitilization (Small Cap). At Equitas Financial it is our job to build a portfolio that is properly balanced based on your objectives and risk tolerance. How do we sift through over 5000 funds in order to help you decide which ones make it in to your portfolio? Here are some of the criteria that help us in the decision making process:
1. How long has the particular fund and it's company been in existence?
We typically look for companies and funds that have been in business for at least 10 years
2. What type of experience does the particular fund manager have?
We like to choose funds that employ managers with a good track record of sticking to their stated objectives as well as having experienced many different market conditons.
3. Are the funds negatively correlated? That is to say, do each of the investments work opposite to one another?
In a given market condition some of your investments should be up and some should be down. This helps to reduce the "rollercoster" effect and even out your long term returns. Our objective is to minimize the major swings in your portfolio (up or down) and keep things relatively stable.
4. Have we balanced the selection of funds to include one from each of the 4 types mentioned above?
Once we have identified a number of funds that meet our criteria we further reduce them down to a list of 8 funds. This makes it easier for us to track any changes in the funds and to make any necessary adjustments to our entire client base should the need arise.
For more detailed information package on our approach to investing please do not hesitate to contact us.
