Gareth Tingling, CFA

06/24/2025

Waikiki, mid-afternoon 20-something stories above the ocean. Perfect.

04/26/2025

Please people. Do. Some. Homework. For your own sake.
Check on your advisor! This guy might have been investigated twice! FFS (for finance's sake) it takes a few minutes!

From the article:
"ORILLIA — Police in central Ontario have laid a dozen charges against a financial advisor who is alleged to have stolen more than $1.8 million from clients.
The Ontario Provincial Police says the local advisor is charged with defrauding the public and eleven counts of uttering a forged document.

They say 40-year-old Kevin Douse, of the Township of Severn, was arrested Thursday after a 16-month investigation.
Police allege some clients were asked to provide investment funds by cheque payable to Douse instead of payable to the investment company, adding roughly $1.8 million is suspected to have been misallocated.

In some cases, Douse is accused of forging investment and insurance paperwork to hide the misallocation of funds.
Police say investors should regularly review investment statements and keep track of all transactions to ensure funds are directed into intended products."

I hope this is not the same Kevin Douse charged in 2014 (FSRA)...
"On July 25, 2014 the Superintendent of Financial Services (“Superintendent”) issued a Notice of Proposal to impose an administrative monetary penalty in the amount of $1,000 on Mr. Kevein {sic} Douse.

The Superintendent had determined that Mr. Douse contravened or did not comply with a requirement under the Act, namely the requirement to give the Superintendent information about activities related to the business of a person who holds or held a license under this Act pursuant to Section 442.3(1)4 of the Act.

Mr. Douse did not request a hearing."

Police in central Ontario have laid a dozen charges against a financial advisor who is alleged to have stolen more than $1.8 million from clients.

09/09/2024

If you are a high-net worth Canadian looking for retirement in the U.S., it is worth looking at the Florida condo market (hint....wait a bit). As many are aware, many older condos in Miami and elsewhere were chronically underfunded for reserves for decades, and after some spectacular structural failures that caused significant loss of life, special assessments in the hundreds of thousands of USD per unit are coming for many owners of condos in areas of prime real estate. I am seeing record numbers of condos for sale in Florida (approximately double what it was a year ago), and asking prices are plummeting. Worse, as some owners capitulate and walk away, the per-unit special assessments increase increase, leading to a deadly spiral. Some of my sources in the US believe a complete tear-down of condos in areas of prime real estate is likely, to be replaced by ultra-luxe (5,000 - 30,000 square feet low-rise and high-rise ocean-front condos). The next ten years could be a renaissance for florida condos for the uber wealthy who choose to abandon California, New York, and elsewhere (Canada?).

Florida's condo market is under immense pressure from new regulations requiring inspections and expensive repairs.

07/24/2024

BoC just cut another 25 basis points.
Hello? Housing market calling.

06/13/2024

I have seen more and more evidence of Canadians thinking about/dreaming about/**ranting about** leaving the country.

(**my emphasis**)

Here is a great take from a tax specialist (I have no financial or personal relationship with Mr. Moody). He is just very smart and has been doing this a long, long time.

In our firm’s latest podcast, Kenneth Keung and Kim G C Moody discuss a topic that has becoming very prevalent in the past few years: Canadians wanting to move to the U.S. for either personal or business reasons (or both). They discuss: The reasons why Canadians are interested in this topic. Impor...

04/05/2024

Are you making the most of your RRSPs and TFSAs? Shockingly, many people are missing out on hard-earned returns by not using USD accounts. With 80% of investing ideas denominated in USD, it's important to take advantage of this opportunity. Don't leave your returns on the table - make the switch to USD accounts today.

USD accounts help you keep more of your returns.

02/06/2024

There is no substitute for showing up. It is the best way to develop new skills, make new connections, and new friends.

I have now completed 69 gigs as a part-time musician and, God willing, should hit #85 by the end of 2024. The band I perform in, SMILE 'N' WAVE, is about to hit 100 gigs, and I am thrilled to be part of this significant milestone (Feb 24, Burlington, Ontario!).

Making new friends in new contexts is what live music is about. If you like '80s New Wave music, look us up. Would love to see you!

Oh, and for the record, I'm not related to Russel Peters.

01/30/2024

On being the same person to everyone you know.

I have at least 5 constituencies that are often (but not always) in silos: 1. my wife, 2. my children, 3. my friends, 4. my colleagues (work, boards, & neighbours) and 5. my bandmates. I admit that 5 constituencies is not a big number; Some people have a dozen or more silos of relationships.

For most people, there are perhaps two occasions in a lifetime where all their constituencies gather in one place at the same time: 1. their wedding, and 2. their funeral. For me, when my '80s New Wave cover band performs monthly, all 5 of my constituencies (including my mother-in-law) are in the same place at the same time!

Imagine covering Relax! by Frankie Goes to Hollywood with your mother-in-law, your wife, and your (adult) kids in the audience. For good or ill, you are all-in when all your constituencies are gathered together.

Do you have a place where all of your constituencies collide? If not, think about creating one. It is a great exercise in transparency and honesty.

11/01/2023

Canada's Two-Tiered Banking System puts most Canadians in 2nd place.

Do you really want to give your hard-earned retirement savings to Big Banks that want you earning less, despite meeting the same criterion as the most wealthy Canadians? Why not try the independent route?

You decide if this is a two-tiered system. For the extremely wealthy, the greatest returns on your low-risk deposits. For regular Canadians, if you match the buying power of the extremely wealthy by virtue of purchasing so-called “Cash ETFs” (or High-Interest Savings ETFs), you are going to get a lower rate. Cash ETFs could see drops in cash ETF yields of 0.5% annually, according to TD Securities.

From the article:

“The federal watchdog for financial institutions is cracking down on cash exchange-traded funds, one of Canada’s most popular retail investments, by imposing capital rules that will ultimately lower the monthly yields the funds can pay out… While this change is not expected to decimate the product, it is a win for the banks that opposed these funds because cash ETFs will become less competitive relative to bank GICs.”

“Cash ETFs are able to pay high interest rates because select banks offer them access to wholesale funding – that is, the banks pay the funds premium interest rates they would normally reserve for institutional clients, or for large orders. Similar rates would be available to wealthy retail investors who wanted to deposit millions of dollars. This access has rankled some banks, The Globe has reported, because ETFs that offer premium rates to retail clients are likely to lure away customers from banks.”

Change is a win for banks that opposed funds because they become less competitive relative to bank GICs

09/05/2023

Sept 5, 2023.

Case study: Sell based on value, not price.

Part of the discipline of investing is monitoring each investment to keep abreast of its fundamentals. Here is a real-life example of an investment idea included in a piece entitled “Artificial Exuberance vs Artificial Intelligence,” published on June 12, 2023. In that piece I presented GEN Digital ( -NYSE). I wrote:

“…GEN currently trades at a forward P/E multiple of less than 9X, while its median multiple over the past 9 years is 23X. On a discounted cash flow basis, I calculate that under a scenario of zero growth for the next 10 years the stock is undervalued by 35%.“

GEN reported FQ1, '24 on Aug 3, met consensus revenue expectations and beat consensus EPS expectations by a 2%. The share price increased by more than 10%, but this move was largely commensurate with an increase in its forward P/E multiple, which is now 9.8X. Has the risk-adjusted return worsened? No. At time of writing, over the past nine years, 99% of the time it has traded at a higher forward P/E multiple, and 95% of the time it has traded at a higher multiple of forward-looking EV:EBITDA. The risk-adjusted return profile of the stock is still tilted to upside. With an improved consensus forecast for the company coming out of the most recent earnings report, the stock appears undervalued by approximately 50% based on my discounted cash flow forecast, under a scenario of 0% growth in EPS for the next 10 years.

Fundamentally, one should buy an asset if its fair value exceeds its current trading price. Ideally, the fair value should be significantly greater, providing a buffer against unknown risks and improbable, but catastrophic events. This “margin of safety” allows the investor to continue to hold the investment, even as he or she regularly re-assesses its fundamentals. As the marked-to-market value approaches fair value, the margin of safety declines and the investment becomes less attractive. If you have access to analyst reports, you may see that some make a point of highlighting the upside-downside risks. This is more instructive than the point estimates they often publish as price targets. Even better is if they provide a sensitivity table that allows you to translate your own expectations into an estimate of fair value.

Full article:

How to decide when to sell