“Ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies.” Charles Dickens Boring old bonds have been anything but lately.  Investors that were lured back into fixed income have been treated to some wild bouts of volatility, with the pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other (and in short order). The year began full of […]

“What’s love but a secondhand emotion?” Tina Turner On the fourteenth day of this month, romantics across the globe will celebrate what Plato once called theia mania, the divine madness.  While the origins of Valentine’s Day lie in ancient Rome, the first evidence of it being a day for lovers is in Chaucer’s 14th-century poem, […]

“An economist is an expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today.” Evan Esar The passage of one year into the next is marked by some interesting customs and traditions.  Americans watch the ball drop, Spaniards eat twelve grapes at the stroke of midnight, and the Danes smash crockery on […]

“Tomorrow is promised to no one.” Clint Eastwood One More Sleep.   Every Canadian bond nerd has tomorrow circled in their calendar.  It is the day the Bank of Canada (BoC) delivers its latest installment in what has been an aggressive series of rate increases. So far this year, they have taken the overnight rate […]

“Fashions fade. Style is eternal.” Yves Saint Laurent For years, ultra-low yields led to fixed income falling out of fashion and being discarded from racks in favour of cooler, hipper trends.  Bonds were bullied off the catwalk and out of portfolios with taunts of ‘return-free-risk’ and ‘there is no alternative (TINA).’ Then this year, bonds […]