The Art of Boring™ was created for curious and passionate investors. We share strategies, frameworks, and insights to help readers and listeners make better investment decisions. Our aim? To provide some bottom-up, long-term investing signal to cut through the short-term noise.

  • Know what you don't know

    As an avid basketball fan, I have been enjoying the recent success of the Golden State Warriors, who currently hold the best record in the NBA’s Western Conference. 

    February 10, 2015

  • Escalated danger rating

    Financial markets function relatively well most of the time; it is only on occasion that markets break, the system goes awry and crises ensue.

    February 5, 2015

  • Beware the camel in the tent

    Values shape the outcomes of our relationships, careers, investments and society, and therefore, are far too important to leave to chance or camels. 

    January 28, 2015

  • A world without OPEC

    After decades at the helm of global oil markets, OPEC appears to be relinquishing its status as designated “swing producer.”

    January 22, 2015

  • 5 great lessons from distressed debt guys

    My colleague James spent time with some distressed debt investors last week. Now, as a bond investor, James is already less positive and more cynical than the stereotypical equity manager.

    January 13, 2015

  • Mawer's top 10 book recommendations for 2015

    Every year, our team pulls together a list of books that most influenced our thinking in the previous year. It is not an easy task, given the extent of the team’s reading.

    January 9, 2015

  • A wish for more inclusive prosperity as we move forward

    In the spirit of the holidays, let’s put aside the overwhelming barrage of negative short-term economic and geopolitical news we’ve been faced with recently – which is often one of the most challenging aspects of long term investing – and instead, focus on a long term positive investment trend as we look towards 2015.

    December 30, 2014

  • 'Twas the day before Christmas

    ‘Twas the day before Christmas, so we’ll take our cue, to provide our blog readers, with a year in review.

    December 23, 2014

  • Thrill ride or smooth path?

    In investing, it is also alluring to dive right in and try a stock picking approach that seems to work well for others.

    December 18, 2014

  • Lesson of 1909

    Last week was a productive one for diplomats. Not only did the U.S. and China sign a landmark climate change accord, the two mega-powers also established military guidelines to govern the contested waters off China and agreed to reduce technology tariffs.

    November 19, 2014

  • Why public investors should care about the rise of private investment

    To be sure, there are many reasons a company may prefer to turn to private investors over more traditional public markets, but as more companies choose private funding when they need to raise capital, what are the implications for investors in public markets? 

    October 31, 2018

  • A selective approach to equity markets

    Last week, Morningstar interviewed international equity portfolio manager David Ragan about finding resilient stocks in international markets during turbulent times.

    October 17, 2018

  • Canadian lifecos: More than just insurance

    Canadian insurance companies are no longer just in the business of selling insurance to Canadians. They function more like financial conglomerates, and that, for investors, is potentially a good thing.

    August 22, 2018

  • Defensiveness: A suitcase word

    Given how often “defensive” enters into the investing lexicon and that it can mean different things to different people, aiming for a greater degree of precision in its definition may help to reduce misunderstanding or generalized historical bias.

    July 18, 2018

  • Process before proceeds

    In theory, investors should improve at least linearly over time as they make and learn from errors. But in practice, there seems to be little evidence of this (only few active managers beat the market over longer time periods).

    June 12, 2018

  • Italian moves

    Italy has been the source of drama in recent weeks, and it hasn’t all been about men racing bicycles in spandex.

    June 4, 2018

  • “Certified fresh” lessons from machine learning

    Humans and machines have different strengths and weaknesses, and on our team, we tend to see the foreseeable future as a world in which the two work side-by-side. As with any tool, for machine learning to be useful, it is what it is being used for and how that matters. 

    May 2, 2018