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.

  • The expert problem

    A better understanding of how and when to utilize experts helps prevent wasting time and money. 

    August 5, 2015

  • Chinese reform: One step forward, two steps back

    Chinese reform is a big deal. Despite being the second largest economy in the world and experiencing decades of impressive growth, China suffers from structural challenges that hamper its future potential.

    July 30, 2015

  • An imperfect signal

    Bondholders have been on quite the ride in the last few months. The year began with yields moving lower in many regions—notably Europe—to the surprise of some investors who just last year thought that rates could only go higher.

    June 15, 2015

  • Curious George

    It’s hard not to love Curious George.  It’s an unfair contest really—here’s a cute little monkey who, with the best of intentions, constantly gets into trouble as he explores the overly-structured world around him!

    May 20, 2015

  • Quiet heroes

    Too often, we seem to confuse heroism with heroics, significance with pomp and flash.

    May 13, 2015

  • The unfathomable is not impossible

    When we open our minds to a wide set of possibilities—including ideas that initially seem impossible—we make it easier to put the odds in our favour over time.

    May 5, 2015

  • The boy who cried Greece

    Greece has been struggling with some manner of financial crisis for almost five years. The situation has become worse of late due to the fallout from the January 2015 election when the leftist party Syriza rose to power under an anti-austerity mandate.

    April 28, 2015

  • Rockin’ and rollin’ in China

    The Chinese stock market has been very hot as of late. Many Chinese indices are up dramatically over the last twelve months.

    April 21, 2015

  • Unlocking India’s potential

    This was my first lesson in India. When you arrive in the country, you don’t just land at the airport, India lands on you.

    April 7, 2015

  • A tribute to Lee Kuan Yew

    If a person's legacy is to be measured by his contributions to society, then Lee Kuan Yew ranks among the great heroes.

    March 27, 2015

  • China in focus

    Many of the old stories surrounding China are becoming—or are—obsolete. New ones are emerging. China’s economy is very different than it used to be, and this shift, as well as some of the trends occurring there, are worthwhile to understand. We’d be wise to pay attention.

    January 11, 2018

  • 'Twas the week before Christmas...

    ‘Twas the week before Christmas
    And we’re again filled with cheer
    To provide our blog readers
    A review of the year:

    December 20, 2017

  • India in flight: Finding the long investment runways

    How many toilets do you have at home? Or rather—let me put it this way: do you have a toilet in your home? For most people reading this, the idea of not having one may sound crazy, but in India, over half of all households do not have the luxuries of a toilet and/or bathing facility.

    December 15, 2017

  • The skier’s guide to portfolio risk management

    The ski season is officially open and the keeners have taken their first turns. I know our CIO, Jim Hall, is an avid skier so I sat down with him recently to discuss portfolio risk management and how it relates to skiing.

    November 29, 2017

  • Life at railway speed: Lessons from the technology hype cycle

    In 1845, Scottish poet and author, William Aytoun, published his satire, How we got up the Glenmutchkin Railway, and how we got out of it. His story focused on the railway stock frenzy that gripped Great Britain, with the aim of bringing awareness to what he saw as madness, “if anyone ha[d] the sense to see it.”

    November 28, 2017

  • The end of oil?

    With entrepreneurs like Elon Musk pushing for a solar energy future and electric cars on the horizon, many are seriously questioning oil’s dominance. Are we finally moving into a post-oil age?

    November 15, 2017

  • Bottleneck thinking

    As an observational lens, bottleneck-thinking can quickly uncover specific pressure points people may have, such as a holding’s valuation or current management.

    November 8, 2017

  • There’s no such thing as immaculate perception

    Each day we observe events and instantly associate meaning to them. In other words, we are constantly making inferences about the world—usually unconsciously. Unfortunately, we tend to neglect challenging these inferences or even fool ourselves into thinking that they are wholly evidence based. 

    October 25, 2017

  • For bonds’ sake

    Conversations about increasing interest rates and their impact on bond investments have recently spiked in Canada. Since bonds are traditionally viewed as an investment that provides a steady stream of income while acting as a safety net within an overall balanced portfolio, an environment of rising interest rates understandably causes unease: it can decrease the price of bonds and therefore can negatively impact performance.

    October 18, 2017

  • Beakerhead 2017: Up against all odds

    This week we have the pleasure of partnering again with Beakerhead, a Calgary-based charitable organization that “brings together the arts, sciences, and engineering sectors to build, engage, compete, and exhibit interactive works of art, engineered creativity and entertainment.”

    September 13, 2017