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.
Jim Hall (chair, head of our risk management process, and portfolio manager) shares his overall observations on prevailing macroeconomic risks—and the effects on our process and the EAFE large cap portfolio.
How we achieve balance in the portfolio, manage hubris, and have accounted for inflation risk in our investment process.
Chief Investment Officer, Paul Moroz, reflects on notable learnings from 2021 and how time and experience still clarify the most in investing—and life.
Our systematic assessment framework to narrow the probabilities in analysing fast-growing technology companies in an effort to improve our odds of identifying those elusive “holy compounders.”
The major themes of Q4 and a look ahead to 2022.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
~Mark Twain
Inflation cycles throughout history, Keynes vs. monetarists, and why the enemy is…still us.
‘Twas the week before Christmas, so let's have some fun. Mawer recaps the main themes of 2021.
Global debt, China’s credit cycle, shifting monetary and fiscal policy objectives, and the three scenarios we are thinking about this year.
Impacts of higher inflation and interest rates and the benefits of an integrated research team.
How an engineering principle can improve investment risk management.
Inflation risk, slowing global growth, and the un-globalization trend—a review of Q3.
Jim Hall (chair, head of our risk management process, and portfolio manager) shares his overall observations on prevailing macroeconomic risks—and the effects on our process and the EAFE large cap portfolio.
How we achieve balance in the portfolio, manage hubris, and have accounted for inflation risk in our investment process.
Chief Investment Officer, Paul Moroz, reflects on notable learnings from 2021 and how time and experience still clarify the most in investing—and life.
Our systematic assessment framework to narrow the probabilities in analysing fast-growing technology companies in an effort to improve our odds of identifying those elusive “holy compounders.”
The major themes of Q4 and a look ahead to 2022.
Inflation cycles throughout history, Keynes vs. monetarists, and why the enemy is…still us.
‘Twas the week before Christmas, so let's have some fun. Mawer recaps the main themes of 2021.
Global debt, China’s credit cycle, shifting monetary and fiscal policy objectives, and the three scenarios we are thinking about this year.
Impacts of higher inflation and interest rates and the benefits of an integrated research team.
How an engineering principle can improve investment risk management.
Inflation risk, slowing global growth, and the un-globalization trend—a review of Q3.
Given the extent of voracious readers we have here at Mawer, pulling together a recommended reads post is no easy task!
We have found that many Canadian investors—or any investor, for that matter—can be reluctant to diversify beyond their borders, but portfolios solely invested in Canada might as well be an egg crate on a rickety motorcycle. You might get where you want to go, but there will likely be a lot more risk during the journey. And, for many client situations, this means too much is riding on one bet—with not enough balance.
Over the long-term, the accumulated costs of technical debt can have a financial impact on a company and its shareholders.
We believe smaller players can be competitive, profitable, and create value in commoditized and competitive markets—the crux is having an effective strategy.
It all comes down to the value proposition a company provides to the client.
We focus on best execution (avoiding the steamroller), but also try not to lose sight of the knowledge that a penny lost might be worth dollars of return should our investment thesis be correct.
One of the most important elements of our risk management framework is our decision-making environment. We spend a lot of time focusing on our team culture because it’s the foundation on which better investment decisions are made.
Leave it to the “boring” folks at Mawer to turn an idea about love into a blog about investing.
One reason we look for great managers is because they frequently surprise on the upside by extending growth runways and increasing business durability, which ultimately leads to greater value.
‘Twas the week before Christmas, so let’s set the scene: Just what the heck happened In 2018?
It is much more valuable to have a probabilistic risk evaluation process.
We know we can’t predict the future (read: unknowns), but we can account for the likelihood of some scenarios.
Given the extent of voracious readers we have here at Mawer, pulling together a recommended reads post is no easy task!
We have found that many Canadian investors—or any investor, for that matter—can be reluctant to diversify beyond their borders, but portfolios solely invested in Canada might as well be an egg crate on a rickety motorcycle. You might get where you want to go, but there will likely be a lot more risk during the journey. And, for many client situations, this means too much is riding on one bet—with not enough balance.
Over the long-term, the accumulated costs of technical debt can have a financial impact on a company and its shareholders.
We believe smaller players can be competitive, profitable, and create value in commoditized and competitive markets—the crux is having an effective strategy.
It all comes down to the value proposition a company provides to the client.
We focus on best execution (avoiding the steamroller), but also try not to lose sight of the knowledge that a penny lost might be worth dollars of return should our investment thesis be correct.
One of the most important elements of our risk management framework is our decision-making environment. We spend a lot of time focusing on our team culture because it’s the foundation on which better investment decisions are made.
Leave it to the “boring” folks at Mawer to turn an idea about love into a blog about investing.
One reason we look for great managers is because they frequently surprise on the upside by extending growth runways and increasing business durability, which ultimately leads to greater value.
‘Twas the week before Christmas, so let’s set the scene: Just what the heck happened In 2018?
It is much more valuable to have a probabilistic risk evaluation process.
We know we can’t predict the future (read: unknowns), but we can account for the likelihood of some scenarios.
Why management teams matter, energy companies rarely meet our investment criteria, and JPMorgan and State Street differ from many regional banks.
Why genuine knowledge building and the ability to learn effectively in investing is difficult, and how we try to work around those challenges.
The major themes of the quarter, where we are in the interest rate hike cycle, and our thoughts on the recent banking crisis.
This episode, we discuss our seven-point management assessment framework (with examples), our risk management approach, and overall thoughts on energy.
Digging into last year’s performance drivers, the current opportunity set, and benefits of resuming boots-on-the-ground research.
The nuanced impacts of inflation to companies’ balance sheets that investors might be missing.
Chief Investment Officer Paul Moroz shares takeaways from the Research team's annual post-mortem discussions.
Portfolio Manager Crista Caughlin walks listeners through the tumultuous bond market experiences of 2022 and outlines three main economic scenarios the team is monitoring for 2023.
Some of the main challenges facing the continent, what we gleaned from visiting over 45 companies, and ESG considerations that are front of mind for major European investment firms.
A review of last quarter, the major themes and takeaways from 2022, and what’s on the horizon for the new year.
What investors can learn from the S-curves of technologies both old and new.
What we think about the newly proposed tax on share buybacks in Canada, a balanced take on the energy theme, and where we’ve trimmed, exited, and added in the portfolio.
How do investors figure out what a company is worth? (Especially in a higher inflationary and interest rate environment?)
Why management teams matter, energy companies rarely meet our investment criteria, and JPMorgan and State Street differ from many regional banks.
Why genuine knowledge building and the ability to learn effectively in investing is difficult, and how we try to work around those challenges.
The major themes of the quarter, where we are in the interest rate hike cycle, and our thoughts on the recent banking crisis.
This episode, we discuss our seven-point management assessment framework (with examples), our risk management approach, and overall thoughts on energy.
Digging into last year’s performance drivers, the current opportunity set, and benefits of resuming boots-on-the-ground research.
The nuanced impacts of inflation to companies’ balance sheets that investors might be missing.
Chief Investment Officer Paul Moroz shares takeaways from the Research team's annual post-mortem discussions.
Portfolio Manager Crista Caughlin walks listeners through the tumultuous bond market experiences of 2022 and outlines three main economic scenarios the team is monitoring for 2023.
Some of the main challenges facing the continent, what we gleaned from visiting over 45 companies, and ESG considerations that are front of mind for major European investment firms.
A review of last quarter, the major themes and takeaways from 2022, and what’s on the horizon for the new year.
What investors can learn from the S-curves of technologies both old and new.
What we think about the newly proposed tax on share buybacks in Canada, a balanced take on the energy theme, and where we’ve trimmed, exited, and added in the portfolio.
How do investors figure out what a company is worth? (Especially in a higher inflationary and interest rate environment?)
