Stock markets, economic analysis and investing
Canada’s Unique Market Structure The Toronto Stock Exchange is unlike any other major developed market index — and not always in ways that benefit Canadian investors. As of early 2025,…
The $12 Trillion Shift Global ETF assets hit roughly $12 trillion in early 2025, according to ETFGI, up from $1 trillion in 2009 and just $200 billion in 2003. The…
The Rate Cycle That Changed Everything The Federal Reserve’s interest rate hiking cycle of 2022-2023 — 11 rate hikes taking the federal funds rate from 0-0.25% to 5.25-5.5% in 18…
$13 Trillion in Seven Stocks Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta, and Tesla — the so-called “Magnificent Seven” — have a combined market capitalization of roughly $13 trillion as of…
The Only Certainty in Markets Bear markets aren’t anomalies — they’re features of the system. Since 1928, the S&P 500 has experienced 27 bear markets (defined as a 20%+ decline…
The S&P/TSX Composite Index — Canada’s primary equity benchmark — has a distinctive character that sets it apart from the S&P 500. Where the US market is dominated by technology…
In 1993, State Street launched the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (ticker: SPY), the first exchange-traded fund in the United States, with $6.5 million in assets under management. Thirty-two years later,…
For the first time in nearly two decades, interest rates are behaving normally. The era of zero interest rate policy (ZIRP), which lasted from 2008 to 2022 with only a…
As of early 2025, seven companies — Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, NVIDIA, Meta and Tesla — account for approximately 32% of the S&P 500’s total market capitalisation and have been…
Bear markets are not anomalies. They are a feature of financial markets, as predictable as gravity and as unwelcome as a tax audit. Since 1928, the S&P 500 has experienced…
