Perspectives on investing, planning & the markets.
Clear, practical thinking from the Frontwater team — on ETFs and index investing, financial planning, options and hedging, and the market events worth paying attention to. Plus our quarterly newsletter and annual letters to clients.
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How Smart Investors Leverage Up: The Institutional Approach to Responsible Borrowing
A $300,000 down payment on a $1.5 million home is four dollars borrowed per dollar of equity. Borrowing 15 to 20 percent against a diversified portfolio somehow feels reckless. The disconnect is behavioural, not mathematical.
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The Fund Tax: Why ZUT's Fee and Concentration Work Against Investors
BMO's equal-weight utilities ETF charges 0.61% to hold just thirteen names, and excludes Enbridge and TC Energy by classification. A look at what that fee and that omission quietly cost, measured against what a direct basket would have returned instead.
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Using Options Around Nvidia's August 26th Earnings Announcement
A calendar spread, the mechanics behind it, and the way it ends. Sell the August 21 expiry, own the August 28 expiry, and close the whole structure on August 21 while the earnings premium was still intact, rather than holding through the report.
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The Nvidia Earnings Trade That Ends Before Earnings
Nvidia fell in every session of expiry week and closed twenty-eight cents outside the structure. The calendar spread finished profitable regardless, and the position was closed five days before the report that priced it.
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Investing at Market Highs: The Portfolio Manager's Dilemma
How option strategies turn a binary decision into a strategic advantage — why a cash secured put lets a manager get paid to buy in gradually at the price they actually want, and why to ignore the scare tactics.
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Why the 60/40 Portfolio Is Broken for Many Seniors
The “safe” 40% stopped doing its job, and the advisors selling it kept collecting their fees — why an 85% equity / 15% GIC structure can be the more conservative choice for many retirees.
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Options Done Right
Why active, rules-based option overlays add alpha — and when to switch the autopilot off.
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The Income Illusion
BMO’s covered-call bank ETF (ZWB) has trailed the plain index ZEB for over a decade. A look at why the headline yield can quietly cost you, and how the marketing obscures the trade-off rather than spotlighting it.
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The Income Illusion, Part II
BMO's covered-call utilities ETF (ZWU) pairs a ~7% headline yield with a materially lower total return than the plain utilities index ZUT. A look at what the 7% cheque quietly costs, and why the distribution is padded with return of capital.
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Surprise: Why the humble GIC quietly replaces most bonds
A five-year GIC can out-yield a Government of Canada bond, a top-rated AAA corporate, and nearly match a riskier BBB, with deposit insurance that need not stop at $100,000.
Read the articleFrontwater's Annual Newsletter
Our third consecutive year of average double-digit returns.
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Another remarkable year for Frontwater investors.
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Investing at near perfection.
Read full letterEarlier commentary
A decade of market notes and event-driven commentary, newest first. Each piece reflects conditions at the time of writing — kept here for the record and still a good read.
Build a Bond Portfolio with these 2 Equities — Altria and Phillip MorrisMarket CommentarySep 2019
The commentary in past issues reflects market conditions at the time of publication and should not be read as current investment advice. Frontwater Capital does not undertake to update prior commentary.