Investment Club Update

Investors:

In Canadian dollars, our account is down 5.6% from the time period of April 1, 2008 to April 1, 2009.

Many of you have investment accounts in Canada that report their gains/losses in Canadian dollars. By comparison, I think you'll find that we've done really well.

In U.S. dollar terms, we have dropped 29% during the past 12 month time period--a period where the U.S. market is down 41% and the international market is down 48%.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=VEA#chart1:symbol=vea;range=1y;compare=^gspc;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

We've easily beaten all of the equity based funds from the largest actively managed fund company in the U.S. ("American Funds") and their performances can be seen here:

https://www.americanfunds.com/funds/returns/alphabetically.htm

People buying these funds have to pay a commission of 5.75%. Bummer.

From what I understand (based on my browsing) we have also beaten every equity based Canadian fund offered by TD, The Royal Bank, ING Direct, MD Management, Investors Group and CIBC, from April 1, 2008 to April 1, 2009. The chances of that happening again are about as likely that your kitchen faucet will start spouting Cabernet Savignon. Not impossible. But not likely.

If you have more cash to invest, we could use it by taking advantage of these market levels.

We did receive a fresh $3000 into the account this week, and I allocated it towards the shockingly cheap Vanguard International index.