It would appear that the biggest theme of 2016 will end up being “conventional wisdom is wrong, bet against the consensus view”. From Brexit to inflation to OPEC to Donald Trump, we are living through a period that future generations will read about in history books. Going forward from November 9th, 2016, investing will require new thinking and different positioning. We stand at the end of years of easy and unorthodox monetary policy. We could be transitioning to a new fiscal world order, and when we think about all the wealth that has been created by zero and negative interest rate policies, we can’t help but think that things are about to change.

We are pleased to say that both funds delivered positive performance in November...

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I was not one of the believers, hence the news on Tuesday that Donald Trump and the Republicans captured a clean sweep (winning the White House and both sides of Congress) was a big surprise to me. Now the question becomes, what does it mean? The simple answer is we can guess, but it’s too early to know with certainty. Clearly, a Trump Washington, just like Brexit, will have longer-term implications that will only become apparent over time. In the short-term, how will Trump’s campaign rhetoric of ripping up NAFTA, erecting a wall between Mexico and the US, and reversing the policies of Dodd-Frank and Obamacare play out in real life? Approaching Election Day we had reduced exposure levels in each our two funds and layered on portfolio insurance...

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Market fears that positive inflation statistics and stingy central bankers would combine to finally end the 35 year bull market in bonds fueled further sector rotation in stock markets during October. Down 2.9%, bonds had their worst month since May 2013 when Bernanke signaled that the Fed might slow down its purchasing of bonds. With shares in bank stocks benefitting from this “rate shock”, and with oil equities gaining on the hype of an OPEC cut, the TSX advanced during October, despite a decline in the majority of the various index components. In the US, all indices declined. So did the Forge First funds...

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The two focal points for markets this year, central banks and oil, certainly took centre stage during September 2016. Led by the actions of the Bank of Japan, the former catalyzed the largest volatility spike in months while chat from OPEC last week enabled Canadian stocks to end the month on a positive note. Each of the two Forge First funds generated positive net returns for September...

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