Here is Part IV of the Quotable Guide to Passive Investing. Part I is here. Then follow the links at the bottom of the page to access the rest of the parts.

In Thomas Hardy's masterpiece of a novel written in the 1880s,  The Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge, the destinies of the two main characters, the tragic Michael Henchard and the triumphant Donald Farfrae, essentially rested on the outcome of their trading in commodities.

The financial blogosphere in Canada has been abuzz since Derek Foster disclosed he sold most of his stocks in February. The reaction hasn’t been favorable, as one would expect when the guru doesn’t practice what he preaches in his bestselling, dividend-investing guide “Stop Working: Here’s How You Can.” A caption ...

Online financial calculators can be informative but sometimes there may be a fine line between information and marketing. That’s one caveat that has come to mind while reviewing the various calculators and preparing summaries in Online Calculators (Feb. 12, 2009) and RRSP Calculators (Feb. 26, 2009).

I talked recently to Richard Deaves, a professor of finance with a specialization in behavioural finance. As mentioned in his book, he thinks investors should become do-it-yourselfers and adopt the passive-indexing approach (e.g. Couch Potato Portfolio). There are just too many behavioural traps such as overconfidence, performance chasing, and the like; ...

Buy-and-hold investing seems to always evolve into buy-and-fold. The following data on October mutual-fund redemptions was sent by Som Seif of Claymore Investments:

“Buy. Hold. And Prosper,” goes the catchy slogan for Canadian mutual-fund company AIC Limited. But it may soon have to change to “Buy. Hold. And Fold,” considering the way net redemptions are wreaking Havoc with AIC Funds’ asset base.