For decades, Robert West’s investment strategy was simple: buy whatever The Investment Reporter tells him to.
He has subscribed to the newsletter, which gives advice on Canadian stock picks, since the 1990s. His mother first became a subscriber in the 1970s, and the website for the outlet says it’s been providing investment advice since 1941.
But in the past couple of months, The Investment Reporter and its parent company, MPL Communications Inc., which also runs a newsletter called Investor’s Digest of Canada, have seemingly disappeared. Many readers complained to The Globe and Mail that they’ve stopped receiving their weekly newsletters for months, despite already having paid a roughly $300 fee for a year’s subscription.
Subscribers who spoke to The Globe said they received their last issue in June and haven’t heard anything from the company since.
Now, they find themselves looking for a new source of information to guide their investing strategies.
For Mr. West, the special thing about The Investment Reporter was the trust he had in its advice. For decades his own family benefited from its stock picks, and he appreciated that the newsletter promoted a buy-and-hold strategy, rather than actively buying and selling.
He has tried other newsletters and even some bloggers on social media, but finding a source he trusts hasn’t been easy, especially when many newsletters focus too much on timing the market.
“It’s a bit of a loss for me because I’ve relied on them for so long,” said Mr. West, who isn’t fussed about losing out on the subscription money because of how profitable the newsletter’s picks have been over the years. “I did so well off them that losing a couple hundred bucks wasn’t really a big deal.”
E-mails and social-media messages to multiple staff and executives at MPL Communications went unanswered, and calls to the company’s office went straight to voice mail with answering-machine messages that were last recorded in June. In August, The Investment Reporter’s web page stopped loading up online.
At the company’s former office in downtown Toronto, a notice of lease termination was posted for failure to pay rent, and a mailroom attendant in the building said mail has been coming in for months without being picked up.
MPL chairman Stephen Pepper declined to comment for this story when reached by phone.
Meanwhile, David Carlson, a former executive who remained a shareholder after leaving the company in 2014, said Mr. Pepper contacted him in late June to notify him that all employees at MPL Communications had been laid off.
In the 2000s, Mr. Carlson launched a lawsuit over allegedly misused company funds by Mr. Pepper and MPL president Barrie Martland.
The Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta found in 2009 that while Mr. Pepper and Mr. Martland devoted their care to the company, corporate governance “was never something they took seriously or seemed to fully appreciate,” and they failed to see that their method of running the business “would eventually lead minority shareholders to ask legitimate questions about insider dealing.”
Despite the drama behind the scenes, many subscribers were diehard followers. Marty Juritsch subscribed for the past 13 years and felt he came out ahead of standard exchange-traded funds that track major stock markets.
He plans to shop around for other investing newsletters but, like Mr. West, he expects to switch to a simple investing strategy based on ETFs if he doesn’t soon find a trustworthy alternative.
The vast availability of ETFs that were diversified and low in fees led subscribers to question in recent years if The Investment Reporter would be able to continue operating.
“I really liked The Investment Reporter but the newsletter format seemed dated and I wondered how they would continue to compete in today’s online environment,” Mr. Juritsch said. “It didn’t seem like a complete surprise to find out that they closed down.”
The newsletter business wasn’t always this difficult. Gordon Pape, editor and publisher of the Internet Wealth Builder and Income Investor newsletters, said he had seen physical mail circulation lists of more than 100,000 for The Money Letter, another newsletter he was involved with decades ago.
“It was huge, but when the digital age hit and other sources of information became available … that really started to whittle away at the circulation of these newsletters and I saw them go downhill quite rapidly,” said Mr. Pape, who said he was still sad to see MPL Communications disappear.
“We’ve lost one more source of information for Canadian investors, but times are what they are.”
Mr. West said he’s still looking for a replacement newsletter that will make investing as simple as it was in the past. He isn’t particularly confident his search will be successful.
“It made investing low-effort,” he said. “If I have to start investing that time in it, it may not be worth it.”
As a 59-year-old who has already had a successful investing life thus far, he said there’s another simple and relatively low-risk alternative ready for him if his search doesn’t pan out: a portfolio full of ETFs.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was down more than 200 points in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the technology, base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets also fell.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 239.24 points at 22,749.04.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 312.36 points at 40,443.39. The S&P 500 index was down 80.94 points at 5,422.47, while the Nasdaq composite was down 380.17 points at 16,747.49.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.80 cents US compared with 74.00 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down US$1.07 at US$68.08 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.26 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$2.10 at US$2,541.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$4.10 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in technology, financial and energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also pushed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 171.41 points at 23,298.39.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 278.37 points at 41,369.79. The S&P 500 index was up 38.17 points at 5,630.35, while the Nasdaq composite was up 177.15 points at 17,733.18.
The Canadian dollar traded for 74.19 cents US compared with 74.23 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up US$1.75 at US$76.27 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.10 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$18.70 at US$2,556.50 an ounce and the December copper contract was down less than a penny at US$4.22 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2024.
The crypto market has recently experienced a significant downturn, mirroring broader risk asset sell-offs. Over the past week, Bitcoin’s price dropped by 24%, reaching $53,000, while Ethereum plummeted nearly a third to $2,340. Major altcoins also suffered, with Cardano down 27.7%, Solana 36.2%, Dogecoin 34.6%, XRP 23.1%, Shiba Inu 30.1%, and BNB 25.7%.
The severe downturn in the crypto market appears to be part of a broader flight to safety, triggered by disappointing economic data. A worse-than-expected unemployment report on Friday marked the beginning of a technical recession, as defined by the Sahm Rule. This rule identifies a recession when the three-month average unemployment rate rises by at least half a percentage point from its lowest point in the past year.
Friday’s figures met this threshold, signaling an abrupt economic downshift. Consequently, investors sought safer assets, leading to declines in major stock indices: the S&P 500 dropped 2%, the Nasdaq 2.5%, and the Dow 1.5%. This trend continued into Monday with further sell-offs overseas.
The crypto market’s rapid decline raises questions about its role as either a speculative asset or a hedge against inflation and recession. Despite hopes that crypto could act as a risk hedge, the recent crash suggests it remains a speculative investment.
Since the downturn, the crypto market has seen its largest three-day sell-off in nearly a year, losing over $500 billion in market value. According to CoinGlass data, this bloodbath wiped out more than $1 billion in leveraged positions within the last 24 hours, including $365 million in Bitcoin and $348 million in Ether.
Khushboo Khullar of Lightning Ventures, speaking to Bloomberg, argued that the crypto sell-off is part of a broader liquidity panic as traders rush to cover margin calls. Khullar views this as a temporary sell-off, presenting a potential buying opportunity.
Josh Gilbert, an eToro market analyst, supports Khullar’s perspective, suggesting that the expected Federal Reserve rate cuts could benefit crypto assets. “Crypto assets have sold off, but many investors will see an opportunity. We see Federal Reserve rate cuts, which are now likely to come sharper than expected, as hugely positive for crypto assets,” Gilbert told Coindesk.
Despite the recent volatility, crypto continues to make strides toward mainstream acceptance. Notably, Morgan Stanley will allow its advisors to offer Bitcoin ETFs starting Wednesday. This follows more than half a year after the introduction of the first Bitcoin ETF. The investment bank will enable over 15,000 of its financial advisors to sell BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC. This move is seen as a significant step toward the “mainstreamization” of crypto, given the lengthy regulatory and company processes in major investment banks.
The recent crypto market downturn highlights its volatility and the broader economic concerns affecting all risk assets. While some analysts see the current situation as a temporary sell-off and a buying opportunity, others caution against the speculative nature of crypto. As the market evolves, its role as a mainstream alternative asset continues to grow, marked by increasing institutional acceptance and new investment opportunities.
