Focusing on the Long Game Under Stress

I looked up from my desk and found the market down more than 10%. The next day, it was up 10%. The day after, down 10% again. That violent yo-yo-ing was the reality this past spring. At one point, the S&P/TSX Composite Index lost a quarter of its value in about a week.

Reflecting on 2020, the most memorable (or rather, forgettable?) part of the year was the market freefall during the spring. Amid the chaos, our team triple-checked every holding’s balance sheet and the discounts on offer and acted decisively. During such a stressful period, how were we comfortable that we were making good decisions?

Stuart Tabor

Stuart is an Associate Portfolio Manager at Sionna and has been with the firm since 2020. Prior to joining Sionna, Stuart interned at both Burgundy Asset Management and RBC Global Asset Management. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration, Advanced Finance Major and Minor in History from St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Stuart has successfully completed Levels I and II of the CFA Program.

Market Update: The Path Back to Normalcy (Audio)

Listen as Stephen Jenkins outlines what the recent U.S. election results and the announcement of a potential COVID-19 vaccine could mean for value stocks.

Sionna’s Value Pick

Kim recently presented one of Sionna's value stock picks at the Capitalize for Kids Investors Conference, an event that raises money for kids' mental health. Read her script from the presentation as she slowly reveals the stock, which happens to be in the currently "unloved" energy sector.

The Mind and Mispricing

One of the few certainties in investing is the ubiquitous presence of uncertainty. As an investment manager, it is our business to deal with uncertainties as well as the attendant opportunities and risks that uncertain situations present. At Sionna, we spend a lot of time thinking about the behavioural dynamics that can drive mispricing in the market and how uncertainty plays a role.

An Overlooked Opportunity Right on our Doorstep

Canadians tend to be a boast-avoidant and somewhat self-deprecating nation. Stock market valuations are a mélange of financial fundamentals and human perceptions, including our modest national self-perception, which in turn influences our perception of the TSX. Too often we allow our Canadian market to be dismissed as too small, too resource weighted, too cyclical, too idiosyncratic and thus too risky to be considered a core investment. But, let’s examine these prevalent perceptions and see what hidden opportunities we can find.

Don’t Panic, but be Prepared. An Investors’ Survival Guide for the Unstable, Uncertain and Volatile Months Ahead (The Globe and Mail)

Kim Shannon discusses why the Canadian market is particularly attractive right now.

Aleksy Wojcik

Aleksy joined Sionna in 2020 as a Portfolio Manager. He is a member of Sionna’s Canadian Equity team and contributes to Sionna’s non-domestic strategies. Aleksy has more than 25 years of industry experience, most recently as VP Investments and Portfolio Manager at CI Harbour Advisors where he focused on award-winning Canadian Equity and Canadian Balanced portfolios. Aleksy is graduate of the University of Toronto, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts, Economics degree and is a CFA® charterholder.

The Pendulum’s Swing Back to Value is Only a Matter of Time (Les Affaires)

Stephen Jenkins discusses our conviction in the value style and where we are finding opportunities within Sionna's North American strategy. This article has been translated with permission from Les Affaires.

Navigating Through Disruption

Following sharp declines in March, the stock market staged an impressive recovery during the second quarter of 2020. While we were a bit surprised by the speed with which this happened, we also understood that, historically, the largest market gains can be found immediately following sharp declines. March was ugly, but the selloff created many value investment opportunities for us, as selloffs usually do.