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Slip into something more comfortable and delve into personal finance with Josh Sheluk and Colin White, experienced portfolio managers at Verecan Capital Management. Each episode demystifies complex financial topics, stripping them to their bare essentials. From investment strategies and financial planning to economic headlines and philanthropic giving, delivered with a blend of insight, transparency, and a touch of humour. Perfect for anyone looking to understand and navigate their financial future with confidence. Subscribe now to stay informed, empowered, and entertained.
Verecan Capital Management Inc. is registered as a Portfolio Manager in all provinces in Canada except Manitoba.
The more outrageous you are, the more followers you get, and the more of a business model you have. So it's a race towards who can be the most outrageous, which is not the race towards, you know, something that is meaningful, useful, or right. A boring truce is no competition for an exciting lie. That really holds true in the influencer space.
Josh Sheluk:Welcome to the next episode of Bare Naked Money. It's the podcast where we pull back the shower curtain on all the things finance related. And we have a very special guest here today to help us pull back that shower curtain. And Colin and I talk about media a lot on this podcast and what it means and how to interact with media as a consumer. So today we're joined by April Fong, and April is the Deputy Editor, Personal Finance at The Globe and Mail.
Josh Sheluk:We're super happy to have her. And that title means that she's responsible for helping to lead the coverage around the personal finance section in The Globe. And anything that you see and read in that personal finance section, she's likely had her fingers on in some way, shape or form. And not only has she been at The Globe for a while now, but prior to her time at The Globe and Mail, she had time at The Logic where she was responsible for leading their daily newsletter as well as their editorial strategy and direction. And she's also had stints at B and M, Bloomberg, and the Financial Post.
Josh Sheluk:She's really the perfect guest to talk about the Canadian media landscape and specifically as it relates to business and finance. So April, thanks so much for joining us today.
April Fong:Thanks so much for having me.
Josh Sheluk:Colin and I both have a lot of questions to ask you, and you might have some questions to ask back to us, which is perfectly fine. But I wanted to start by asking, what do you find is different today about media reporting, specifically as it relates to business and finance than it was maybe ten years ago?
April Fong:You know, I started in the financial crisis as a journalist. And, you know, I think a lot of the themes are still, still persist today. There's uncertainty. People want to know what to do with their hard earned money, and they wanna be informed, in order to make those decisions. Right?
April Fong:And business leaders as well need to be informed to make those decisions. And so I think that's our job as business journalists to, I tend to think that one of our main goals is that we should be helping small businesses, investors, regular Canadians access information so that they're able to improve the way they have the ability, they have the information that they need in order to improve the way that they live and work, the way that they spend and save. And I think that kind of information, those kinds of discussions can't just be in the top echelons of boardrooms, of companies, political spheres. I think our job as journalists is to help, you know, bring that information to the masses.
Colin White:April, what what would be, you know, recently, like, the recent little history here, what would be the most popular vein or topic? Or where do you guys get the most traction when you put something online right now? Is it something is there a theme to what everybody's really looking for?
April Fong:Or Yeah. That's a good question. I mean, I think trade is a very hot topic right now, and there's a lot of interest, you know, understandably so in the changes of the political economy and how that affects businesses and in our investments. And I mean, I know I'm gonna sound super biased saying this but personal finance is of course an area of focus in business in media. The globe has been building up its personal finance team over the years.
April Fong:Recently joined earlier in the year and we've tried to bulk up our team, bulk up our coverage cause there's a real hunger out there for this kind of information. Like I said before, and I feel like I'm gonna say this a number of times in this podcast with you. There's just this heightened feeling of uncertainty. And then people are looking at their portfolios, wanting to make sense of what's happening in the news and applying it to their investments. And I think this is where personal finance coverage is really is provides a benefit to readers.
Josh Sheluk:So heightened uncertainty, I think, is certainly true right now. And let me ask a bit of a leading question for you. And you can you can answer this one sort of from a broad perspective, not specifically from the Globe and Mail's perspective, but does the media feed in to this heightened uncertainty?
April Fong:I think that we're trying to hold a mirror to how people are feeling. Right? I use an example of retirees, people who are nearing retirement, earlier on in the year, right? When there was a lot of volatility in the markets and people were worried, right? And they wanted, I think in a way you want to see, your own experiences reflected in the storytelling of, what you're reading.
April Fong:And so there's a little bit of that too, right? We're trying to reflect the trends that consumers are feeling themselves. So I don't necessarily agree that the media is feeding into this feeling of heightened uncertainty. I think we are seeing some things in the broader economy that we might not have seen before. And there are some real challenges that Canadians are worried about.
April Fong:The question I would wanna ask you is in turn is how do you tell your clients what to pay attention to, what to leave alone, and what to action on?
Josh Sheluk:Yeah, so it's a good question. And it's not always easy to deal with because I think people are, one of the reasons why I ask that question is because I think people are getting bombarded and it's not just the traditional media that's bombarding them. It's all kinds of media that is so accessible to them these days. And a lot that I think Colin and I would be fairly critical about hearing some of the so called advice or information that they're getting from those sources. So it is a challenge to pull people back from the brink and have them focus on the relevant things.
Josh Sheluk:But I think, and Colin, you can jump in here too, I think it's an ongoing effort that we've built over years and years and years of communicating to our clients in a way that crafts the way that they should think about these types of events. And in a lot of ways, we try to take a very anti cataclysmic approach, a little bit of an impartial approach to some of these news events that definitely fuel uncertainty, but maybe are not gonna have the same impact to long term results as people think they will in the moment.
Colin White:To to Josh's point, I think that the financial industry as a whole really creates a a scarcity of information. Like, we have special information that nobody else has. You have to rely on us. And I've always described it as playing a game of holes to make some letters. You know, like inflation of the bat.
Colin White:Well, that sounds bad. Know, it's like it's gonna wreck your retirement. Oh my god. It's wrecking my retirement unless you do this one thing, and they put a letter in. So they they always layer it like that.
Colin White:So that is naturally anxiety provoking. You know, that creates anxiety in the general population, and it creates anxiety for our clients because we're not in the room with them every day. So our message most of the time is it doesn't matter. You know, the whatever's happening right now, that there's the market is priced in what the what they expect the Bank of Canada to do. So the market is gonna price in what the expectation is.
Colin White:So the actual announcement is interesting. You know, nerds like us will will read, you know, some of the stuff that comes out, but there's nothing there for a client to pay attention to. There's nothing there for a client to make a decision on. Right? So, you know, we are pretty continuously fighting back, but it's the anxiety I think that that we're we're we're all referring to here is something that is used to motivate people to action, and fear is a very powerful motivator.
Colin White:You know, if I look back over the last five years, we had a global pandemic. We had an inflationary spike, we had an interest rate spike, few wars have broken out, and the markets are at all time highs. So, you know, I don't think that today is more uncertain than it was five years ago. I don't think today is more uncertain than it was in 2008, but it does feel that way. And if if it feels that way, that's real.
Colin White:Like, you you you can't dismiss the feeling, but I I I do think that there's there's people profiting from that feeling. Now whether it is the the fringe players on TikTok trying to convince us that oatmeal causes cancer or whether it's, you know, an institution that's trying to, you know, make a point and create create a a need for a client to take action. You know? So it's it's nuanced for sure, but I I do agree. The anxiety levels are high.
Colin White:They stay high. And as to who's actually at fault, well, someday we'll have a conclusion to that argument. I'm not sure when.
Josh Sheluk:Well, we can all blame TikTok together right now.
Colin White:There let's do we go. One two three TikTok.
April Fong:I mean, I would also say that if a journalist is doing their job well, they are not reporting on the margins. Right? It doesn't have to be all or nothing. It is not all fear, all uncertainty. It may be something in the middle.
April Fong:Right? And I think that's where journalists can play an important role is making sure that they do have that nuance. And that we're not just going with the prevailing narrative, we're looking deeper, we're asking more questions and not just reporting on in an all or nothing kind of way.
Josh Sheluk:So from a journalist perspective, when you put together an article, do you feel that it's more your responsibility to present a point of view in a well articulated way or to present multiple points of view and to allow the audience to interpret that for what they will?
April Fong:Yeah. The way that I like to work with reporters is to look at a question that people have, right, on a specific issue. And we will identify some sources of information, whether it is data, it is human sources, people who are going through the experiences themselves. And we want the most variety and diverse perspectives as possible, right? And so we're we're trying to set out to answer a question.
April Fong:Right? There may not be one single answer. And so I think, you know, we're we are in a way allowing the reader, hopefully, look at a sharp story and make some judgments on their own.
Colin White:How do you feel that you're addressing the old attention span? Like, know, that seems to have shrunken over the last five years. So you have a very, you know, narrow like, there's what's the what's the expression? A an abundance of information creates the scarcity of the attention.
April Fong:Yeah. So a whole term, the attention economy now too. Right? We have the creator economy, but then also in response to that, the attention economy. I think that's something that is a real challenge for the media, right?
April Fong:We all consume information in different ways. We have a buffet of sources, lengths, formats that we can choose from and everyone likes something different. And you could probably find what you like if you look for it, right? And you have to kind of cater and tailor it to those tastes. I think that I see a lot of news outlets trying to experiment in different ways.
April Fong:The most important thing, yes, you can start a TikTok account. But, at the end of the day, what people are looking for is news, journalism, storytelling, ideas that you can't get anywhere else. And that's gonna be the key differentiator for any news outlet.
Colin White:Globe have a TikTok account?
April Fong:Does the globe have a TikTok account? It does. Yes, it does. Yeah. Not everyone is on TikTok at at in the Globe newsroom.
April Fong:There are definitely some journalists who gravitate and do really well in that format more than others. But yeah, we have one where I think it's a strong It's a place that we're experimenting. Where I I'm curious to know where, Colin and Josh, where you get your, financial news from. And when do you think is, like, the perfect diet of of media information when it comes to, you know, being informed and also, like, entertained?
Josh Sheluk:Not so shameless plug here. Globe and Mail is, I think, one of the better publications in Canada for financial, news for sure. So there's I think there's a couple of news outlets that I look to on a regular basis. Globe and Mail, I would say primarily is is mine for Canada and and Bloomberg for more US or global centric news. But I consume a lot of finance information these days through podcasts.
Josh Sheluk:So it's a bit of a, I guess, a longer form, more conversational type approach to not so much getting news, but to getting industry insights or especially on the investment side, investment insights. I would say some places I'm definitely not going for anything industry related or news, TikTok, Instagram, those type of short grab your attention type approaches. They just don't resonate for me, I think, because I I think a little bit too critically about the message that's there. I'm a bit jaded, maybe.
Colin White:For me, the answer is a little bit different. I mean, it depends on why I'm trying to consume information. So there's you know, I I feel we need to be on top of what the average client is consuming. So there's a certain aspect of it, oh, absolutely. Globe mail is the leader in Canada.
Colin White:But, you know, I'll I'll check on CNN. I'll check out Fox News. I'll check out, you know, the Washington Post. I'll check out other Canadian sources to see what the general discourse is. You know?
Colin White:And then if there's something there, then I get curious, and I'll go digging into it, I'll find, like, Reuters or Bloomberg or some other technical articles being And we're bombarded. Josh and I probably get 20 or 30 emails a day. Various stories can send out with one mailing list that, you know, if there's something that I'm curious about, I can click on and and and dig into more deeply. But I think, you know, our our our position is is because kind of there's a double side to it. We've gotta be aware of what everybody's talking about.
Colin White:And, honestly, we have we've gotta fight the algorithm. Like, if we click on the same things all the time, we're gonna see the same things all the time. So I really try to fight against it and click on stuff that I think is absolutely asinine just to make sure I get to keep seeing it because that's out there. And, you know, once I get curious about something, it's okay. I need to dig in.
Colin White:I need to go back and and, you know, have it put those on the word research. No. I don't research on Facebook, but I do a form of research by clicking on some more reputable sources and and go digging it and use my experience to understand whether I'm looking at something that's that's meaningful or not.
April Fong:What what's your take on influencers?
Josh Sheluk:You're leaning into this one, April. Okay. Go, Colin.
Colin White:From everything I've read and everything I've seen, the more outrageous you are, the more followers you get, and the more of a business model you have. So it's a race towards who can be the most outrageous, which is not the race towards, you know, something that is meaningful, useful, or right. And somebody sent me a quote here fairly recently on the team talking about how a boring truce is no competition for an exciting lie. And that really holds true in the influencer space. You know?
Colin White:I threw out the oatmeal thing because I like oatmeal, and my TikTok is currently trying to convince me that that causes cancer. I'm pretty sure my oatmeal is not killing me, but, you know, that that must have gotten some clicks and some interest from people. So, there's a disconnect between a successful business model and good information. Good information is not a good business model, especially in the world. Did I hit it, Josh?
Josh Sheluk:Well, I I it's good information is not a good business model in the in the Finfluencer world. But I think we need to separate business models, I think is important because there's a lot of business models that are crafted around good information. So it's really important for people to understand where they're sourcing their information from, what's good information and what's not good information. But the unfortunate thing is there's just not enough social awareness currently about what the business model of the Finfluencer is. And therefore, I maybe shouldn't be taking my personal finance advice from the Finfluencer.
April Fong:Yeah. I would just say, you know, journalists, everyone on my team, when we're reporting on different trends and issues in personal finance, we, are striving to provide facts, on events that are unfolding. And we, like, always say and we we practice this in our reporting. We're not giving out financial advice. We will direct readers to advisers, the professionals who have the licensing to get that advice.
April Fong:But our job is to keep people as informed as possible with independent, accurate, and verified information. And I I think that's where, like, the lines between, influencer storytelling versus what you're getting from an outlet like the Globe and Mail, but that might be the difference, right? Or that's the main difference. You don't always know if And I know that a lot of influencers are trying to do this more and more, in disclosing if their content is sponsored or there's there are other interested parties in it. And I think that's really important.
April Fong:Right? But, you know, to on another point, I asked before I started this job as deputy personal finance editor at the globe, I asked a lot of my friends and contacts and media, where do you get, you care about your money, where do you get information to help you manage your personal finances? And a lot of the answers were, okay, yeah, subscribed to Rob Kehrig's newsletter, I subscribed to the Globe. But a lot of the answers were also like personal finance accounts on Instagram or, different newsletters that are written by, you know, individual, bloggers. And I was really interested in that.
April Fong:And I think it's because people are looking for personal finance information that has a voice as well. Right? And so there's there that's something I've been thinking about a lot as an editor is how do we bridge that gap between people wanting to feel like you're getting advice from a trusted friend almost, versus also giving them independent information. I think that's a really interesting transition that we're we're all grappling with in in media.
Colin White:The financial issue has done a pretty terrible job because it's largely a sales organization, and the financial industry has burnt the trust of a lot of Canadians and so people are feeling uncomfortable and we were about to do a client event here coming up shortly and I had a client who allows is allowing me absolutely to use her quote because she worked as an auditor with CRA and of the provinces for twenty five, thirty years. And she said, without a doubt, the absolute worst audit she was ever involved in had to do with my buddy told me this was okay. So people turning to friends and family to get financial advice and not vetting it through a good source is a recipe for disaster. But, you know, people go where they're comfortable. And if they're not able to get served through traditional channels, you know, for me, I I I put that responsibility more on the traditional channels about being ineffective at gaining the trust and serving that those clients well.
Colin White:But it's, you know, it's very easy to trust your buddy because, well, he's never done me wrong and obviously this worked for him. Therefore, you know, that's what I'm gonna do. And that's that's really faulty logic and can cause you a lot of pain.
Josh Sheluk:Well, yeah, I was just gonna say on that topic. So I I think one of the things that we're dealing with as a society right now is misinformation and there's a prevalence of it. We actually had a guest on the podcast not so long ago, he wrote his PhD thesis on misinformation and its prevalence and how different people are affected by this. So how, as a journalist, as you said, is focused on providing true, accurate, verifiable information, how are you pushing back this prevalence that seems to exist today for misinformation and not only for the misinformation to be out there, but for people to believe in it?
April Fong:So I think that, you know, the change that we've seen is that there's just so much more out there in terms of what information you can find, what media sources you can read, right? There's just a buffet of options and people can largely find something that reflects maybe their own beliefs. And I think there's been a lot written and discussed about this. The media organizations that I've worked in, the thing that we tried to do is it becomes just that much more important. I mean, I think we've always tried to be accurate, fair, balanced with what we report, but it becomes just that much more important and significant because there there has been this erosion in trust in in media.
April Fong:And so, you know, we strive to get things right. We have to, you know, cross our t's and dot our i's even more now.
Josh Sheluk:Yeah. I think that erosion in trust is is why going back to the previous comments, people are looking for outside sources as much as they are. More, sort of, friend next door type of information. But, now from from the the media or journalist point of view, what suggestions or recommendations would you have for people that are trying to sort of push back against the misinformation that are out there? How how should they how should how should consumers consume, media in a way that that sort of insulates them against misinformation?
April Fong:I'm probably gonna be echoing some of the things that, both you both of you have mentioned already, which is, read things critically, listen and consume information critically. If something doesn't feel right, sometimes it may require doing a little bit of homework on who the sources are, who they're funded by and whether you can cross reference some of the information. I mean, that seems like a lot of work for a lot of consumers, right? But I think
Josh Sheluk:That's the problem.
April Fong:Exactly. I think that you know, choosing your media sources wisely and understanding what independence editorial independence means is is really important.
Colin White:What things have you seen go across your your paper in the last little while that you wish people paid more attention to? You looked at something. You thought it was really good and went out into the world, and it didn't get the attention that you thought it would.
April Fong:I think that some of the online scams and the, the increase of of these scams and how many Canadians or people around the world quite frankly are falling victim to it is something that is really important because I think there are a lot of different players in the ecosystem that could be helping to protect investors. But and then also, you know, from the consumer side, it'd be, you know, beneficial to them to be aware that these scams are going on. But I I think that there's this like tendency for readers to just think this isn't gonna happen to me. It happened to someone else because they didn't know better, and I know better. But, like, these, these fraud incidents are getting so much more sophisticated.
April Fong:And, yeah, I I wish that people would pay more attention to it.
Colin White:Well, it's dramatically underreported too. Like, as far as people who are scammed don't often even come forward and, you know, report that they have been scammed. So so for our listeners, here's a really, really important piece of advice. Every time you go to click on something about a trade war, don't click on that. Look for something about scams and make yourself smarter.
Colin White:Can can we say that that's advice from April?
April Fong:Well, I don't know about that. I would say, you know, get eat your vegetables and also, make room for desserts. But, yeah, I I I think I think it's good to be informed about both things.
Josh Sheluk:And you want advice from Josh? If you're listening to this, you're more likely to be severely negatively affected from a scam than you are from the trade war. Can we say that, Colin? From you and me.
Colin White:It's just from us. I I would endorse that. I would endorse that wholeheartedly and without reservation.
April Fong:What kind of, information do you think that, I'm sorry to step in, but I'm I'm Go ahead. Like, curious to know your thoughts. What kind of information do you think or what's, like, the big story that media is missing when it comes to business or personal finance? What do you think should be addressed more?
Colin White:I got at least an hour's worth. The behavioral finance, how people make decisions, the flaws built into the system, how we don't consume math properly, how we don't understand math, how we don't understand probability, and focusing on teaching people on how to consume information, understanding their own personal biases, their own heuristic flow, all the shortcuts people take, all of the ways that we comprehend things. There is a great quote from Robert Thaler who's one of the founding fathers of behavioral finance. He says way more profitable to take advantage of people's weaknesses than it is to fix them. And, you know, if we could focus more on trying to fix the inherent weakness of the human condition, the whole world gets to be a better place.
Colin White:Now it's vegetables, like it's vegetable heavy, dessert light, but there are some people who've made it a little entertaining. But, yeah, I know. If if I could, you know, click my heels together and get the world to pay attention to understanding the flaws and how we make decisions because there's some very replicable things that happen over and over again. And and some of it, you know, again, I I coached a lot of sports. A coach.
Colin White:Right? So the problem is that each generation goes through something for the first time. It's like this is the end of history. Right? Like, oh my god.
Colin White:This is how it's always gonna be. No. It isn't. You know, there's there's there's gonna be something that comes next. Like, the very first time that I watch a kid get the the wind knocked out of him when he's five years old, he thinks he's gonna die because he can't breathe.
Colin White:You hold him by the hand. You look him in the eyes and go, just stick with me for ten seconds. You're gonna be okay. But the kid thinks they're gonna die until they don't, and then they move on. And I find that in my experience, every time we go through another period of uncertainty in the markets, that, oh my god.
Colin White:This is the first time. It's like, no. It's not. Like, unemployment's going up a little bit now. This is terrible.
Colin White:It's not 13% unemployment. Like, come on. Like, there there has been worse, and there's ways to get through it, and it's not the end of the world. So, again, that that perspective on, you know, the ball's gonna keep on bouncing. There's gonna be something else we're gonna worry about next week or next month or next year, and more attention being paid to how can I be a better consumer of information?
Colin White:How do I do math better? Like, seeing a headline goes through is, like, 50% of all farmers make less than average. Well, yeah, that that's how math works. Like like like, that's that's not that's not news. Like, that that's not interesting, but, again, people get caught up in not understanding some of those basic things.
Colin White:Sorry, Josh.
Josh Sheluk:Well, you're asking for an impossibility. Think like you need people to go back to grade eight and start their mathematics education over again.
Colin White:Yeah. Pay attention this time.
Josh Sheluk:Yeah. Well, guess April, didn't ask for a solvable. Don't ask
Colin White:for That's a right. Just look hell and at the moon. That's all I'm doing.
Josh Sheluk:I did wanna ask, so you talk to a lot of people, and you reach a lot of people in the personal finance world. But what do you think Canadians are struggling with the most today as it relates to personal finance?
April Fong:I would be remiss not to mention housing and affordability. Right? I know that that is a it was a top election issue, at one point. And I think it's still something that, people feel and live and breathe every day. One of the ways that, the globe has tried to address that we have a reporter who is covering consumer affairs.
April Fong:Her name is Maria Postonlak. And some of the stories that she's been reporting on essentially it is about knowing, getting enough information or getting the information that you need in order to spend your money in a smart way. There's a survey earlier this year from CPA Canada and BDO where more than 80% of Canadians said that they plan to change their financial plans. And majority of them said that they're gonna cut back on spending. And so I think that with Maria, for example, she's been tracking trends and prices of everything from cars to coffee and chocolate, how tariffs may or may not affect different prices and big ticket items that you're planning on spending on.
April Fong:But yeah, mean, we have that. And then we also have the buy Canadian movement, right? Where people are trying to make a statement with where they spend their money or how they spend it. And, you know, there's some tension there as well.
Josh Sheluk:That's great. Thank you. Any last thoughts or last questions for us before we wrap up here?
April Fong:We didn't get to this. I thought that Veronica had mentioned it, as something that we could talk about. But I would love to hear, like, what you're thinking in terms of, this movement that is primarily driven, in The US, the move towards semi annual reporting rather than quarterly earnings reports? Like, is that something that we have time to discuss
Josh Sheluk:today? Definitely, definitely. So this is actually maybe I might surprise people by saying that I think I would support this. I actually don't know why we feel that we need to report more information about companies every three months. I understand the push for transparency and for honesty and for people to make informed investment decisions.
Josh Sheluk:But I'm not sure that reporting more frequently helps that. And I just look at it from the perspective of our personal business and to try to think how difficult it is to think one year ahead, three years ahead, five years ahead, let alone three months ahead, and try to hit profit targets and communicate and report and all that stuff over that shorter of a period of time. I just think it kind of feeds into the whole narrative about there's a surplus of information and we're always trying to do something with it. And maybe just having a little bit less information would actually help us make better decisions.
April Fong:Cole, what do you think? Do you think like court doing away with quarterly earnings requirements is good for markets, or will it make stocks go up or down?
Colin White:Less is more.
April Fong:Less is more.
Colin White:Well, yes. No. It will make stocks go up and down. Both. You know?
Colin White:You know? But it's not gonna be the only it's not gonna be the only thing that influences. Right? Now this is it. And we get into talking about a particular subject, and it's like, well, yeah, it's gonna be one of many things.
Colin White:But I'm I'm a little surprised Josh got there because, you know, I know Josh. I was there right from the start. Yeah. Less information is more. The other problem is is that you get it from a management perspective inside the companies.
Colin White:They begin to manage in three week three month cycles. So they don't they won't take on a project that takes six months to come to fruition if it's gonna hurt their three month number. I think it's it's hugely better for them to have, like, oh my god, a six month window before they have to report again so that they can have longer to implement changes and be more strategic because, you know, a three month reporting window is very, very tight. And I think largely, it it it's just feeding an apparatus right now that doesn't need to be fed. Like, you know, there's there's very little that you're gonna get out of a three month report compared to a six month report.
Colin White:In my opinion, there will be you you will absolutely be able to find somebody who's gonna stand up and rail against us, you know, because the companies are gonna hide things and and all the rest of it. But, no, I I think that it's a huge improvement. I think it's a huge efficiency. I think it's gonna save time. It's gonna save money, and it's gonna allow management to behave a little bit more reasonably.
April Fong:think it'll change
Colin White:before.
April Fong:The way that investors invest, though? Like, they're getting less information from the companies. And I think there's an argument to be made too that when the when the earnings come out on a quarterly basis, there there is a little bit more trading. Right?
Colin White:Well, there's already too much information out there to consume. People are not making completely rational decisions. There's too much information flooding out right now. So the average consumer is not gonna be able to consume all that information. If you're if you're asking about a retail investor, there's no retail investor on the planet who's got the bandwidth to completely absorb, put into context to make a decision on the volume of information that's out there.
Colin White:So, you know, I I don't think I mean, less is more. I think, you know, by seeing it every sixth month, you're more likely to be able to understand trends and draw back. You know, I was reading in in one place that, you know, places like Israel. Like, they're only allowed to report annual performance numbers on investment pools because anything less than that is information that people think is information they try to make decisions on, but shorter term information, it's not really all that instructive. You know, it's it's more of the longer term trends and by focusing a little bit longer and getting away from, you how you guys doing today?
Colin White:What were your sales today? What were your sales today? What were your sales? Getting away from that, I think is hugely positive because there's so much noise in that day to day information and my background's accounting. So what do you want the bottom line to be?
Colin White:There's lots of gaps in GAAP. So, you know, that the whole gamesmanship when it comes to reporting, you know, also plays a toll. So, yeah, a huge fan, huge fan of reducing the reporting, and I I don't think that the I don't think the retail investor for sure is going to be shortchanged by this. You know, the institutional investors that have a little bit more bandwidth and horsepower to actually dig into things, one of them could get on here and maybe convince me that, you know, that they don't feel as good about things, But I don't think it's gonna negatively impact a retail investor.
Josh Sheluk:You're already seeing the market push back on this a little bit, this this whole quarterly reporting cycle, because you've seen such large number of of companies forego the public markets for private markets. One of the main rationales behind that is that the reporting requirements are just less stringent you have less from the general public on a regular basis. So if you want to make markets a little bit more accessible for the average company, which I think is something that is in the public best interest, then maybe making it less onerous for companies to go public is a positive thing as well.
Colin White:So I was just gonna take a little detour from Josh, you know, because of the private debt and private equity space, there's even on the reporting period, so there's less clarity. So in the entire history of the world, you know, lack of transparency has never worked in favor of an investor. But, you know, less frequent reporting absolutely can get behind.
April Fong:And, I mean, some companies may not even go on to that schedule. Right? They still, you may have the choice, you're just not required to do so. I think in Canada too, it'd be interesting to see how things develop since most of the companies that do list are small venture issuers, which, you know, they might may not have that much to report Yeah. On a quarterly basis.
Colin White:Well, to Josh's point, I think this change has been proffered in an effort to get more of them, you know, participating in public markets. I think that that's, you know, one of the main drives on in on introducing this because there has been a reduction in the number of companies that are publicly traded. You know, that might be a problem.
Josh Sheluk:Yep. Any last questions from you, April?
April Fong:Thanks for letting me ask those questions. Oh, okay. I actually do have one more. How are you feeling about the actually haven't checked in a few in since I've been talking to you both but the TSX is on its march to cross the 30,000 mark. So how are you feeling about that today?
Josh Sheluk:Well, it's nice to see things going up. It's nice to see us hitting records. I don't know 30,000 is more of a psychological thing than, any milestone that we really need to cheer about. But as I was saying to Colin earlier today, we hit, there's been a lot written recently about the market hitting new records and what that means from an investment perspective. But roughly a quarter of all days we're hitting new records is is kinda how the math works historically.
Josh Sheluk:So it's certainly no surprise to see a lot of records hit and they usually kinda cluster together. So we'll keep riding the wave as long as we can.
Colin White:It's nice to see because sometimes Canada sucks too. So it's it's kinda nice to see us riding high.
April Fong:Yes. Well said.
Colin White:It's it's good to it's good to win winter for us well. So right now, we don't suck. Woo. We don't suck.
Josh Sheluk:Yeah. One more question for you, April. I noticed in in one of the the articles that was published about you joining the globe, it said you're a big fan of dim sum. So what's the best dim sum place in the GTA?
April Fong:Oh, gosh. That's a really challenging question because now I'm, not living I used to live in Downtown Toronto, and I would just go to the old school, Chinatown spots. Right now, I'm gonna give a shout out to a place in Oakville, actually. It's called Zoelicious and the owners of this restaurant, it's a very small dim sum restaurant. I think they're only like, let's say eight to 10 tables, But they're from the same village as where, my family is from.
April Fong:So, it's delicious. And, I don't know. If you're in the West Part Of The GTA, it's worth a visit.
Colin White:Yeah.
Josh Sheluk:Well, my wife, is a big Dim Sum fan. We're in Mississauga, we'll have to add it to the list.
April Fong:Yes. You definitely should.
Colin White:Full disclosure. Yeah. Full disclosure. No money has been paid to Bare Naked Money to promote this restaurant.
April Fong:Thank you. Thank you for helping me with my editorial independence.
Josh Sheluk:Thanks so much for joining us today, April. It's a real pleasure to have you. And as always, we're looking to shed some lights on parts of the market and this time the media that are not often talked about to help people make better decisions. So we're very thankful to have you part of that journey.
April Fong:Thanks so much for the opportunity. It's been a pleasure.
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