Investing
Investing
Investing explains the mechanics behind how most people actually own stocks: through funds, over decades. How an index fund tracks its benchmark, how ETFs differ from mutual funds, why compounding and fees matter more than almost anything else, what diversification does and does not protect you from, and what decades of data say about active managers versus the index. The section explains how each tool works and what it costs. It never tells you what to buy.
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How Index Funds Work
How an index fund copies a stock index, why it rarely needs to trade, what tracking error means, and why index funds cost so little to run.
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ETFs vs Mutual Funds: How They Differ
How ETFs and mutual funds are bought, priced and taxed, how ETF creation and redemption works, and what MERs and trailing commissions mean in Canada.
Read the explainer →How Compound Growth Works
The arithmetic of compounding with real numbers: why growth accelerates, the rule of 72, regular contributions, and the difference between nominal and real returns.
Read the explainer →Diversification Explained: Why One Stock Is Riskier Than Many
How diversification reduces single-stock risk, what correlation does, how many stocks it takes, what it cannot protect against, and home-country bias in the US and Canada.
Read the explainer →Dollar-Cost Averaging Explained: What the Research Says
How dollar-cost averaging works, the arithmetic behind its lower average cost, how it compares with investing a lump sum, and the honest trade-offs.
Read the explainer →Active vs Passive Investing: What the SPIVA Scorecards Show
How active and passive funds differ, what S&P's SPIVA scorecards for the US and Canada found through 2025, why costs and survivorship bias matter, and the limits of the evidence.
Read the explainer →Dividend Investing Explained: Yield, Total Return and Yield Traps
How dividend investing works, why yield is not the same as return, how to read a payout ratio, how yield traps happen, and how dividends are taxed in the US and Canada.
Read the explainer →How Investment Fees Work: Expense Ratios, MERs, Trailers and the Cost of 1%
The fees you pay to invest in the US and Canada, how they are charged, what changed for Canadian trailing commissions, and what 1% a year costs over 30 years.
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