Volume 48 July 2019

Rates, Risk & Return The first half of 2019 was eventful. Most notably the US Federal Reserve (the Fed) changed course and is now expected to ease monetary policy. The price of oil rebounded almost 30%, Venezuela entered a constitutional crisis, Theresa May resigned as the British Prime Minister and Trump continued to tariff but also negotiate with China. Throughout all of this, many of our stocks hit all-time highs. The Capital Ideas Fund is up 16.56% 1 year to date and our annualized return since inception now stands at 17.85% 1 versus 6.28% 2 for the S&P/TSX Total Return Index and 11.34% 3 for the S&P 500 Total Return Index. Figure 1. Source: Bloomberg and DKAM At the beginning of the year, in an effort to get in front of our investors more, we travelled across the country to present our story and discuss a variety of investment topics. We would like to use this newsletter to keep all of our investors informed and address the most common and timely topics of conversation we have been having. We always like to stress that at the heart of our business we are stock pickers who like to get into the nitty gritty of financial statements and business operations. That being said, the topics covered in this VOLUME XLVIII July 2019 INVESTMENT ISSUES • STRATEGIES • INSIGHTS FROM DONVILLE KENT