Wealth Insights

In many ways, we may be living through a golden age of investing. Lower costs, technological advances and unprecedented access to information make markets more accessible than ever.

Change is hard. History shows it’s difficult to know, in the moment, which changes will reshape the world.

It’s no wonder the average holding period for a stock has dropped from around eight years in the 1950s to roughly five months today.Technology continues to accelerate the speed at which we access, process and react to information—likely encouraging impulsive investor behaviour. Consider, for instance, that for every 100-millisecond improvement in load time, Amazon reportedly sees a one percent boost in revenue

The old joke that “economists exist to make weathermen look good” may feel especially relevant today. So far, 2025 has proven just how unpredictable the near-term outlook can be.

As we head into another year, the classic question feels as relevant as ever: is the glass half full or half empty?

“Up North: On Top — Life in Canada, Home of the World’s Most Affluent Middle Class.”— New York Times, April 30, 20141

With our increasing longevity, we seem to be trading our focus on the ‘fountain of youth’ for the ‘fountain of usefulness,’ where having purpose outweighs a desire for youthfulness. In a recent survey, 83 percent of those ages 65 and older say it’s more important to be “useful than youthful” in their retirement years.

Think kids these days are getting too much screen time? There’s another demographic struggling to put down their phones: Baby Boomers. As one 83-year-old put it: “I’m so attached to this thing.
If I leave the house and forget (it), I’ll go back.”

As we look ahead to a new year, the sense of uncertainty many of us feel today may not be entirely new. While Canadian consumer sentiment recently turned negative, and the number of times “uncertainty” appears in the Canadian press reached its highest
level since the pandemic,1 consider that we’ve been here before.