Shayan Hamdani, Financial Advisor, Manulife Securities Incorporated.
Suite 100, 2360 Bristol Circle Dr, Oakville, ON L6H6M5 Oakville, ON, Canada

I recommend doing a quarterly review of your investments and an annual financial plan review with your advisor. Too many people make the mistake of holding on to too much cash in hopes of trying to time the market, very few can get it right. Preauthorized payment plans where money comes out directly from your bank account into your savings or debt repayment can help avoid the temptation of trying to time the market.

Music streaming services such as apple music, Spotify and Youtube have added a revenue stream for artists. However, record deals still remain the main source of revenue. Check out the second picture to see how many plays it takes on different streaming services to earn minimum wage across these platforms.

Is it worth trying to time these dips in the first place? Research shows that market timing may be less important than you might think. In the example below Jane, Jack and John started investing in 1977 and for the following 40 years, the three siblings invest $10,000 a year in global stocks. Even with over 40 years of perfect timing, Jane only slightly beats Jack.

Market corrections are an inevitable part of owning stocks, and they can make the most seasoned investors extremely nervous. One of the reasons a corrections can be so scary are they prompt the question: Is this the beginning of a prolonged market downturn, or is it an opportunity to buy stocks at cheaper prices? Source: According to analysis by John Prestbo, Market Watch.

Star Wars and Middle Earth top the list in average revenue per movie. However, Marvel as of April 4th had earned revenue of $7.63 Billion almost double that of Star Wars ($4.03 Billion). This does not take into account the data from the record breaking Avengers: End Game which would skew numbers in Marvel's favour even more. What's impressive is that Marvel debuted in 2008 with Iron Man and has since produced 22 movies!

Is your portfolio recession proof? No one can accurately predict a recession but the big news from today is that the 3 month-10 year yield curve inverted. The last time this happened was back in 2007. The yield curve has been a great pre-recessionary indicator over the last few decades. Historically speaking, the average time period from point of inversion to recession is 14 months. However, it has been wrong before. There are other indicators that we need to look at as well. That being said, this is a good time to do an investment check up to understand how much risk you have within your portfolio and whether you are comfortable with it

In December 2018, there was $60B in outflows from the U.S stock market to money market funds (cash). In hindsight, that's a bad move given how markets have done so far in 2019. Everyone knows that you should maintain discipline during market volatility, however emotions and fear make it difficult to do so. A good financial advisor brings value in these times by aligning focus on the big picture rather than the volatility, maintaining discipline and having the appropriate asset allocation

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5 Lessons about Volatility to Learn from the History of Markets: Lesson 5: Volatility reminds us that there is no reward without risk. Even better, we must build resilient portfolios that have the potential to weather any storm, while seeking to minimize these effects.

5 Lessons About Volatility to Learn from the History of Markets. Lesson 4: Volatility can be easily weathered with a resilient portfolio. To weather periods of volatility, it is imperative to build a resilient portfolio by diversifying between different asset classes

5 Lessons About Volatility to Learn from the History of Markets: Lesson 3: Any short term volatility disappears with a long-term view. From August 1990 to February 1991, daily volatility was rampant and investors were uncertain.

5 Lessons about Volatility in the Markets: Lesson 2: Volatility is actually the status quo. That roughly works out to 1% price swing every trading week and a 2% price swing every trading month. Despite the volatility, the S&P500 has grown by 2,590% from 1935-2018. Source: New York Life Investments

5 Lessons to Learn from the History of Markets: Lesson 1: Volatility isn't a new phenomenon and it's actually as old as the stock market itself. In fact if you look at the historical swings in the Dow Jones, you'll see that many of the biggest ones were more than 80 years ago.

You have until March 1st 2019 to contribute to your RRSP and get a tax deduction for the year 2018. RRSP is still one of the best tax savings vehicle available to Canadians. If you are an employee and your current income is greater than projected retirement income, then RRSP makes sense.