Starting in 2008, we asked investors to place their trust in us as stewards of their hard-earned wealth. The road towards reaching your investment goals can get bumpy, and we knew we’d often find ourselves with very little company along the way. Time has many benefits – one of them is providing perspective.
We can look back at the decisions we took and their outcomes – specifically how our willingness to look different from the crowd defines both the years since we launched and the ones to come.

Post-Financial Crisis (Fear)
Investors bought “safe” investments that would survive
the crisis like utilities, packaged goods or groceriesThis meant paying high prices for things with little room
to grow


Non-obvious survivors
Our focus – non-obvious survivors that could grow without paying for it
The next five years showed the benefit of not paying for safety:
Total annualized return (C$)
MSCI World Consumer Staples Index – YTD: 7.50%, 1-year: 5.74%, 3-year: 9.22%, 5-year: 7.47%, 10-year: 7.66%, 15-year: 11.06%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 10.67%.
MSCI World Index – YTD: 8.61%, 1-year: 17.84%, 3-year: 20.38%, 5-year: 14.08%, 10-year: 12.00%, 15-year: 13.35%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 12.68%.
MSCI World Utilities Index – YTD: 21.11%, 1-year: 17.45%, 3-year: 12.40%, 5-year: 10.98%, 10-year: 9.88%, 15-year: 9.92%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 8.50%.
Source: Morningstar Direct. Series F is available to investors in a fee-based/advisory fee arrangement and doesn’t require EdgePoint to incur distribution costs in the form of trailing commissions to dealers. The MSCI World Index was chosen as the benchmark for the EdgePoint Global Portfolio because it’s a widely used benchmark of the global equity market. The MSCI World Consumer Staples Index and MSCI World Utilities Sector Index are shown to represent where investors perceived safety due to consistent consumer demand during a volatile period. The indexes are not investible. See Important information – benchmarks and indexes for additional details.

Slower for longer (Fear)
Macroeconomic fears dominated (inflation, unemployment, sovereign debt crises, slowdowns)
Investors chased safety in cash & fixed income


Investing in businesses that could grow regardless of the economy
Focus on resilient businesses with growth potential that were ignored by the market
Those who paid for the short-term peace of mind by buying bonds were rewarded in the long term with a return that barely beat inflation:
Total annualized return (C$)
MSCI World Index – YTD: 8.61%, 1-year: 17.84%, 3-year: 20.38%, 5-year: 14.08%, 10-year: 12.00%, 15-year: 13.35%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 12.68%.
ICE BofA Canada Broad Market Index – YTD: 0.57%, 1-year: 2.84%, 3-year: 2.59%, 5-year: -0.89%, 10-year: 1.60%, 15-year: 2.86%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 3.38%.
Source: Morningstar Direct. The MSCI World Index was chosen as the benchmark for the EdgePoint Global Portfolio because it’s a widely used benchmark of the global equity market. The ICE BofA Canada Broad Market is shown to represent where investors perceived safety of fixed income during a volatile period. The indexes are not investible. See Important information – benchmarks and indexes for additional details.

An undiversified Canadian market (Greed)
The Canadian index had outperformed the U.S. and international indexes over the 10- and 20-year periods ending Dec. 2012i
Investors who didn’t look deeper failed to realize the Canadian market was dominated by energy and materials
Energy and materials buyers were predominantly China and emerging markets


Diversifying by business idea
We saw significant risk in being overexposed to one idea
Our Canadian Portfolio’s combined weight in energy and materials was half of the index’sii
The result of our willingness to look different:
Total annualized return (C$)
S&P/TSX Composite Index – YTD: 17.59%, 1-year: 25.86%, 3-year: 17.48%, 5-year: 14.98%, 10-year: 10.81%, 15-year: 9.22%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 10.54%.
Source: Morningstar Direct. The S&P/TSX Composite Index was chosen as the benchmark for the EdgePoint Canadian Portfolio because it’s a widely used benchmark of the Canadian equity market. The index is not investible. See Important information – benchmarks and indexes for additional details.

The dangers of reaching for yield (Greed)
Multi-year low interest rates took their toll on fixed income investors
Companies could borrow money at low rates, meaning issued debt came with a lower interest payment and therefore a lower yieldiii
Investors boosted yield by going further out on the yield curve by buying bonds with longer duration, meaning higher sensitivity to interest rate changes
Mutual fund firms took advantage of this by launching high income/high yield funds
The average Canadian fixed income fund had a duration of 8.2, a yield-to-maturity of 2.30% and an MER of 1.34%iv


Duration is a real risk
When everyone perceived long-duration bonds to be safe, our belief was this asset class had become very risky
We thought the long history of low rates had provided a nice tailwind, but that wouldn’t last forever
We kept our duration short in our EdgePoint Global and Canadian Growth & Income Portfolios
To keep our advisor partners aware, we sent them an Email on Jul. 8, 2020 warning them about the risks
Since the Email, EdgePoint Growth & Income Portfolio investors who entrusted us with their credit needs were rewarded for their trust:
Total annualized return (C$)
EdgePoint Canadian Growth & Income Portfolio, Series F – YTD: 11.03%, 1-year: 17.01%, 3-year: 16.28%, 5-year: 16.84%, 10-year: 10.21%, 15-year: 10.29%, Since inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 11.82%.
ICE BofA Canada Broad Market Index – YTD: 0.57%, 1-year: 2.84%, 3-year: 2.59%, 5-year: -0.89%, 10-year: 1.60%, 15-year: 2.86%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 3.38%.
Source, EdgePoint fixed income and index returns: Morningstar Direct. Total returns, net of fees (excluding advisory fees), in C$. EdgePoint Growth & Income Portfolios fixed income holdings performance figures shown for illustrative purposes only and aren’t indicative of future performance. They aren’t intended to represent returns of an actual fixed income fund as they weren’t investible. EdgePoint Growth & Income Portfolio fixed income performance figures are net of fees and approximations calculated based on end-of-day holdings data (actual trading prices not captured). A hypothetical management expense ratio (MER) of 0.62% was applied to the EdgePoint Growth & Income Portfolios fixed income returns and prorated daily. The fixed income MER was calculated based on the average MER for EdgePoint Global and Canadian Growth & Income Portfolios (0.84% and 0.86%, respectively). The average Canadian fixed income fund return is the simple average return of funds in the previous table that was included on the Email sent by EdgePoint to advisor partners on July 8, 2020. The ICE BofA Canada Broad Market Index was chosen as the benchmark for the fixed income portion of the EdgePoint Growth & Income Portfolios because it’s a widely used benchmark of the Canadian fixed income market. The index and the average of the Canadian fixed income funds are not investible. See Important information – benchmarks and indexes for additional details.

Why Canada? (Fear)
Global equity/balanced funds had inflows of C$68 billion in 2021, while C$9.7 billion left their Canadian counterpartsv


Taking advantage of the valuation discrepancy
We saw a historically low relative valuation for the S&P/TSX Composite Index versus the S&P 500 Indexvi
Several of our Canadian businesses took this opportunity to repurchase millions of dollars of shares at this timevii
In February 2021, we had the highest month-end Canadian weight ever in the Global Portfolio and Cymbria
Since the end of 2020, our Canadian Portfolio investors received pleasing returns:
Total annualized return (C$)
S&P 500 Index – YTD: 8.78%, 1-year: 17.83%, 3-year: 21.44%, 5-year: 15.92%, 10-year: 15.02%, 15-year: 16.96%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 15.85%.
MSCI World Index – YTD: 8.61%, 1-year: 17.84%, 3-year: 20.38%, 5-year: 14.08%, 10-year: 12.00%, 15-year: 13.35%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 12.68%.
S&P/TSX Composite Index – YTD: 17.59%, 1-year: 25.86%, 3-year: 17.48%, 5-year: 14.98%, 10-year: 10.81%, 15-year: 9.22%, Since EdgePoint inception (Nov. 17, 2008): 10.54%.
Source: Morningstar Direct. The S&P/TSX Composite Index was chosen as the benchmark for the EdgePoint Canadian Portfolio because it’s a widely used benchmark of the Canadian equity market. The S&P/TSX Composite Index, S&P 500 Index and MSCI World Index are shown as a comparison of equity investments between geographic sectors.. The indexes are not investible. See Important information – benchmarks and indexes for additional details.

Tech 2.0 + A.I. (Greed)
Tech stock share prices have been fueled by what they can do in the future with the promise of artificial intelligence and other innovations in our life
Some of the early winners at the start of the 2020s that were seen as disruptors during COVID-19 (e.g., WeWork and Peloton) have in turn seen their share prices disrupted
The crowd has moved on to the “Magnificent Seven” (Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla, Nvidia and Meta)


Looking beyond the mega-caps
History has shown that, on average, companies joining the largest 10 names experienced high returns on the way there
Unfortunately, their fairy tales usually didn’t have happy endings after joining the top 10viii
Today, we believe there’s opportunity in looking beyond the mega-cap names to the mid-cap space
Our view is that looking beyond the mega-cap names may feel uncomfortable in the short term, but it has the potential to result in pleasing returns over the next five years
Time will tell whether our willingness to look different will pay off.
Historically, it's periods like these when our investment approach has added the most value.
