Roger Conrad

Analyst Articles

Most master limited partnerships hail from the energy industry. That’s where our focus in MLP Profits is going to be for three reasons. First, it’s the only real proven model for MLPs, and the only one to truly weather the market calamity of the past year. Second, it has incredible… Read More

It hasn’t happened yet, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s lieutenants are laying the foundation for a fall 2009 visit by Canada’s top elected official to the country that looms as the most significant X-factor in the global economy. Read More

First quarter earnings results will continue to flow for several more weeks. Here are results on eight more that have come out since the May Canadian Edge was published Friday. Read More

Countries are beginning to use military muscle and diplomatic hardball to carve out their fair share of potential resources made accessible only because polar ice is melting. Had Canadians aggressively settled the territory that inspires their title the offshore rights would be less ambiguous. Read More

A reliable and growing yield of 11 percent in a secure industry: That’s the hallmark of both May High Yield of the Month recommendations, Colabor Income Fund (TSX: CLB-U, OTC: COLAF) and Pembina Pipeline Income Fund (TSX: PIF-U, OTC: PMBIF). Read More

The most important numbers for Canadian Edge Portfolio recommendations are earnings. Canada’s trusts and high-yielding corporations still sell at steep discounts to their levels prior to the fall of Lehman Brothers last September, when the financial crisis hit in earnest. Solid earnings are the only real guarantee they’ll recover that lost ground. Read More

It would be nice to say that the catalyst for the recovery was that investors are finally waking up to extreme values and returning high-quality companies to proper valuations. As much as I like my favorite trusts, however, the real force behind this upward explosion is the one driving almost all global markets higher: growing investor optimism that we’re headed for at the least a U-shaped global recovery in coming months--and possibly a V. Read More

After a two-year meltdown of global markets--including Canada’s--this reversal of fortune is welcome indeed. The question is whether the rally has staying power or is simply one of the inevitable bounces that occur on the way to lower lows. Read More

Roughly half of the current 33 Portfolio holdings effectively have no further 2011 trust tax risk. They may falter as businesses if this recession goes on long enough, but that’s an entirely different issue from dividend cuts in response to the tax alone. And as we get closer to 2011, that distinction should translate into much higher share prices. Read More

Prior to the Swine Flu scare, there were short-term signs of renewed appetite for risk, among them the loonie’s modest rally. This morning’s release of the Conference Board’s sentiment index provides at least some support for the idea that this Swine Flu interruption will give way to a resumption of increased risk-taking. Read More