When Gerry Augustine started telling his clients to pull out of the stock market back in 2007, he naturally received some surprised reactions.
“Some clients fought me,” Augustine admitted. “They weren’t supportive at the time.”
After all, as a certified financial planner, Augustine makes money when clients invest with him. But Augustine saw trouble on the horizon, months before many experts knew what was happening. Sub-prime mortgage rates were just too good to be true. Massive mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures would soon cripple the US economy, with a devastating ripple effect in Canada.
By late 2008, with banks collapsing under the weight of defaulted loans and mortgages, securities values also plummeted. A sharp decline in the availability of credit crippled the stock market, causing investors to lose thousands, or in some cases, millions of dollars.
Looking back, Augustine doesn’t mind losing out on his commissions. He helped many, investors who would have lost thousands in the stock markets, keep their savings, by looking backwards instead of forward.
Augustine has studied the philosophies of Harry Markowitz, a professor of finance and Nobel Memorial Prize winner for Economic Sciences. Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory states that money managers can reduce volatility and optimize performance by looking at historical data of publicly traded assets and combining them. Essentially every modern finance formula and model evolved from backward looking trading data as the key to investor solutions.
Markowitz believes that far too much capital today is being focused on statistical foundations while too little is directed towards logic driven ideas of which there is little historical data. If done properly, Markowitz believes this weakness in the investment philosophy of the market can be used to the advantage of forward thinking investors.
One of the alternative wealth management tools Augustine has discovered is land-based real estate investments from an Exempt Market Dealer, such as Walton Capital Management. As one of North America’s leading land-based real estate investment groups, Walton and its affiliates have accumulated over $2.5 billion through the syndication of strategically-located land-based assets with more than 64,500 investors and purchasers. The company has acquired more than 56,000 acres of land in growing suburban areas such as Calgary, Edmonton, Phoenix AZ and Dallas-Fort Worth, TX.
By steering his clients toward land-based assets, instead of stocks and bonds, Augustine continued to help his clients maximize their wealth potential, even during the economic downturn.
Using the principle of the real estate life cycle, Walton’s strategy involves acquiring land before any development takes place. Based on the company’s experience, land experiences its highest value increase during the time period between its undeveloped state and the stage when it is purchased by developers and business partners. As cities expand, Walton capitalizes on the demand for land directly in the path of the growth area, which is typically on the outskirts of a major urban centre. The company’s business model works by acquiring large parcels of undeveloped land with the intent of selling when future demand increases the land’s value.
Augustine is a firm believer in the Walton strategy. He points to weaknesses in the conventional money markets that have actually caused investors to lose money over time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for example, closed just over the 10,0000-mark on March 29, 1999. More than 10 years later, that figure is relatively unchanged. Factor in the rate of inflation, and investors have actually lost money.
If you are looking for alternative ways to invest, a land-based investment may be the answer. Visit http://www.waltoncapital.ca/ for more information.
“Some clients fought me,” Augustine admitted. “They weren’t supportive at the time.”
After all, as a certified financial planner, Augustine makes money when clients invest with him. But Augustine saw trouble on the horizon, months before many experts knew what was happening. Sub-prime mortgage rates were just too good to be true. Massive mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures would soon cripple the US economy, with a devastating ripple effect in Canada.
By late 2008, with banks collapsing under the weight of defaulted loans and mortgages, securities values also plummeted. A sharp decline in the availability of credit crippled the stock market, causing investors to lose thousands, or in some cases, millions of dollars.
Looking back, Augustine doesn’t mind losing out on his commissions. He helped many, investors who would have lost thousands in the stock markets, keep their savings, by looking backwards instead of forward.
Augustine has studied the philosophies of Harry Markowitz, a professor of finance and Nobel Memorial Prize winner for Economic Sciences. Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory states that money managers can reduce volatility and optimize performance by looking at historical data of publicly traded assets and combining them. Essentially every modern finance formula and model evolved from backward looking trading data as the key to investor solutions.
Markowitz believes that far too much capital today is being focused on statistical foundations while too little is directed towards logic driven ideas of which there is little historical data. If done properly, Markowitz believes this weakness in the investment philosophy of the market can be used to the advantage of forward thinking investors.
One of the alternative wealth management tools Augustine has discovered is land-based real estate investments from an Exempt Market Dealer, such as Walton Capital Management. As one of North America’s leading land-based real estate investment groups, Walton and its affiliates have accumulated over $2.5 billion through the syndication of strategically-located land-based assets with more than 64,500 investors and purchasers. The company has acquired more than 56,000 acres of land in growing suburban areas such as Calgary, Edmonton, Phoenix AZ and Dallas-Fort Worth, TX.
By steering his clients toward land-based assets, instead of stocks and bonds, Augustine continued to help his clients maximize their wealth potential, even during the economic downturn.
Using the principle of the real estate life cycle, Walton’s strategy involves acquiring land before any development takes place. Based on the company’s experience, land experiences its highest value increase during the time period between its undeveloped state and the stage when it is purchased by developers and business partners. As cities expand, Walton capitalizes on the demand for land directly in the path of the growth area, which is typically on the outskirts of a major urban centre. The company’s business model works by acquiring large parcels of undeveloped land with the intent of selling when future demand increases the land’s value.
Augustine is a firm believer in the Walton strategy. He points to weaknesses in the conventional money markets that have actually caused investors to lose money over time.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, for example, closed just over the 10,0000-mark on March 29, 1999. More than 10 years later, that figure is relatively unchanged. Factor in the rate of inflation, and investors have actually lost money.
If you are looking for alternative ways to invest, a land-based investment may be the answer. Visit http://www.waltoncapital.ca/ for more information.
