Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Who is Dale Rathgeber, and How Was the October Strategy Developed?

Dale is President of the October Strategy Publishing Company Ltd., as well as the fund-picker and writer of the newsletters.

Dale is a 50 year old, semi-retired (job-sharing) lawyer, with 25 years’ legal experience, including a long stint as a full-partner in one of Canada’s top business law-firms. Prior to that, Dale was a decorated scholar with: numerous awards, a gold medal, a letter in varsity football , and had the highest LSAT test score at the U of S.  He has lately slowed down to “smell the roses” and to focus upon investing.  Dale is also: 

• a successful and wealthy investor;
• a three decade student, and more recently a teacher of investing;
• the author of a successful Investing Newsletter published since 2002;
• a devoted husband and father;
• an avid golfer, lake cottage-nut, curler, slo-pitch enthusiast, and amateur musician;
• an active Rotarian, in charge of his Airdrie club’s donations to local charities.

None of the ideas in the October Strategy, taken individually, are particularly novel, radical, brilliant, or even original. But in combination, the October Strategy integrates the investment wisdom of more brilliant economists and financial analysts into a superior investing system. The system was initially developed by Rathgeber to boost his own personal mutual fund returns, and those of his extended family. It has since caught on with his friends and associates, and now with the public generally.

Rathgeber promises that, until he retires, he will continue to place half of his investment money as recommended in the October Strategy model portfolios. The other half, in keeping with his philosophy of also having ultra-safe investments, is in fixed income investments.

Is it Difficult to Switch to a Deep-Discount Broker?

And do I need to confront my present financial advisor?

No,  and no. Just make an appointment with an investment rep at any branch of RBC Action Direct, TD Waterhouse, BMO Investorline, CIBC Investor's Edge, Scotia iTRADE, Q-Trade, or Credential Direct. Be sure to specify that you want a deep discount account with the brokerage arm, and not an account for that bank or credit union's own small family of funds.

Wherever you go, be sure to take a recent account statement from your present broker or advisor. Your new brokerage will have you sign a transfer form which they will send to your present broker, asking for your funds to be transferred to them. Your new brokerage will do all the work, and you don't need to directly contact your present broker or advisor. The system is the same for RRSP, RIF, and non-registered accounts.

Why Didn't My Fund Seller/Advisor Tell Me About The October Strategy For My Self-Neglected RRSP?

Most investors should be getting better advice and service than the self-serving, “Buy and Hold (Ignore)” Gospel preached by most of the “free-advice” fund sellers and bankers. When you are looking for advice, you get what you pay for. In their own self-interest, most of these fund sellers only want to re-balance your portfolio once every year or two, at a time convenient to them. This results in Self-Neglected RRSPs full of dog-funds. Most investors know that a more pro-active approach works better than “Buy and Ignore”; but understandably, most investors are too busy making a living to adopt a serious “do-it-better-yourself” approach. Accordingly, most investors put up with a low level of service and bad results. Theoretically, all advisor-sellers could help their customers optimize their portfolios with more frequent re-balancing. The really good ones do; but most do not.

The reason is one of self-interest. If seller-advisors who sell no-load funds encouraged pro-active re-balancing, they would have much more paperwork, but no extra compensation. Accordingly, it’s hard to blame them. The worst seller-advisors only have funds from one, or just a few fund families from which to choose. These tied-sellers usually sell funds with the highest performance killing, and hidden MER charges. Their defence is usually that “all mutual funds were created equally”; or, that their limited selection of funds are “very conservative and low-risk”. These are sales people pitching their limited selection of products.

Lately, a number of Internet blogs have been touting the ease of investing only in Index Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), claiming that nobody can successfully beat the market indexes (the average return of all stocks on an index). Our superior rates of return over the last eight years show that it is possible to do much better than an index-only approach.

Our detractors usually say that the October Strategy approach is a “short-term” approach, versus their long-term “buy and hold” (ignore) method. We disagree. We say that if we consistently get the short-term right, the long-term will be good too. In fact, better than a long-term “buy and ignore” approach. We like to use a sports analogy; a team cannot have a successful season in any sport without winning most of its games, innings, or periods, most of the time.

Successful investing is not rocket science. It isn't all luck either. The key is to increase your batting average, by sticking to a proven and disciplined system over the long term. The October Strategy is probably the best one presently available, both for RRSPs, and non-registered portfolios. The October Strategy is not a “get rich quick scheme”. It is a proven, common-sense strategy or discipline, and a “get rich patiently, but surely” strategy. But you’ll probably get there more quickly with this system than through the indifferent “BUY AND IGNORE” service provided by most financial adviser-sellers. And more quickly than by following the out-of-date fund recommendations that come out in paperback every RRSP season. Most pick last year's winners. These books are written the previous summer for next winter's RRSP season; however, last year’s winners are often this year’s dogs, given today’s fast changing markets.

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