Should You Do Any Active Investing? and a Financial Independence Case Study

Many Canadians tend to dabble in at least a bit of active investing, picking individual stocks, even if they consider themselves primarily total market index investors. As long-time listeners of the show know, I personally only do total market index investing through ETFs, but I think it’s important to stay educated and hear the other perspective of how and why active investors choose to invest the way that they do. 

This episode is going to be a bit of a hybrid because our guest today, Braden Dennis, is an active stock investor who owns an investment research platform called Stratosphere.io. He’s also the host of the Canadian Investor podcast, and with these two companies, it appears that he’s already hit financial independence at a really young age.

So, in addition to asking him about how one should research companies if they want to buy individual stocks, we also get into one of the ways of reaching financial independence and early retirement quickly, which is by starting your own business.

Interview Questions:

1. What would you say is your investing style and what made you pick that over total market index investing?
2. When I speak to a passive vs an active investor, one of the main things that they seem to think differently about is the efficient market hypothesis. Can you explain what that is for anybody not familiar, and what is your take on it?
3. Bonds have really taken a hit lately, making many investors wonder whether they should instead do GICs, stay the course, put more into equities (despite those falling recently as well), using a high interest savings account, or using some other investment vehicles. What are your thoughts on bonds and fixed income, and what do you personally do in your own investment portfolio? If you were 5 years away from retirement, would your answer be different?
4. As someone that is very active in the investing and personal finance field, I imagine you have things pretty planned out and optimized when it comes to the most efficient way to get to your financial independence number. What are you personally doing in your investment portfolio, personal finances, and life to get to that financial independence number as quickly and efficiently as possible?
5. What keeps you going since it sounds like you can technically just fully retire now and never work again?
6. One of the ways that I’ve seen you move to your financial independence number quicker is by starting your own businesses, which I see are there to help you and other active investors like yourself. Can you tell us more about the tools and businesses you’ve developed?
7. I noticed that you’re able to search for index ETFs in Stratosphere too. Does your tool do anything for ETF investors or is it primarily for those that want to research individual stocks?
8. If somebody wants to do some stock picking, even if it’s just for a small portion of their portfolio, where do you suggest they go and learn? Where did you learn?
9. Which investment account would you recommend Canadians use if they are going to do any stock picking?