The Copper-Silver Correlation: Advantage Silver

Many years ago, when I was a rookie in the slash-and-burn wars of the 1970’s Canadian investment industry, I befriended a man that would turn out to have an entire chapter written about him in Peter C. Newman’s best-selling book about the “Who’s Who” of Canadian finance and politics entitled “The Canadian Establishment” and his name was A.D.G (Tony) Reid. Tony wore many hats in his career including technical analyst for Walwyn Stodgell, journalist for the Financial Post and Toronto Sun, and corporate financier for a number of firms but the one quality that I will always remember was his sense of fair play and unyielding adherence to “the rules” (which I will discuss later).

I once spent a long, booze-filled afternoon at the old, legendary Winston’s in downtown Toronto at a “deal lunch”, where allocations to a hot new issue were being doled out. I was present only because I was seen as the “young blood” in the room but what I wound up being that afternoon was starstruck by the financial luminaries such as Conrad Black and ex-Prime Minister John Turner, both of whom went out of their way to say hello to Tony at which point Tony made sure that all members of his party were introduced with great grace, a handshake, and a smile. Back in the day, no luncheon was served without “The Lord’s Prayer” being recited and “God save the Queen” being sung and manners were an absolute requirement, whether one was impaling a potato on your plate or having a conversation with a person with whom you did not agree.

After what surely felt like wheelbarrows of expensive red wine had been consumed during which large slabs of rare prime rib were served (and ravenously consumed), out came the cigars with a celebratory round of liqueurs, a fitting introduction to the carving up of not only the beef but also the allotments. Tony was the allocator (of course) and as he handed out prospectuses to each member of the syndicate, he would write a dollar amount on the top left side of the front page. At the end of the luncheon, which was actually shortly before the dinner hour, Tony did something I would never forget for the rest of my years in this business: he asked every participant if they were pleased with their allocations and that they should indicate so by raising their right hand. There were six hands in the air but at the end of the table, a diminutive.

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