Som Seif, CEO, Purpose Investments, joins us for an in-depth chat, a few weeks ago, about how investors can mount a strong defence in their portfolios, by taking a new tack in their offensive strategy. This is the best possible time, towards the end of what has already been a long cycle, to reconfigure your portfolio, not following a correction, but proactively, in advance of one.

With the return of volatility at hand in the context of the U.S./China débâcle, the waffling Fed, and talk of recession, now remains a good time to tweak portfolios in defensive areas. Topping is long process, and its more likely that investors still have a fair bit of time to re-position some of the frothier parts of their portfolios. Som weighs in.

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We recently sat down with Som Seif, CEO, Purpose Investments, for an in depth conversation on interest rates, how and where to invest in fixed income now, and what the optimal equity allocation looks like, to him, right now, as part of a broader conversation on what an ideal portfolio should look like, for the challenging markets we are facing ahead.

First, we talked about whether the Fed is ahead of the curve on monetary policy.

In the second segment, we talk about how in the longer period ahead, investors must tackle the challenge that conventional bond investing will be a high risk, low return proposition.

Does it make sense to continue to hold large positions in investments that will potentially harm your portfolio 11 out 12 months of the year, just because they have been conventional portfolio holdings for 3 decades?

What's in it for investors to invest in ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) / Responsible Investing funds? Som Seif weighs in on this with a fresh perspective on why investors should consider ESG/RI from another angle altogether. Many investors believe that ESG/RI means giving up some return in return for the price of governance, however, Som Seif, President and CEO, Purpose Investments says that's a common misperception and explains why its more than just a cause.

Our conversation with Som Seif, President and CEO, Purpose Investments continues. In the context of the rotation and pullback that has been underway, we asked Seif if he thought the move upward in value stocks was a sign of a comeback?

Financial technology and innovation have made it possible for all investors to access alternative investment, with great transparency, for their portfolios, and with the application of new rules from regulators in Canada, alternative investing opportunities are about to become widely available to all investors. So how can investors begin to think and act on this?

We asked Som Seif, President and CEO, Purpose Investments, what he thought were the most obvious baby-step places investors could start to introduce alternative investment strategy to further optimize their portfolios for the times ahead.

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Recently we chatted with Som Seif, President and CEO, Purpose Investments, and in that conversation, instead of talking at length about what's shaking up the market – rising yields, valuations, rotation – we decided it would be more constructive have a basic conversation about alternative investing. We asked Seif, "What is alternative investing?"

"This is symptom of a lack of transparency (or accessibility), and a lack of education (awareness) that happened in the industry over the last 20 years, in expressing and explaining the role of investing, and ways to make money. One of the challenges is to go back to a basic principle which is that all of us have grown up in this industry with the wisdom of a really powerful bull market for equities and bonds," says Seif. "What that has led to is a conventional wisdom of buying stocks long and buying bonds long and just owning them, and kind of plugging your nose during some of those weak one or two year periods, and then just continuing."

The conversation continues from there on the meaning of alternative investing.

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