skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: What do you think of the Phillips Hager & North High Yield Bond fund? I understand the lead manager is Hanif Mamdani. The fund seems to have half its assets in Canadian and half in American high-yield bonds. The MER is 0.87% which doesn't seem too bad for this kind of fund. The chart they post on the web looks outstanding (http://funds.rbcgam.com/pdf/fund-pages/monthly/rbf1280_e.pdf). How risky is this fund going forward?
Read Answer Asked by Philip on July 19, 2017
Q: Sold aw.un been a good run in an income RIF looking to replace it with Npi or Cpx or a similar utility . I am well diversified and switch does not alter weighting.

Would appreciate your opinion on this matter.

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by James on July 19, 2017
Q: Hi 5i,
Just a comment. For anyone looking at historical returns to evaluate the future prospects for a balanced (equity + fixed income) portfolio, it is extremely important to consider that the next 30 years of fixed income returns are virtually guaranteed to be significantly different than the past 30 to 40 years. Bond yields (interest returns) were in a generally declining trend, originally from nosebleed levels, for about 35 years from approximately 1980, during which even government bond yields dropped from double digit peaks to the negligible rates available over the past couple of years. The portfolios of investors who held bonds of significant duration early in that period reaped high interest rate bond returns while they watched the paper value of their bonds increase with each downward tick in interest rates. The fixed income component was potentially a tremendous contributor to very good portfolio returns over much of that extended period of declining interest rates.
Looking out over the next 30 years, the prospect is vastly different. Bonds don’t have anything remotely approaching the same kind of return potential. Current interest rate returns are still very low as rates are recently just beginning to move off what may later be viewed as ‘the bottom.’ The prospect for people who hold bonds of any significant duration while rates rise is that their holdings become less valuable. Low interest instruments may need to be held to maturity in order to avoid a loss of principal. In the meantime, those low interest bond returns will be a drag on any better portfolio returns that may be generated by equity holdings. If you have 50% of your portfolio in bonds that pay 2%, and you hope for an 8% overall portfolio return, you have to generate a return of 14% from your equities. Maybe bond yields will return to levels where they are not so detrimental to significant portfolio returns over the next 5 to 10 years but maybe they won’t. If they do, then holding bonds while the rates are rising can be painful. If they don’t, then they may go through an extended period where the chief value in bonds is the secure return of capital at maturity but the return prospects until maturity are relatively dismal.
The fact that someone buying a 10-year Canada Bond in 1982 got a 16% annual rate of return on it is not an indication of what anyone putting together a bond portfolio or balanced portfolio today can expect it to realize. It is completely irrelevant.
To assess the return prospects of a balanced portfolio today, you need to consider the relevant details and prospects for today's bonds, not the irrelevant details and portfolio contributions of bonds that have long since expired.

(Please print only if you think doing so may be helpful.)
Read Answer Asked by Lance on July 19, 2017
Q: Given the recent questions concerning FIH my interest in India has been piqued.

My question might be outside your scope .... but I just received what appears to be an email promotion from Deutche Bank India. The offering is for a FD (fixed deposit) GIC for 5 years with a graduated interest rate starting at 6.9% for years 1 and 2 and moving up from there to 8%. Too good to be true? Obviously the interest rates are appealing.

I could try to copy and paste the ad if you are unable to find it.

Thanks for your help.

A dividend seeking senior!
Read Answer Asked by Donald on July 19, 2017
Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

I'm a bit confused with your answer to Florence about TXF. Your answer said "This one overlays 75% of the portfolio with call options......".

However, according to the First Asset website: "Distributions are paid quarterly and no more than 25% of the portfolio's securities will have call options written upon them at any given time".

If no more than 25% of the portfolio have call options, doesn't this strategy mean that an investor wouldn't be giving up as much as your answer indicates? Am I missing something here?

Thanks in advance for any clarification.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on July 18, 2017
Q: Hello 5i,
I am looking to increase my U.S. and International exposure. I currently hold VIG-N, JNJ-N and a number of Canadian ETF's which also hold U.S. equities. I am open to either USD or hedged products and would like a yield in excess of 2.25% if practical. Since I look to yield for income I was considering ZWA. Would you have any other options you would prefer over ZWA?
On the Int'l. side I hold CYH and ZDI and am happy with both; I held VEE at one time, but the yield is on the lower side for my needs. Should I just increase my holdings in these two or, again, do you see a better option? I could move out of one or both of those if you think there is a more compelling option I'm missing.
As always .... thanks so much for all of your help - very much appreciated!!!
Have a great summer!!
Cheers,
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on July 18, 2017
Q: Hi,
Further to your reply: "ENB pays its dividend in Canadian dollars. You could buy it in the US, in a US account, and dividends would be converted, but you would incur exchange fees.
Rather than looking at this strategy, we might instead holding some US exposure in general, for general diversification, and avoid trying to predict currency movements"

Since I'm seeking USD income, I'm looking for the biggest bang for my buck (so the Dividend Tax Credit is something I would want to take advantage of). Would my strategy work with something like a ENB.PR.U (USD preferred)? Or does the same currency conversion issue occur. Thanks again.
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on July 18, 2017
Q: Dear 5i,

I currently own XHU and am comparing it to PUD.B.

PUD.B is more expensive, with a MER of 0.67 vs 0.34 for XHU.

PUD.B is attractive because it appears to involve a strictly quantitative screen including 5-year non-negative dividend growth and Piotroski scores; whereas XHU involves quantitative but also qualitative assessments by Morningstar analysts (economic moat, uncertainty index, distance to default).

PUD.B is higher conviction, with 40 holdings vs. 75 for XHU.

Do you think that over the long-term, PUD.B will have higher dividend growth? Higher total return? If so, do you think PUD.B is worth the higher MER compared to XHU?

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on July 17, 2017
Q: I am retired living off dividend income. I am building my portfolio based on your income portfolio. However, I am not interested in index or bond funds.
Can you recommend 3-4 income stocks that are looking most attractive at current prices and yielding +4% that are not in the income portfolio to replace the index/bond funds?
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on July 17, 2017
Looking for more? Sign up for a FREE 14 day trial! No credit card required

We invite you to sign up for a 14 day free trial of 5i Research!
Experience all the benefits and tools we have to offer; stock research, model portfolios, Q&A with our experts, and so much more. Join a community of like-minded investors today!