Investment Q&A

Q: This is the old France Telecom. What's you take on this company?
Ken

Q: I have two UK banks:Barclays , ADR symbol BCS.us ; and Lloyds LYG.us. I probably should not have both and thought of selling LYG especially after I saw you said BCS has 5.4% dividend in a your in Apr 2015. Between BCS and LYG , do you think LYG is the right one to shed?
FYI: In your reply of Apr 17 2015 you mentioned BCS has a yield of 5.4% p.a. Various other sources show yield at half of that. You use Bloomberg terminals which would be more reliable than the sites popular with retail investors. I have however noticed a number of securities for which you mention a yield that is materially different from other sources. I will give higher credence to data you mention . I am however puzzled about the recurring or frequent discrepancies.

Q: what are your thoughts on the impact of the "chinese stock rout" ?

Q: I received notice that Blackrock is terminating the XLA ETF. I'm under water on this one, but always thought of it as geographic diversification with a long term view. I'm wondering why they would terminate the fund and if I'm better off selling or waiting for liquidation in August. Finally, could you recommend a few reasonable replacements (hedged or un-hedged). Thanks. I love the service you that you guys offer.

Q: I would like to get more exposure to Europe for the long-term (5+ years). Do you think it is a good idea at this time given the Greek mess or should I wait a bit? Is there a good ETF or two that you could recommend/is that a good way to get exposure to Europe? The only one I know of is the SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF
(FEZ). Do you like that one?
Thank you!

Q: Bought a 5% position about 3 months ago and not happy so far. Would you suggest a hold or sell or replace with another, better etf, thanks

Q: What are your thoughts on including European and German exposure in portfolio?What % would you recommend. Are these etfs acceptable. Thanks.Shyam

Q: I understand you may not be familiar with this european company trading as an ADR in the U.S, but I was wondering if you have an opinion on its future potential.

Thanks for the great service.

Q: What are your thoughts on Prem Watsa's India Fund? He does seem to have a bit of home field advantage, not to mention his track record. Also would you consider a 6% overall India allocation to be excessive? (I currently hold ZEQ at almost 3% of my portfolio).

Q: Hi Guys
A fund manager that I respect a lot Francis Chou has made a big bet on Nokia a while ago.
Can you tell me what he likes about this company thanks.

Q: Hi Peter and team:This ETF pulled back to 50 day moving average. Good entry point for some one with no Chinese equity exposure in his portfolio?

Q: Can you recommend a Japanese ETF that is hedged to the Canadian dollar? Is the Japanese market still a buy since it is at an 18 year record high?

Q: I am planning to add international equity exposure via US ETFs. Could you please recommend US-based ETFs for the following:

Broad US exposure (is there one that covers small and large cap or do I need two, like IWO and VFV?)
Broad world exposure (VXUS?)
Additional weight in China (FXI?)
Additional weight in India (?)
Additional weight in Japan (?)

If you see any concerns with this approach I'd would be interested to know. Also would be interested to know if you think Latin America would be underweighted in the above and if so, your recommendation on a US ETF. Thanks as always.

Q: A while back I had bought 100 shares of LPG : NYSE. I had asked a question about it at the time but your team could not comment on it as they did not know anything about it. Currently it is trading at $15.16 a share. I wondering if your team has since looked at it and if so what are your thoughts on it, thank-you for your time.

Q: Any thoughts on Eurobank -Fairfax owns 13%-Wilbur ross also involved .Understand this consortium has well over a billion dollars invested which is about the current mkt cap . at prices much higher than current -37 cents versus current pricing around 7 cents . So does it make any sense to follow these savvy players ???????

Q: Hi Team,

I own full positions in EFV, EEM, and VXUS. I am looking to free up some US dollars to invest elsewhere and was wondering what you thought about selling one of these ETFs. Do you think I need all three or would two suffice for international exposure? If two is enough, which two would you keep? Thank you.

Michael

Q: Hello Peter and all; As always appreciate your great service, one news item from Bloomberg that as come Monday, Saudi Arabia lifts a ban on direct investments by foreigners, fund allocators are preparing to shift money out of other countries and put it to work in the Arbab world's largest stock market. I wonder are there any etfs that are related to this market that we have access from here? Thanks.

Lin

Q: We are travelling in Europe - Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Italy ... and cannot ever recall seeing so much construction activity. Is there any way to verify the accuracy of the observation - as in high current levels of infrastructure projects.

And if the perception is correct, is there an investment opportunity here be it in canadian or US lusted companies?

Thanks

Q: I would like your recommendation on ETFs for the US and Int'l portion of my portfolio. First a little background. My wife and I are both retired and in our late 50's with company pensions and CPP and OAS available when we reach age 60 and 65. Given that these income streams are secure and cover living expenses I have structured my Investment portfolio with 10% Fixed Income (CBO) and 90% equities of primarily dividend paying Canadian companies. I would now like to increase my US to 10%, Int'l exposure to 7% and Emerging Markets to 3% and want to continue to earn a good dividend yield. I would like to keep all my holdings in Cdn $ and am considering the following ETFs. The stock selection methodology of these ETFs should provide less volatility with a good and growing dividend. These would be for a long term hold.
U.S. - ZDY - 3.0%
Int'l - ZDI - 4.0%.
Emerging - RXD - 2.7%
Your thoughts on these choices or alternatives would be appreciated.

Q: In Peter’s last appearance on BNN he made a brief reference to the Chinese stock market being in a bubble. I currently hold some iShares China Large-Cap ETF (FXI), and with the recent run-up have done very well with them. I greatly value Peter’s opinions, so I of course take notice when he uses the term “bubble” to describe any investment (for me the only term that invokes more fear is “irrational exuberance”). I’m happy with my weighting and allocation to China which are right where I feel they should be. However, the recent run-up and Peter’s comments have me wondering if it would not be wise to sell all of my FXI and wait this one out on the side. At present there just seems to be too much downside risk versus upside potential to be worth it. Any advice?