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Investment Q&A

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

Q: My father will visit Canada next year to attend my graduation. He just wired me 30K to invest and said this will be his travel expense next year, so he wanted a guaranteed positive return for his money. What are some of the stock/etfs you recommend me to put my money in. I do know we have a income portfolio, so please do not say something like "referring to income portfolio", there are too many names there. Can you just give me some of your favorite names? also, some ETFs are fine too. Thank you in advance. Tony
Read Answer Asked by Tao on August 09, 2018
Q: Hi,
Im young (33) with good income and savings for investment for the long term. Im thinking of putting my portfolio 50% into etfs for long growth and 50% into equities for faster growth. I like the etfs since it has been shown time and time again that it is rare to beat the market long term with just selecting individual companies. With the 50% in individual equities, I would rebalance probably once per year (unless large bumps in price happen) to take profits and move them to the etfs to maintain the 50% split for a while and protect against losses. Do you think this is good approach? What basket of etfs would you recommend for this approach? Or would you look at something all in one like VGRO? If a basket of etfs is recommended would you prefer hedged or unhedged? I have read/heard a lot about a coming recession and potential dive in the US dollar (from people like Peter Schiff), so Im not really sure how to protect against that (other than growing my cash reserves also to be ready to purchase on a large drop). Or would you use a combination of ETFS and gold somehow? Thanks for putting up with my rambling here, please deduct what you need to for credits.

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by david on August 08, 2018
Q: In reviewing ZWC distribution tax information for 2017, $.664 of the $1.12 distribution was deemed ROC with the remainder being eligible dividend. How is this possible? The ETF holds dividend paying companies. There is no operating business carried out that would have non cash items like depreciation that would constitute ROC. Gains realized on call writing would be capital gains. Where is this ROC coming from and is it cause for concern?
Read Answer Asked by Chad on August 08, 2018
Q: Can you please tell me what the dividend payout % for each etf, as well as their 5 year average return is. Would you equally weight them?
Please deduct appropriate question allocation.
Regards
Read Answer Asked by Bill on August 03, 2018
Q: For investing in Etf's, which top three sector's do you recommend investing in for the next three to five years, hedged or un-hedged, thanks?
Read Answer Asked by Pat on August 03, 2018
Q: Hello 5i Team

The passive index fund industry is dominated by BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street. Seen together, these three giant, passive asset managers already constitute the largest shareholder in at least 40 percent of all U.S. listed companies and 88 percent of the S&P 500 firms. What are your thoughts in terms of the big three controlling the corporations and what happens when there is a market correction or meltdown. Would there be any buyers left and also individual stock investors could get into deep trouble.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/30AD689509AAD62F5B677E916C28C4B6/S1469356917000064a.pdf/hidden_power_of_the_big_three_passive_index_funds_reconcentration_of_corporate_ownership_and_new_financial_risk.pdf

Appreciate the good work done by 5i team.

Thanks
Ninad
Read Answer Asked by Ninad on August 01, 2018
Q: Good day,

I currently own the subject shares in my TFSA portfolio. Are these stocks still worth hanging onto with the current volatility? I was considering selling everything and going with Vanguard or iShares.
Read Answer Asked by Enzo on August 01, 2018
Q: At 75 years of age I am not comfortable holding a full portfolio of stocks in a world that is so dependent on tweets from a malevolent idiot. Thus I have moved a large portion of my holdings to cash, and have built a GIC ladder as my main attempt at capital preservation. I am now looking for stocks or ETFs that provide good income with a relatively low risk of capital loss. SRU.UN was recommended on BNN recently, in particular because Walmart represents about 1/4 of its holdings. Does this rationale make sense to you, and do you think SRU would be suitable for my new capital preservation portfolio? Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thanks for your great advice, as always.
Read Answer Asked by Roland on July 31, 2018
Q: First off, my apologies to all the members for the recent sell-off in the markets. I should have warned your readers that I decided to put some money to use at the end of last week so there would inevitably be a sell-off not too long afterwards.

But seriously, I was wondering if you could provide any insight/feedback/critique into whether it makes sense to view the projected growth in market development in African nations in the coming years and decades as a viable investment thesis. If so, do you have any suggestions on how to invest in Africa? A cursory exploration led to Fairfax Africa (FAH.U) - does this seem like a worthwhile investment? Are there any other suggestions I could investigate further?

Thanks in advance,
Rory
Read Answer Asked by Rory on July 31, 2018
Q: I currently own the following ETF's/ Funds. Canadian- ZCH ZSP FLI CJP COW VE VEE XGD ; U. S.- IWO AWF BBH FEZ XLRE XLF KRE XLK. In your view, are there any which should be sold to reduce duplication or for other reasons? And which are worthwhile adding to in this market? Thank you in advance for your usual well-considered reply.





Read Answer Asked by Harold on July 31, 2018
Q: FOR CASH PART OF PORTOFOLIO YOU SUGGEST BONDS AND SOME MMF OR GIC
IN MY PORTOFOLIO I HAVE :
CDP-5 YEARS RETURN - 13.19% ( MINUS )
VAB 5 YEARS RETURN +1.35 % (PLUS )
TD MMF (165 ) 5 YEAR RETURN 3.54% (PLUS )
THESE ARE FIGURES FRON GLOBE AND MAIL 5 YEAR RETURN.
IT SEEMS MONEY MARKET FUND HAS BETER RETURN AN NO LOSS (EXCEPT INFLATION ) AND LESS WORRY.
I APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENT.EBRAHIM
Read Answer Asked by ebrahim on July 30, 2018
Q: Good morning, my US equity is entirely in ZWH, VGG, and VIG. Each about 5% of total portfolio. Monthly income from ZWH is convenient for RRIF withdrawals (over 80) but both VIG and VGG have significantly outperformed ZWH over at least the last 2 years. I am thinking of disposing of the ZWH (covered call ETF) and using equal amounts of VGG and VIG to total 15% of portfolio. I have available $US cash to do so. Any other ideas for US equity exposure are welcome.

Regards Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on July 30, 2018
Q: My portfolio lacks a serious commitment to technology although it is reasonably well balanced across the remaining sectors emphasizing a conservative income approach. To address the tech sector, I thought I would start easy, as it were, by investing in either ZQQ or XQQ. For an investor in his mid seventies, with a low comfort level in most things tech, that would appear to me to be the way to go. Appreciate your view.
Thank you.
Geoff
Read Answer Asked by Geoffrey on July 30, 2018
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