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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: I have held the above stock, (TD) for several years and recently sold,, as it has easily been the most volatile stock in my portfolio. I am thinking of spreading the risk by investing in a good bank etf or reinvesting in one bank when the situation calms down. What are your thoughts, and if the etf route is best, which one or ones would you recommend.

Thanks, David
Read Answer Asked by david on March 23, 2020
Q: Retired dividend-income investor. I currently own BNS and RY. I was planning on topping up BNS, then read an answer about harvesting capital losses. I had already take enough losses to cover my gains to look after 2020 income tax implications.
I selected BNS for its international diversification and RY for its USA diversification.

I am now considering harvesting my new BNS capital loss and was considering either CM or BMO for immediate replacement, wait a bit then do my original top-up later. Which bank to you consider the better replacement?

Thanks...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on March 23, 2020
Q: Why are all the insurance companies getting slaughtered? Because of ultralow interest rates? Good buy at these prices? Think the dividends are safe?

What would be your favourite?
Read Answer Asked by John on March 23, 2020
Q: I am a buy and hold investor with 5 to 10 years of time horizon.
Have the following 7 stocks in Canadian financials in the order of their weights in our portfolio. Financials makeup roughly 7.5% of the total portfolio including cash positions and we like their dividend. TD, RY, BNS, BMO, SLF, CM, and MFC. I like to reduce exposure to financials and also like to reduce number of different shares. Two questions:
1. Is 7.5% a reasonable weight considering the current situation?
2. Which one of these I should sell to reduce financial weight and to reduce the number of shares in financials?

Read Answer Asked by Naren on March 23, 2020
Q: Hi - I've had about 4-5% in each of the above going into the recent crash. Do you have any thoughts on hanging on to AD vs moving money to the banks (for example). AD has been hit much harder, but the dividend is larger. I would hold on if it's clear they will come out the other side ok. Similarly with APO, if you can comment on the US side.

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Yasin on March 20, 2020
Q: I’m struggling with why you would think GSY would do well in a recession. They serve sub prime customers with very little discretionary disposable income. Wouldn’t you expect these customers to be most impacted by unemployment, lost wages etc which would then drive late payments and then eventually loan losses. Initially I would expect GSY would take a similar approach to banks by deferring payments for customers to limit losses but eventually they will need to take them. New business will be impacted with branch closures, not to mention their leasing business, historically the reliable cash cow will be impacted as well without the foot traffic. Given the adjustment that big banks have taken to their stock prices over the last 3 weeks. GSYs massive drop looks warranted to me.
Read Answer Asked by Gregory on March 20, 2020
Q: Hi Amazing Team,

Don asked a question today about Canadian Western Bank: With Alberta hurting and oil prices crashing would you consider the western bank safe. Your answer began with: We would be cautious on CWB....

My question is please: I have a significant CWB bond maturing Jun 16 2022. It is in the money. Would you be inclined to hold or sell?

Many, many thanks for what you are doing in this time of crisis. Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on March 20, 2020
Q: Hello 5i
I have a tax loss that i can claim on bns. But, the problem is that i would like to replace it. Because of its focus on latin america, etc. There is no direct Canadian equivalent. I do hold bac in the US and TD in canada. I do have us cash, if needed. Any suggestions for a place holder, or even a replacement?
Thanks for the good work in these difficult days. It is evident by the comments that it is appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by joseph on March 20, 2020
Q: MIC is down about 50% which seem a bit excessive... I've held them for a long time and loved the Brookfield bump, the recent special divs. Would appreciate your thoughts before I double down. It would probably be safer to just buy one of the big banks but they haven't dropped 50%...I saw in the question archives that you ranked it "ok" as a high risk high yield option. 2 days ago.
Read Answer Asked by Tom on March 20, 2020