Investment Q&A

Q: There have been a number of questions/comments concerning the recent 3 for 2 stock split of BEPC and BEP.UN and how fractional shares are handled. I reached out to TD Waterhouse and their response may be of interest to your members:

"When we received payment from a Split we as a Broker receive payment on our one bulk position. We do not get paid for each client individually. If the client had a physical certificate or held shares directly with the Transfer Agent in their name only than yes they would have rounded up but the company says for "Registered Holders". The shares in the clients account are registered "TD Waterhouse ITF the client" so when we get paid we get one payment for all our clients because all of our clients shares are registered the same way TD Waterhouse ITF. But the client will get some cash for the fractional shares. The CIL usually comes in about 10 bus days after the Re-Org was processed. "

I would assume the same would be true for all online brokers.

Hope this is helpful
Cheers
Scott

Q: Morning Peter / Ryan and Team, first, Thanks so much for your calming advice through this past / current period of turmoil ! I am soon going to retire and start drawing on my rsp for income after years of accumulation. Thanks again to your guidance!!
This brings about some questions.
First, from a performance aspect, would a person be better using Drips and then selling stock to fund withdrawals, or, cancel drips and let dividends fund the withdrawals?
Second, when evaluating a stock/etf for an income portfolio, should more importance be put on dividend or growth? I have an all equity portfolio, diversified geographically and sector wise as per your recommendations, intend to stay in equity, simply increase cash reserves to fund withdrawals and allow a cushion. Thanks, Lavern
p.s. Happy Holidays to all, and Stay Safe! Better 6' apart than 6' under!!

Q: Hi Peter and team:
Just a note to say thank you. Two points: First, I sent in a question which I thought was almost an unfair one and virtually impossible. You actually answered it and provided your methodology with exactly what I needed. Second, I submitted my question late Friday, thinking I wouldn't receive an answer until Monday or so. I open up my email Saturday morning to find a reply time stamped at 2:00 am. Wow...needless to say, you made my day.
Thanks for the great service...above and beyond!
Please take Christmas Day off...Steve

Q: Good morning 5i.
Yesterday I asked a question about options and you replied that one of your favourite strategies is to sell a call and a put on the same stock. I suppose I could run a few examples to try to see how this works. But, perhaps the best is to ask you to expand on that strategy a bit. Any particular things you look at in this strategy?

Q: My question is about investing in an index Exchange traded fund such as XEI, XRE, ZRE, etc.
How often do ETF (fund company) issue additional units/shares ?
Will additional issues of units dilute returns for medium to long term investors ? If yes how much of an impact would it have on returns and how significant would it be?

Q: Getting cash in lieu of a full share of BEPC seems a bit cheeky to me. We were supposed to get a full share for any fraction.
I received $31.81 for half share. A full share is would have been worth $63.62. At the close on Friday that share was worth $66.98.
I didn’t see any mention of cash in lieu of fractional shares. So as of Fridays close I’m out $35.09.
Does anyone else think the same way I do?

Roy

Q: I like picking stocks, but I am also looking for a way to automatically invest 10% of my monthly income into some sort of index fund. Do you know what’s the best option for this? Is there a way to achieve this without having to pay a $9.99 transaction fee each time I buy something (RBC direct investing)? Many thanks and happy holidays! Love your service!

Q: Holders of the above shares I would like to draw your attention to a quote from the notice of share splits . Quote “Any fractional units/shares to be issued to registered holders as a result of the unit/share splits WILL be rounded up to the nearest whole unit/share” unquote. One could quibble over the words WILL and SHALL.
If you have an even number of shares of the above , your account should show the correct number of shares after the split.
However if you have an odd number of shares you might want to check that the rounding up has been done. For example if you held 201 shares of either of the above you should now have 302.
Calculation:
201 x 1.5 = 301.5 , rounded up gives you 302 shares.
If this isn’t happening for you, you should contact your dealer. Thousands of half shares can amount to a lot of missing shares.
Roy

Q: To all members,

If you are low on question credits I am offering to donate some of my credits.
If interested please head to the forums "non investment topics"

Happy Holidays to everyone

Q: While my question involves SBB, it is really more of a general interest question. On Friday Dec. 18, SBB traded over 22 million shares and 20 million of those shares were traded in the last 15 minutes of trading. The 50-day average volume is 764K.

So I went looking for an answer to this anomalous trading and found the following on Sabina's website:

"Sabina is pleased to announce that effective at market close on December 18, 2020, the Company will be added to the GDXJ.

Qualifying for addition to the GDXJ is another benchmark of how Sabina’s successes have translated into share performance and liquidity. Inclusion on this index provides an increased level of validation of the Company to a broader base of institutional investors, bringing additional trading flexibility and value to our Company.

The index initial position in Sabina is estimated at approximately 17M shares."

Clearly, Friday's sky-high volume and SBB's inclusion in GDXJ are related. However, SBB's announcement states it only becomes part of GDXJ AFTER the market closed on Friday. Can you help me to understand how so much trading occurred BEFORE market closing on Friday? Who is coughing up 20 million shares in the last 15 minutes of trading when the entire float is only 326 million shares? Does Van Eck purchase the shares outright or is a middleman involved?

Thank you.

Q: What time of day and days of the week are normally best for individuals to buy and sell stocks?

Q: BEP's recent share split announcement indicated, if I read it correctly, that any fractional shares resulting from the split would be rounded up to the nearest whole share. I owned, pre-split, an odd number of shares. My broker rounded down, and I think I've been cheated out of a share. Is my understanding correct and do I have grounds to go after the broker? Not a huge amount on an individual basis, but if a broker does it to hundreds or even thousands of investors . . .

Q: With Peter now managing a fund, will he still be spending most of his time with 5i answering questions, etc.? I see people wanting changes by way of having a separate advisory for US securities instead of them being combined as they are now. I had a paid subscription with another advisory and which were not combined and they had for example, small cap, large cap, income, US small, US large, etc. so you would be subscribing to half a dozen of their programs to get all of the information. I see now I receive emails from them and they are reaching out with another more inexpensive program where like Amazon - pick the program and put it in a cart. Your subscription is far superior to what I am aware of. Awaiting your response. Thank you.

Q: Today ,when I turned on my computer the above stocks each had matching bid ask for millions of shares at much lower than their closing price yesterday. Any idea what is happening?

Q: Could you provide brief summary to I'm sure a complicated question?

How is it that some analysts, including 5i, are able to predict companies will be taken over (like People was recently?).

It sounds like sometimes companies can seek it as a long-term plan (eg is that Well's plan?), I know sometimes they're hostile, and sometimes just seem advantageous for all. What are the usual qualities? Eg undervalued, but growing profits? Usually small-cap?

What companies would you not be surprised to see bought out over the next year?

Q: I am pleased to say that with your advice I have enjoyed outstanding results and my portfolio is now at a level where I would like to protect against a significant market correction.
Reading your Q&A's there is references to puts and calls. From what I ascertain puts/calls can be a tool to protect and also enhance returns. Can you recommend resources for someone like me who is interested in learning more about this strategy.
Thanks
John

Q: I have a margin account at TD. I receive 50% margin on CNQ, GSY AND SJ. On SIS, a much smaller company I receive 70% margin. This does not make sense. Could you explain how trading companies like TD determine margin?

Q: If a member asks a multi part question & then states the number of credits that you should take, does that have any bearing on the number of credits taken? Please take one credit!
Thanks

Q: Goodmorning 5i,
Best of the season to you all. And I concur with previous writers who have lauded your advice. I have profited as a result of your expertise and generosity in sharing it, as well. My question has to do with options. I believe that you sell call options. In his book, "Money for Nothing", I believe Derek Foster said that he only sells puts, as he doesn't want to have the stocks he bought at low prices, because of put options, called away. I have been selling call options and note that they are not often called away. And sometimes when they are, I do a simple calculation to see whether I would be better to buy them back, if I think they are going to continue rising. I have worried from time to time, though, about being called away. Especially when there are high capital gains in a non registered account. I suspect you also have higher capital gains possible on many of the stocks you sell call options on, as well. I was wondering what your take is on this question.=?

Q: Bitcoin
I am just exploring investing in Bitcoin and moving up the learning curve regarding Bitcoin Wallets, Companies, ETF's etc. This is for a small "1/2%" position to aid my overall understanding and determine if this is something of interest. My initial thoughts after doing some reading that this is a risky "commodity" to enter into.
1: Currently, I only have a rudimentary feel for potential gains and / or pitfalls. I have heard promoters say it could potentially be $300,000+ in a few years, perhaps $50,000 within a year. Do you have any comments you could offer on Risk/Reward aspects?
2: What is the best way to invest in Bitcoin? WealthSimple has trading in Bitcoin on their App (Similar to PayPal I assume, which we cannot access her in Canada.), there are several "Bitcoin Wallets" out there, ETF's as well. I hear fees to make transactions are not always transparent. WealthSimple trades for Bitcoin are funded by the spread quoted.
The bottom line is, for very small speculative positions, I am unsure if Bitcoin should be a consideration or if I should stick to small growth stocks? What advice would you offer me?

Thanks