Investment Q&A

Q: Good morning, I am looking to invest in Amazon, but if I was to buy 5 shares, what would be more than US$15,000 and represent 15% holding. What would an alternative way to invest as I assume this is too large of a position, even for Amazon.

Q: In a previous question your replied "The 17% discount makes sense considering the stock has only traded above $1.40 for two days."
I would have expected the price would have been set/negotiated at some point prior to the announcement and so would have been at a premium while this was in "the works" which I thought would have been prior to the increase. But I suspect I'm not correct on this. Can you explain how this bought deal pricing is set? Thanks John

Q: Hi 5i team : what level of cash do you recommend in a portfolio ?, this outside the requirements of cash required for our own expenses (so not to sell stocks when the market had crashed/bottomed due to cash needs) . In the market environment as today , is 5%, 10 % ?, or in between ?, does it change according to the market condition ?, thanks

Q: When looking up price and volume information for some ETFs on the TMX website I noticed that for each symbol there are to other listings ending in :APH and :PUR. E.g. in addition to XEI, there is XEI:APH and XEI:PUR. Prices are almost the same but volumes differ. What do :APH and :PUR represent?

Q: This is a question regarding your answer to my previous question regarding taxes for options. Thank you very much for your perspective, by the way.

But, my question was not on taxes on premiums. I know they are taxed. It was about when one buys back a stock which one has previously sold a a covered call option on. Is the underlying stock considered to have been sold?
thanks

Q: Here is what Taxtips.ca gives as a reason for not selling options:
We traded options for about a decade, and in the end finally decided to quit, because

bullet there was too much record keeping to be done
bullet we always had to keep on top of whether the stocks were close to exercise price
bullet when we used a full-service broker, it seemed we would be warned before anything was exercised and that we could have some input, but once we used a discount brokerage options would be exercised without warning, and we would find out after the fact.
bullet it was impossible to quantify true gains and losses, and it certainly didn't seem worth all the effort we put into it
They undoubtedly know more than I do but I find their analysis a little extreme. Wondering what you think of it.

I was looking at their site in order to get an idea about paying taxes on options. wasn't really clear to me. My question is whether you pay capital gains on the stock, not the option premium, but the stock capital gain, when you buy back a call option?
thanks

Q: GOOG is now about 10% of my holdings excluding the fixed portion of my total portfolio. At what % would you let this one run before scaling back? In previous response to members you indicated an 8% start make you nervous but, this is GOOG a member of the trillion company.
Thanks.

Q: You recently responded to a question regarding Lightspeed: "We don't typically get scared off by stock strength, and that would be the case today. We might do a partial position as it is not going to be a one way up move for this stock."

My question is: Given your theoretical perspective of NOT averaging down, what would be the point of buying an initial partial position? It seems to me that you may as well just purchase your whole position right at the start rather than holding back for a later purchase (always at a higher price, because you don't average down).

Am I missing something? Could you elaborate and clarify please.

Q: I understand that there are tax advantages to holding different types of equities in your TFSA, RRSP and open accounts. I would appreciate some information on the preferred types of equities to be held in the various accounts – US stocks, Canadian stocks, International stocks, dividend paying stocks, non-dividend paying stocks, ETFs, etc. Thank you for your information.

Q: I need to get access to a data base such as Compustat in order to back test an investment thesis. I have been able to get data (EBITDA, Revenue from operations, Good Will, Total Assets) for 2018 and 2019. I would like to access data back to 1998 for all NYSE and NASDAQ companies.
Results for 2019 are 57.37% and 2020 YTD22.46 %.
Happy to discuss system with you if you are interested.
Any suggestions on accessing a database?

Q: Can you please give your opinion on the below Options ratio?
Is that means bullish or bearish for stocks

https://www.alphaquery.com/stock/TSLA/volatility-option-statistics/120-day/put-call-ratio-oi

Thanks for the great service
Hector

Q: Can you please explain what Bitcoin and the crypto industry is all about. How can Bitcoin be worth $20,000.00????

Will this move to Digital currency make our portfolios as we know them now worthless?

Any insight you can provide on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Q: How can I ascertain from the average Morningstar/others report if a fund is Leveraged ,2x,3x or not at all. for example BLK????
Art

Q: I have access to Morningstar through the broker. Morningstar’s analysis is often useful, but its ratings of companies covered are puzzling. Nuts, actually. A business starts doing better than ever and its shares rise as investors come to appreciate the rising value. Just at that moment, in comes Morningstar with its downgrades. It beats up a company performing very well by downgrading the rating of companies whose results are improving to Hold or Sell. Conversely when a business is stumbling badly and its shares drop, up goes the rating from Morningstar. One understands when analysts downgrade and explain that they still like the company but that they feel they need to go from Buy to Hold on the grounds of valuation . I have not seen Morningstar explain their ratings in a similar manner. If one reads Morningstar’s narrative, is it best to ignore its ratings? This is after all what one tends to with “target prices”. Or, am I missing something important?

Q: I have been investing for a long time, and have always looked carefully at the p/e ratios and other valuation metrics of stocks that I have bought. I've always felt that the valuation of a stock matters. I read 20 or 30 years ago that the ultimate value any stock holds is the long term ability to generate profits and return these to shareholders in the form of dividends. Lately, it seems that a lot of that is being ignored. There are so many well owned, highly regarded stocks that aren't even profitable on a GAAP basis, and p/e ratios are non-existent in many cases because the company is losing money. I like growth stocks, but it just seems to me that there needs to be some kind of reasonable valuation factored in as well. Many of these high flying tech stocks are now trading at multiples of sales instead of non-existent earnings, and many of those at 20, 30 or more times sales. I know that you like a lot of these, so no need to specify any particular stock. I can see that these companies are growing revenues rapidly, but it can't be as simple as that can it? The revenue is going up 40% or 50% or more a year, and it's a good business, without a ton of debt, so it's a buy? Isn't there some kind of limit? Not trying to be critical - I own some of these high priced tech stocks myself. Some of them, I just can't get my head around what looks like astronomical valuations. Thank you for any comments or insight.

Q: Good Morning
Do we get the dividend tax credit from Canadian stocks listed in the New York stock exchange?
Thanks.

Q: I tend to buy on noticeable dips. The momentum crowd often seems to do well so I am curious: are you aware of any study that compares performance between the following approaches:
Buy stocks at or close to 52-week highs, vs.
Buy stocks at or close to 52-week lows.

I have tried to do this analysis myself using commonly available “practice accounts”. My what-if scenarios however lack the rigor that you would see in an academic exercise. Also, a question related to the above: when one is reviewing stock charts available at the better sites, are dividends included in the charts that compare baskets of stocks? I have assumed they would be excluded. If my assumption is correct, does that distort performance comparisons in a significant enough manner as to nullify one’s conclusions?

Q: This is not a question, but a comment. Many years ago I read "One Up on Wall Street" by Peter Lynch. My main takeaway was to look around me. As a shopper I hate Loblaws since there are always bare shelves and they seldom have what I want. If there is a special, they are sold out within hours on the first day. This has gone on for many years. In contrast, Metro always has what I want and sometimes more. Therefore I own Metro and have done well by it.

Q: Hi Peter and Team
Your advice on options, specifically covered calls is very much appreciated. Some time ago you had advised on opportunities in the US market for selling covered calls. As I believe that with the US election done that there may be some return to normal, is this a good time to again consider selling calls and could you advise 3 Canadian and 3 US shares that might offer good premiums ?
Thanks so much for the ongoing advice. Peter

Q: Good morning
there has been several questions at various times regarding parking money for short periods example 3 months or less
most times you suggest GICs or PSA or high interest accounts
would a short term money market fund be appropriate and if so can you suggest some with liquidity on a daily basis
What are the risks of such funds
the intent is to have this money available for purchasing stocks at short notice
If not any other ideas would be welcome
Thanks