Investment Q&A

Q: In process of rebalancing growth leaning portfolios, so for the Communications sector, what would be your top five or six "must own" holdings, any market in this sector. Currently I have a notional 6% allocation to sector and small positions in GOOG, SIXG (FIVG), NBIS, and Telus. At a 3.6% position I have room to grow and looking for ideas.

Q: Have a question I have been meaning to ask for some time,

Do TSX/TSXV listed non-Canadian companies, like QIPT/US, KSI/Ireland, and IMP/US, just as examples, move more in-line with Canadian markets or their home country peers? E.g. if US healthcare companies are up 1% and Canadian healthcare companies are -1%, would you expect QIPT to be up or down 1%? QIPT is just an example, is there any information around this out there? *I am not asking about those specific companies in general.

I think ultimately I am looking at some of these American listed companies on the TSX (have a list from the TMX website: https://www.tsx.com/en/listings/listing-with-us/sector-and-product-profiles/united-states#listed-companies), and wondering if there are advantages to buying them to get American exposure, companies that report in USD, but avoid the FX fees and broker fees associated with buying American companies directly.

Any information you can provide would be great!

Also, some of the companies on that report from the TMX site I see are headquartered in Canada - like GRID, PIF, DR- any idea why they are on this report? They all say they're headquartered in Canada....

Thanks. - Jeff

Q: A two part question having to do with the sharp drop in TFII but more about the reliability of 5i data and institutional trading.

Firstly 5i shows institutional holdings at 1.02% while several other site show it at over 70%, that's quite a discrepancy.

Secondly when one sees heavy volume trading it is assumed that it is the institutions moving the stock. With a sharp drop it is assumed that they are selling. My question would be who are they selling to?

Q: Hello,

One of your members was inquiring re: books about managing your investments in retirement.

Daryl Diamond's "Your Retirement Income Blueprint" is an excellent resource. Lots of insights in terms of how to structure your income while your portfolio continues to grow and the most important topic of minimizing taxes during decumulation. However, it is less about "investing" and more about how to manage and structure your retirement income/savings - so you have money to live on while the rest continues to grow, and in the most tax effective way.

Q: A suggestion in response to Ahmed's Feb 20th question about resources on how to manage a portfolio approaching / during retirement: "Secure Retirement" by Jacques Lussier. A bit academic but I hope you find the concepts useful.
https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/foundation/2019/secure-retirement

Q: How do you handle your portfolio if your concern is cash preservation for yourself rather than for any heirs and the time to recover from market falls is no longer there?

Q: Is there a book or online resources on how to manage your portfolio during retirement (or close to retirement) that you can recommend?
I have read a lot about long term investing, the economical cycles, and related weightings during wealth maximization stage when one has many years before retirement. I recently started asking myself about how that could change when a person approaches retirement and then actually retires. I still have many years before I retire but I would like to plan early.
Your advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Q: What are your thoughts on RRSP loans and borrowing to invest in general?
Right now I can borrow at 5.3% for an RRSP loan and can otherwise borrow at 7.4%. I think the tax and investment benefits would outweigh the borrowing costs in the case of putting it into an RRSP. In the case of a non registered account, the 7.4% hurdle rate makes it tougher. Do you have any general advice for borrowing to invest in a non registered account? And if one chooses to do so what suggestions would you make regarding allocation or options to consider? I understand this would be general advice and not personal recommendations.

Thanks very much

Q: In a recent response to another member you mentioned "IBKR is almost twice the size of HOOD ($99B vs. $56B market cap, respectively)".

I ended up looking into IBKR and HOOD a bit more and discovered this about IBKR:

Depending on the data platform, some list the IBKR market cap as ~$25B and others list it as ~$99B. This has to do with whether you consider both public and private shareholders counts when calculating market cap.

I learned that GAAP handles this where the non controlling interests are removed from the income statement ("less net income attributable to non-controlling interests" which was $2.652B for 2024 leaving $765B Net Income) to leave only the net income attributable to IBKR public share holders. The bigger chunk goes to IBG Holdings controlled solely by Thomas Peterffy.

Based on this I believe IBKR is half the size of HOOD, at least the portion that common shareholders attribute earnings too.

How do you think about companies structured like this?

Q: Good Morning 5i Team,

Retired income investor. Current funds generated keep my wife and I comfortable.
Will be inheriting a large sum in very near future. With ongoing Trump issues should I hold monies in reserve; dollar cost average or go all in.. Are we going to see a major downturn which would provide buying opportunities Your thoughts and insights on how to proceed would be most appreciated.

Q: Hello,

I've heard that stock traders are using AI-automated trading platforms for day trading. Is this practice becoming popular? Does AI truly help improve trading performance? Based on your knowledge, what are the success rates of these trades? Can these AI platforms effectively do the job? I would appreciate your insights. Thanks

Q: Is it possible for you to accumulate all the past tariff questions into a separate question category? Thank you

Q: They say bond people are smarter than the stock market. Where would "shorts" get rated. Better, worse, leading, lagging etc. How much is too much, if any. e.g. Pembina Pipeline (PPL)
Tx in adance. Ken

Q: A grandson age 22 saw ad from canadian personality ontv. He says that this company has investors making money with small amount deposited. I told him to hold off and was going to check with 5i. The company is Anvil Capita LB SL. based out of Madrid. Maybe people with 51 have dealt with them or is this scam.Appreciate your help 5i Use has many points for questions that I have. Thank you

Q: You recently answered a question on selling covered call options. Most of the options you sell, I believe you said went out about a month. I imagine these are on volatile stocks. But you said options can be sold on longer time frames. Just wondering which stocks would go with which timeframe. More stable stocks with longer time frames? Just to get an idea, how would stocks such as Google or General Motors fit into an options selling strategy?
Thanks

Q: Regarding my question yesterday, I am not interested in taking advantage of dollar swings, I already have significant US funds. I will attempt to clarify my question. I have funds that I would like to invest further in US companies. If I buy stock on a US market I will be buying with a very weak Canadian dollar. So my question is, if instead I buy a product that is hedged (CDR, ETF), which would not have been affected by past dollar swings, would I then be purchasing US stocks without suffering the disadvantage of a weak Canadian dollar?

Q: Just an FYI for you and your members, Questrade is now offering free trading on stocks and ETF's on all of it's accounts.
I missed this announcement on Feb.09th, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Q: With the weak Canadian dollar I do not intend to buy stocks on a US exchange. However, it occurs to me that if I buy hedged products on a Canadian exchange (eg. CDRs, XQQ) I will be buying US stocks without suffering the shortcomings of the weak Canadian dollar. Is this correct reasoning?

Q: Do US politicians have to declare any and all securities that they buy/sell? Or is it only required if they buy/sell over a certain dollar value (or % of a company)?

What about the rules for Canadian politicians?

Q: Everyone, what is the downside of buying partial shares? Clayton