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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: On the payment of Dividends. I have a TFSA trading account with a Canadian bank. The information they provide includes the dividend rate and if the dividend is paid monthly, quarterly or annually. All the companies except one in which I hold shares either pay their dividend according to the info provided by the bank and I get a notice from the companies if the dividend will be paid or altered in any way. The one exception apparently has a boardroom meeting once a quarter, decides which of their papers will be paid a dividend that quarter or not. It is hard to tell from their press release if the common shares which I hold will get paid a dividend that quarter or not. In the 4 yrs I have held this company there were 2 years of zero dividends and 2 years of payments every other quarter. I spoke with my banks rep on the matter advising the info they provide on this company is misleading - they do not really pay a quarterly dividend, in fact they just decide quartertly if they want to or not. The bank rep informed me that the onus to do research on the company was on the purchasers of the shares. The company in question is in Greece, which makes it difficult to research, plus if that company had a known history of skipping dividend payments for years, that that should be something material for the bank to include in their Company stock info. Where would you come down on the issue of what is material info to invite potential buyer of dividend paying equities.
Read Answer Asked by Phil on July 13, 2020
Q: Hi 5i, David's Tea filed for CCAA and Chapter 11. Seems thier plan is to wiggle out of their lease commitments and emerge from creditor protection focused mostly online and wholesale distribution while maybe keeping a few stores. How does this work for the common equity holders? They have cash and may have a good business going forward but I would have thought the current equity holders would get wiped out in a restructuring. But the stock still trades around the same price as when they announced the restructuring early last week. Who would be buying this stock and why, what scenario would they be banking on?
Thanks
Rob
Read Answer Asked by Robert on July 13, 2020
Q: Hi 5i team,

You kindly answered a recent question of mine re: minimizing risk of U.S. estate taxes (I am high net worth investor). I posed the question of emerging markets exposure, and asked you to compare VWO (U.S. situs) versus ZEM (Canadian situs); and you recommended ZEM for avoiding U.S. situs investment. My follow-up question has to do with making a comparison between VEE (the Vanguard Canada emerging markets fund) and ZEM. My understanding is that all ETFs registered to Vanguard Canada (such as VEE) are considered "Canadian situs" investments, even though they hold investments outside of Canada. So here are my two questions:
1. In a comparison between ZEM and VEE, would you recommend one over the other (the goal is Canadian situs investment within my RSP for long-term emerging markets exposure, at least 5 to 10 years).
2. In general, how can one most easily determine whether a security-- whether ETF or individual stock--is Canadian or U.S. situs investment (for estate planning purposes)?

Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on July 10, 2020
Q: I'm interested in learning about technical analysis. What resources would you recommend?
Read Answer Asked by Brenda on July 07, 2020
Q: Good Afternoon
Some brokers, when recommending a security, they properly disclose whether they have managed a public offering of the security or whether they have received compensation for investment banking services. Thus, the investor is in a better position to assess the recommendation of the broker.

My question is about Morningstar. Do they provide any type of services for the companies recommended in their portfolios ?
Thanks again for your insight.
Read Answer Asked by Terry on July 07, 2020
Q: Hi 5i team,
Congrats on the recent upgrade to Portfolio Analytics. It seems to be a big hit. I would consider it myself but over the past several years, I have moved 75% of my equity holdings to the U.S. (in RRSP, TFSA and non-registered), which has vastly outperformed my Canadian holdings. PA would tell me to come back to Canada which I don’t want to do. I don’t follow the conventional portfolio rules. In fact, I am considering moving all my remaining fund to the U.S. markets. Other than the currency risk if the CDN $ appreciates on a sustained basis (which I doubt), do you see any other pitfalls with this strategy?
Thanks again for your insight.
Happy belated Canada Day from my 25% position.
Dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on July 07, 2020
Q: if I want to received dividend in US , will it be advisable to buy co. like Enb. in U$., or other dual listing companies, like RY,TD. or will it be better to simply buy equivalent US listed Co. instead. Thank you as always.
Read Answer Asked by DAVID on July 07, 2020
Q: I have been using TSE to track my portfolio.
Recently they made changes not to my liking.
Can you recommend one or more available sites to track a portfolio.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Al on July 06, 2020
Q: Is there a site that talks about upcoming IPO's in Canada and US
Thankyou, Peter
Read Answer Asked by Peter on July 06, 2020
Q: A question for the dummies amongst us.
In reading your explanation of “covered call options” what I still don’t understand is who buys the call option and why would they? Who determines the “strike price”, do you? Who determines the other terms of the contract: the expiration date, the “premium” you get for selling the covered call, the price if you “buy back” the call option prior to expiry? Who sets all this up and how do they get paid (your broker)?
What is the downside, aside from missing out on potential gain if the stock is called away?
Perhaps you can recommend other resources that explain all this in relatively simple language.
Supposedly there is no such thing as a stupid question.
Len
Read Answer Asked by Leonard on July 06, 2020
Q: There are a lot of different BAM preferred shares that one could choose from to invest. Some have dived yields as high as 8%? What is the difference in each of the issues? Why would one not just choose the one with the highest dividend yield? Can you please clarify? Is there a drawback of choosing one over the other? If you had to choose one which would you pick?

Regards,

Brendan
Read Answer Asked by Brendan on July 06, 2020
Q: Will the Canadian. Money saver money show be recorded for those who aren’t available during the livestream?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Karim on July 06, 2020
Q: I am retired. To help me better appreciate what types of stocks to hold in my TFSA, RRSP/RRIF, and unregistered accounts, could you give me a few Canadian and US suggestions for each. Thanks again for your great service.
Read Answer Asked by bill on July 03, 2020
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