Investment Q&A

Q: Before the downturn in stock market, the stock positions my portfolios, balanced and income, were matched with target weights, for the most part, like okay. Now I am thinking about starting a new portfolio comprised of the 10 Canadian stocks listed in the 5i SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES REPORT, dated March 9,2020, and this portfolio would represent 5% of my total equity positions. I understand that it would be concentrated rather than fully diversified but I would be comfortable with this. Rather than overweighting the positions that I currently have, I thought it best to open a separate portfolio to track these special opportunities.
My intention would be buy individual positions over time, slowly to achieve the target weight, and that the positions held for the long term, aka 5 years. And I would be using cash that is available.
I would appreciate your thoughts and comments, like anything that I should be aware of or blind sided to..........Thanks.....Tom 

Q: Dear 5i Team,

Several ETFs like HHL and EIT use a covered call strategy for portions of their investments. When markets have an overall downward trend, or are otherwise directionless but volatile, is this an effective strategy? I know that it works in an upward trending market but wasn't sure about the other scenarios.

Thanks in advance!

Derek

Q: Is there a free website that shows the institutional investors stake in public companies (small to large cap). Do you find it useful? Generally speaking, do institutional investors have a better track record at picking the right stocks?

Q: Re the couple who live on their RRIF and wished to "harvest capital losses", I hope they understand that you cannot harvest capital losses in a RRIF. Not sure if they were asking about their RRIF only or other accounts.

Q: I like this quote so much, I like to share:
"In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists."

—Eric Hoffer
publish or not

Q: if this relief rally continues tomorrow does it make sense to trim some good stocks if I like liquidity

Q: You have recommended buying into the market slowly over several months, perhaps small cumulative positions in individual favorites, or a diversified etf. I'm wondering how many earnings shocks we will see that may offer an opportunity to 'jump in' to an individual position. Are you expecting such opportunities to arise or do you think recent lows have already baked in those expectations. An example might be Goose, which has been hammered and looks attractive, but could it get worse when it reports.
Thank you for guiding us through the storm and helping quell the emotional turbulence of an individual investor.
Peter.

Q: Hello, do you know any web site tracking the recent dividend cuts ?

Q: What ETFs best mirror selling put options on the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow? Would they be a viable hedge against a falling market without having to sell individual long term positions that I wish to continue holding?

Q: Good morning, with current market turbulence does 60/40 index investing formula still make sense or is one better investing is good growth stocks for the long term?

Q: Where would I find a company's " free cash flow " - is it a combination of items in the financial statements ?

thanks

Q: Hello, in the Company profile section for XYL, just besides the quote at the top we can see a red letter R that says "restriction started today" we need to put our cursor over the red R to see it (Xylem Inc. New (XYL:US) $ 59.61↓5.52 | -8.48% R). What does "restriction started today" mean? Thanks, Gervais

Q: You had previously given the following criteria to judge momentum stocks: "For momentum we like a rising stock price with increasing volume, positive earnings surprises, accelerating earnings, analysts' upgrades and target prices. "

Would I be correct in assuming that in the current markets, we need to think more like value investors, however, than momentum investors? If my observation is correct how does one then analyze value stocks?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: When someone puts on a hedge overlay to protect profits on
portfolio what exactly is one doing. Should your clients be doing it
and is it easy to do.Can u give an example
tnx u.

Q: I understand that a covered call ETF will produce lower highs and higher lows compared to a non-covered call ETF. However, what would cause the ETF's to have an inverse relation on a trading day? For example, if we take ZEB and ZWB, I noticed on some trading days in the past (even before the current volatility), one ETF would be up a few % points, while the other ETF would be down a few % points.

Q: Good morning,
My grand childrens' (8 years old) in trust accounts each have $60K in CASH and would appreciate your thoughts and comment on the merits of my following investment plan:
Q1. Investing $20K in each of these funds (HXS, HXT and HXQ) and not selling any of them until the children are 18 years old at which time they would each open a TFSA account and start transferring each year the maximum annual TFSA contribution allowable from their non registered account to their newly opened TFSA account; and
Q2. Assuming that you are ok with the above plan and given that there may well be still a further sell off in all three sectors, when would you recommend initiating a full or partial position in all three sectors? Thank you.
Francesco

Q: i was shocked to find numerous footnotes at the end of answers that state 5i staff own the stocks you are commenting on. I thought your major selling point was being unbiased by not owning any stocks, just getting paid for analysis. How can you be unbiased if you own the stocks? How does this make you different from the talking heads you often criticized?

Q: What is your opinion of the mortgage rates which are rising as the Bank of Canada cuts rates down to .25% and bonds are also losing ground ? We are due to renew our mortgage in 3 weeks and are very concerned that the current pressure from mortgage deferrals re covid19 is causing the banks to raise rates for those of us that are financially strong to offset the costs of covid19 costs. Will the government allow the banks to not only refuse to pass the reductions in interest to consumers but also raise them ? Please advise what your thoughts are.

Q: Someone came on BNN who used a technical indicator to call market tops and bottoms
but I never wrote it down. I believe it was a breadth indicator that seemed logical.
It was when a certain percentage of stocks(15%? 50%?) go over a moving average? like 20 day? 50 day? after a bottom. Going below the moving average after a market top would give a sell signal.Does any one know the name of that technical signal?

Q: Can you explain why VFV is outperforming VOO (by 7% on a 3-month chart comparison, and by almost 5% over 1 month)? Aren't they basically the same, other than the currency they trade in?