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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: Can you provide further explanation for why you prefer unhedged products (ETF). I am referring to your answer to Mr. Lei’s questions from today’. Especially With the cad dollar at 70 cents or so, intuitively I have shopping for hedged products. Can you please explain the virtues and and faults of hedged vs unhedged products.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Karim on April 24, 2020
Q: Morning ,
Relative to your recent comments on Canadian Banks and shorts , What % of shorts does it take to make a meaningful impact on the upside. Have benefited in shorts recently in Snap, Shop and ETSY . Cut my investing teeth in the Nortel, Rim , JDSU days and yet my banks have been my best long term move.
Thanks
Greg
Read Answer Asked by Greg on April 24, 2020
Q: I am having a difficult time understanding the purpose of the analysts. The analysts group is: never right; the price variance is significant; they have a large conflict of interest problem; what side of the position are they on - buy side or sell side; who pays them; trust is important in any industry but who do you trust in the group; etc. etc. etc.
The never look at the analysts price information to make a decision, I review the information contained with the analysis to help me make a decision.
Comments are appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Clayton on April 24, 2020
Q: I put in a bid this morning for VET at $5.15 & at that time it appeared the bid would be filled because about 4200 shares or people were bidding at that price while 5600 were asking.The stock opened much higher & the bid was not filled. Why does this happen? When someone puts in a limit order to sell for example, does the market give them the best price or the price they entered for a sell?Appreciate your help, as always
Dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on April 23, 2020
Q: Are preferred shares on the equity side of a balance sheet or is it part of the liabilities.
For example in the liquidity ratios on the profile page of your website for BPY.UN,
at, Total Debt to Equity : 1.95 . would the amount of preferred outstanding be on the numerator or the denominator side of the ratio.
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by francois on April 23, 2020
Q: I have read articles on the question of share buybacks, some think they are a great idea to "engineer" the value of a particular stock price and others think they are not a great idea as it leaves companies with no "rainy day" fund for times like we are in now.
Would appreciate your educated opinion.
thanks
Read Answer Asked by Reg on April 23, 2020
Q: Hi guys,

In today's environment, would you be more inclined to let these names grow a little larger than normal ie: instead of selling the stock when it grows to 7% (back to 4%) of your portfolio, let it get to 10%.
Thanks

Jim
Read Answer Asked by jim on April 23, 2020
Q: I have most of my wealth in an unregistered account and would like to invest in the safety of Bonds or GIC's but I don't like that they get fully taxed. Are there any ETF's or funds you would suggest that use derivatives or some other wizardy to turn Bond/GIC income into dividends so they are taxed more favorably? All without giving the advantage back through high fees or MER?
Read Answer Asked by Morgan on April 22, 2020
Q: Since the world is engaged in massive bailouts and handouts, does taking a position in US treasuries become more appealing. I know very little about govt bonds other than they are supposed to be safe and they are uncorrelated to the stock market, but if the US govt (and everyone else) is going to buy huge amounts of their own treasuries, it seems this might be a place to make money, not just store it. Is this thinking flawed?
If i take a position in ztl, is this just a safety play, or can it continue to make big gains? Are there other long bond etfs that i should consider?
Thanks for all your help in demystifying the investing world
t
Read Answer Asked by treva on April 22, 2020
Q: Hi
El-ann asked about PUTS on April 21, 2020.
The Montreal Exchange offers free seminars and they partnered with OptionsPlay, a software that provides feasiblity scenarios. FREE if signed up via Montreal Exchange, OptionsPlay offers weekly lessons. You can ask questions. etc. So save the $1300 and put it in the market instead!
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on April 21, 2020
Q: In my Margin Account I had FRU and IPL which I sold as the dividend had dropped form the 7% range to~2%. The G & M referred the other day to some Preferred shares paying over 6.5% and up. For example BMO PrC - 6.49%; BCE PrC 7.94% and CM PrP at 7.24%.
As a preferred share gets its dividend before the common I would think they are even more secure than the Common.
Your comments please.
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Brian on April 21, 2020
Q: I have $20,000 to deploy in today's market. Should I do this at $500 a month, $1,000 a month or some other amount and time frame. The complete amount is ready to go. I am a 73 year old retired value investor with a good pension who enjoys dividends with a ten year + time frame. I will be investing in what I already have.
Thank you
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on April 21, 2020
Q: I know already this will be the most naive of questions to anyone with a business background -- but how in the world can oil trade at a negative value? I can understand the notion that "one has too much" and that one has so much that you're actually willing to PAY someone to take it away ... but ... really? How does this happen? What does this mean in the oil world? How can an industry continue to function? If this has been addressed elsewhere, I'd appreciate if you could just provide a link, saving you the grief of answering it twice. Is there any point in getting/staying in oil for the foreseeable future -- other than those who are comfortable with more advanced trading techniques, of which I am not.
Read Answer Asked by Sylvia on April 21, 2020
Q: Would that be an impact on non-energy stock price as the oil price went negative ? What are the possible scenarios ? Would that drive down other stock price as well ?
Thanks for your expert opinion.
Read Answer Asked by Lai Kuen on April 21, 2020
Q: In one reply you said inflation could be good for R/E. Isn't the following info copied from a Vancouver Sun article the negative?
"In steps that dwarf those taken during the global financial crisis, the federal housing agency and the Bank of Canada are ready to purchase billions of dollars worth of mortgages and mortgage-backed securities to backstop the market, while lawmakers passed a historic wage bill to stem job losses."
I would really appreciate insight and/or an explanation of what the statement means in lay terms.
Read Answer Asked by Gayle on April 21, 2020