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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: Good morning guys:
Just like every other investor my stocks in my tfsa are down big time. I have not sold anything as of yet and bought Boyd and MasterCard for my cash account with the recent dip . I know investors should stay the course and not sell quality companies , but just like 2008 it took a long time to get our money back that was lost . That being said is it a better move to sell all my stocks in my tfsa and take the loss . I take the remaining funds and buy quality companies that have been hit big time like a Disney , mastercard , visa , Boyd for example . I presently own 10 stocks in my tfsa and they are all equal weightings. Could you please elaborate what an investor should do in this situation
Thank you for great work .
- mark
Read Answer Asked by Mark on March 17, 2020
Q: Hi 5,
Could you please tell me what stock symbol I can use on my TD Direct watchlist that indicates the VIX level that I keep reading about on 5i and on BNN?
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on March 16, 2020
Q: ETFs
- is it correct that net asset value is determined once daily based on the closing price for the day?
- if correct, shouldn't the trading price reflect changes during the day, disregarding the NAV at close of the previous day?
- if the trading price doesn't reflect changes during the day, I suppose, in the case of a big change in underlying securities during the day, one should postpone a trade decision until the NAV for the previous day is published
- when will the NAV for the previous day appear in the quotation services? By open of trading on the following day?
Read Answer Asked by Carl on March 16, 2020
Q: With governments pouring money into businesses, dropping interest rates, Retirees and individual investors getting killed,(mostly by computers and algorithms) everything shutting down why don't they shut down the markets worldwide to stop the insanity and panic? This may seem simplistic but we make rules to protect ourselves in the mortgage market, we need to protect our companies and ourselves from sheer panic.
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on March 16, 2020
Q: It would be very interesting for you guys to comment on market liquidity, and bid/ask dynamics with this market sell off. Specifically; for every sale, there is a buyer, and the sellers and buyers keep transacting. But, perhaps there simply is less buyers and sellers overall, so it is forcing people who want out specifically, to receive a lower price to do so. Is liquidity of bid/ask shrinking in these panic like events? With this point, who are the general sellers in this market; retail, institutions or hedge funds, etc. Are ETFS triggering this selloff etc. I hold a lot of stock, but simply don't want to be the last holder in the game, when the so called passive investments helped create this melt up in the first place. If they are also the first to leave, that may be bad for smaller folks like me. So.... if you come back and say that we have whipsawed lower 20% plus, but in that time, less and less shares are being sold, that may imply that still large smart money is still here, with the same large market participants having faith. Any comments on these points would be helpful. Bill
Read Answer Asked by william on March 16, 2020
Q: retiring next week and now this happens
i will be totally dependent on dividend income
yes, i should have bond income but i don't
ytd shows:
50% of dividend portfolio is <20%>
50% at <37%>
should i sell <37%> portion to protect portfolio?
Read Answer Asked by john on March 16, 2020
Q: Hello 5i Gurus,
The central bank authorities at the Bank of England and the ECB have, this past week given authorization to all banks (domiciled in the UK or Europe) that they will be allowed to release ALL of their strategic counter cyclical funds that they normally hold in reserve. From what I remember, this would be several hundreds of billions of pounds or euros. Question is: Does the US and Canada have similar "counter cyclical funds" (not sure if this is the correct terminology)? that they can use to support the economy temporarily?
Read Answer Asked by Keith on March 16, 2020
Q: We Canadian like to drive and are willing block pipelines our resources re not worth anything if don’t export them our motor industry is dead how long government will be willing to pay our mortgages and pump funds in to our economy on borrowed funds
I think we re very near reccesion or let’s say reality check
Can I have your opinion on my assessment
We Canadians have very high debt so is our governments
Read Answer Asked by parmjit on March 16, 2020
Q: Can you comment on the repo purchases that have been ongoing and have ramped up recently in the US. Does this add another layer of concern to the markets or just what needs to be done in times like these? Is there any holding that might benefit from this?
Read Answer Asked by Gerald on March 16, 2020
Q: Hi, my question is more about next time the market goes into bear territory...
I currently own "SIL - Global X Silver Miner ETF" and always thought it would do better in market downturn. However, i am down 45% over past 3 weeks. Please help me understand why is it down so much.
Read Answer Asked by Harpinder on March 16, 2020
Q: What do you think about leveraging into this decline. For example I could borrow $100,000.00 on my line of credit at 1 over prime. Prime currently at .75 percent. The interest is tax deductible. I could spread the investment out over 5 stocks that are paying over 5% and just let the dividends pay off the load. I have enough faith that we are close to the bottom and have no doubts that most blue chip stocks are not going to drop that much more.
Read Answer Asked by Bryan on March 16, 2020
Q: I hear you when you say that we shouldn't be too involved in playing the exchange rate between the Canadian and American dollar. But would this not be a reasonable way: buy sunlife in American dollars, since i have them. If the Canadian dollar goes up i sell in canadian dollars. If it goes down, i still have my American dollars in Sunlife that i had before
Looks good but am i missing anything?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by joseph on March 16, 2020
Q: With all the selling taking place, I am curious about what characterizes a buyer now. Someone suggested that companies are doing a lot of buying of their own stocks, which doesn't make sense to me. I would think a lot of average investors looking for bargains, especially high yields, are doing the buying. I would greatly appreciate your opinion on this.
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on March 16, 2020
Q: After the "blood in the streets" kind of day we have had today, March 12, was I "crazy" to add to my holdings of the aforementioned? Are their dividends as reliable as I perceive them to be? FYI, I am a year away from retirement at age 60 and value dividend income for a portion of my portfolio.
Read Answer Asked by David on March 16, 2020
Q: Q1. Can you describe a bit what actually happens when the FED says they will inject US 1 Trillion into the market. Where will that money go and is it a loan? In the 2009 recession, it was a loan to the collapsing banks which I think eventually got paid back.

Q2. Regarding increased dividend yield on falling values of stocks, how does this work? The funds are changing hands outside of the company, so if share price drop was the only thing to happen, theoretically the continuation of the dividend should not be in doubt. Maybe the business of the company might drop for some reason if share price drops.

Most grateful for all the guidance you provide to investors and the education you offer on the function of the stock market.
Read Answer Asked by TOM on March 16, 2020