Investment Q&A

Q: Hi 5i,
Where do I find the Q&A section? Thank you.

Q: Hi Everyone at 5i! I am in the process of reducing the number of holdings in my US portfolio . I own several related to healthcare. I just recently sold off my JNJ at a profit. I am under water on CAH and WBA. I propose to sell CAH and WBA at a capital loss to offset my gain on JNJ. I intend to keep MDT. Does this seem reasonable to you?. Cheers, Tamara

Q: Good morning 5i,
In the interests of simplifying my financial affairs for those who may have to look after them at some point, I have been moving in the direction of efts in my rif accounts on the US side. Up to this point I haven't considered doing the same for Canadian stocks, for two reasons: One is the capital gains that must be paid, as they are in a taxable account for the most part. Second, because of the fear that Canadian efts, like the Canadian economy, concentrate on only a few sectors. I thought, therefore, that I could simply make up my own etf out of individual companies that I buy. I can see, though, that one could suffer a real loss if one of these blew up, something like SNC Lavelan, which had previously been a staple in Canadian portfolios until recently. Also, there is the difficulty of managing these stocks by someone else, not used to doing so. I could approach it over a number of years to avoid some of the capital gain problem. So, I was wondering what you thought of this move in general? Also,I would appreciate your view on the relative dangers of holding Canadian efts? Which Canadian efts would be the best, general market or more focused? Appreciate greatly your reflections on this question.

Q: So if I have $70,000 in my TFSA and it is recommended as a general rule no more than 3 percent in one company, does that mean I should buy only 6O shares for example of Lightspeed? The stock has to go up $10 just to make $600 bucks.

Q: Could 5i please explain what a trade of "short October 2019 $97 calls on PayPal Holdings" would mean?
Thank you.

Q: Constellation Software now exceeds 10% of our total accounts because it has and keeps doing well. What would a reasonable reduction be, say down to 7%.? Given we are only 2-3 years requirement what stocks would you recommend as a replacement? We own Open Text and Kinaxis already. Thank you, Bill

Q: Hi,
I have bought PEO @ $4.27 and as of today I have 111% paper profit.
Peter published an article whose subject was "keep your winners"
but it's still not clear when to crystallize profit from such a winner.
Please provide some guide lines.
Thanks,
Morris

Q: In one of the articles you suggested (can't remember which one), they were discussing correlations between stocks, sectors and assets. I find it an interesting way of further analyzing a portfolio. Could 5i someday provide correlation matrices for its different portfolios? Would be interesting to have a peak at it. Thank you very much

Q: How can you find out what Company comprises an ETF. Thanks

Q: Allo/Hello,
There is a cease trade order since May1st on WAYLAND Group (WAYL) because of late financial statements. Why is this canadian company stock allowed to be negociated on OTC in US$? (MRRCF). It happened to me in the past but my broker refused to trade in the US, even if some holders said on blogs that they were doing it. The $US stock is down more than 50% since May . Not fair, but may be legal ... Thanks.

Q: hello 5i:
could you give me your opinion on incorporating BTAL into a portfolio and/or the strengths/weaknesses of such a strategy? Can you compare it with something like SH (ProShares Short S&P500)?
thanks
Paul L

Q: As a retiree who wants a diversified portfolio and also someone who spends a couple of months a year in the US, I certainly see the value in having say 25-30% of my holdings in US stocks. When the Loonie moves up and down this gives me some peace of mind because my US investments aren’t affected and I can relax and enjoy my time down there. My question relates to the Portfolio Analytics recommendation that I also hold 30% of my holdings outside of Canada/US. Sure, it provides more diversification, but I don’t see nearly as strong a case as for holding 30% in US. My instincts tell me to hold about 60% Canadian, 30% US and 10% Rest of World. Your answer may simply be that diversification is a “personal choice”, but I’m hoping you can go a bit deeper and explain how your holdings should relate to where you spend your money. For example, what if I spent a few months per year in Mexico, Asia or Europe, instead of the US? Thanks for the great service!
Alan

Q: I used to think of bonds and stocks as generally moving in opposite directions so that bonds could be a safety factor in my account for when stocks go down. Stocks used to go down for economic reasons and then bonds would go up since the central bank would reduce interest rates to try to stimulate the economy. This worked marvelously for me in 2008-9. However, it is far more common now for them both to move in the same direction since stocks are dependent these days more on lower interest rates than economic news so they go up when there is a hint of interest rates going down and so do bonds as they always did. In reverse, when interest rates even hint of going up, stocks decline and so do bonds. Good economic news means the stock market is likely to decline since interest rates might go up. It seems that the market believes that it cannot survive any interest rate increases. So what do you suggest these days to balance against this unified stock and bond reaction?

Q: I have a lump sum from a sale of an investment property. I struggle with the decision whether to invest the money now given the long bull market that we've had and the increase in trade tensions and the political landscape. I know returns rely on time in the market as opposed to timing the market, but its hard to justify psychologically. What would you advise to do with a large lump sum? Do you see areas that are undervalued? Is there better relative value in Canada or the U.S. or abroad?

Thank you,
Jason

Q: A comment on your recent blog...You say the TSX is up 14% year to date and yes, we should be happy with that. But a little context here; for those of us who are in for the long term, that is following a dismal quarter. If we go back to the end of September, the 9 month return is an anemic 1.95%.

Q: I have a non-registered US dollar account with a discount (bank) brokerage. I wish to transfer some of the cash in the account to Canadian dollars. What is the most cost-effective route to achieve this. Thank you in advance

Q: Considering only the dividends and disregarding the other differences, what is more likely, that a strong covered call etf such as ZWH would stop paying a dividend, or that an annuity purchased from a major bank would stop making payments? Or are both extremely unlikely events regardless of the economic scenario?

Q: Do you have any guidelines for individual stock weightings based on market cap using less than 1 billion for small cap, 1 to 10 as mid cap and greater than 10 billion as large cap? Would the weightings apply to both the initial purpose and current market value?

Q: Please clarify which kinds of securities should be held in non-registered accounts vs RRIFs and TFSAs. I have held yield-assets in our RRIFs and capital assets in our TFSAs and personal accounts, preferring to pay capital gains taxes on appreciation in personal accounts than paying full rates on capital appreciation upon withdrawals from RRIFs. What is your advice and are there exceptions?

Q: Hello Peter,

Always get notification of Toronto Money Shows. Have you ever thought of coming out West? Maybe SK or Alberta? Thanks,

Wes