skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: What percentage of equity holdings in an RRSP would you allocate to REITS ? Joe
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on July 18, 2018
Q: What is best way to purchase stocks/etf`s for my soon to be 18 and 12 year old children . What type of account ? Any Brokerage recommendations ?
Many Thanks
Greg
Read Answer Asked by Greg on July 17, 2018
Q: Is there a financial ratio or ratios that can give an indication of the risk in a stock price to changes in sales? I have been looking at operational gearing which tells you how sensitive profits are to reduction in sales. I also read that a high debt to shareholders equity means that changes in profits have a large influence in share price. Not sure I understand why that would be the case. Could you comment on both these measures please and maybe suggest others.
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on July 16, 2018
Q: This may be the dumb question , but further to Murray l2/7 cannot locate any heart beside question in order to save. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Laverne on July 16, 2018
Q: Hi peter i was wondering if you ever write about new ipo s coming on the market that you think are good or if you could start thx
Read Answer Asked by Kim on July 16, 2018
Q: Hi All at 5i! Hope you are enjoying the summer! I was wondering if you could recommend a book ( or other source) on investing for a total novice. A friend of my son has started on his working career and has accumulated some money. He has no knowledge of investing and would like to start learning about the topic. I recommended 5i to him, and he is considering joining after he has a rudimentary understanding of the world of investing. Hope you can help . Cheers, Tamara
Read Answer Asked by Tamara on July 16, 2018
Q: Can you explain why Fortis shows a negative free cash flow, and how this relates to its dividend? Is it because they have long term contracts in place, so they are able to predict further cash flows? When I compare it to Canadian Utilites, their free cash flow is positive. I feel like I’m missing something with Fortis.
Read Answer Asked by Francesco on July 12, 2018
Q: From time to time I like to refer back to replies to certain miscellaneous questions. It would be nice if 5i had a feature that allowed members to save questions.
Read Answer Asked by Murray on July 12, 2018
Q: I have a friend, age 27, who wants to start investing. What books, magazines, websites, podcasts would you recommend for a beginner? She has 15K in her TFSA and would like to know where to park it for now. There is no plan to withdraw the money in the near future.
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Teresa on July 12, 2018
Q: Due to health problems my Doctor advised that I cease to manage my investments through a bank self managed brokerage account. I will transfer my assets to a advisor associated with Hollis Wealth. Because HW is not a bank I had to sell my holdings and then transfer the cash. The investment will be made this week. Should I invest all the funds or spread it out over a period of time? It wii be a very long time investment.
Thanks for your advise over the past years.
Read Answer Asked by Warren on July 10, 2018
Q: Hello Peter et al.

With all of the latest rhetoric about trade wars between the US and a lot of countries I have lightened my stock portfolio from about 97% to about 75% with the remainder in cash. I have in the last few years worked hard to get the increase in my RRSPs value. I am looking to put the cash into something that provides the following:
1. Quick access if necessary to re-invest again when I feel the time is right.
2. No loss of the capital with what the cash is put into.
3. Maximum rate of return for the above two criteria being met. I know it will not be high.

Is there a Money Market ETF or something similar that meets my three criteria. Because the cash is in my RRSP accounts I can’t take it out without paying tax on it which I do not want to do.


Thanks,

Brendan
Read Answer Asked by Brendan on July 09, 2018
Q: I hold AQN in a cash and Tfsa account. I would like to have the dividend kept in US $ as we often need US $. I presume the dividend would still qualify for the dividend tax credit? I would just have to convert it to Canadian in the cash account. The other account wouldn’t matter if I convert it too? I would have to know the Canadian $ value if I took it out?
Thanks for you insight into this.
John
Read Answer Asked by John on July 09, 2018
Q: This is a followup question for my question from last week about payout ratios.

I understand your reasons for using cash flow over earnings to calculate payour ratios. Thanks for clarifying. But when I use your posted numbers to calculate it for ENB, I get:

Payout ratio = Dividend / cash flow
= Dividend / (Price / Price to cash flow)
=2.684 / (46.69/9.7)
= 56%

But, in the question I asked previously, you stated 37% was the payou ratio for ENB. It was correct for BCE, however (3.02/(54.57/6.5)=36%). I guess I am not calculating it correctly.

How do you calculate your payour ratios based on cash flow?

Also, since it is such an important number that others don’t use (based on cash flow) could you include it in your company profile?

Thanks again,

Fed

Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 09, 2018
Q: A few years ago my former broker recommended stochta.com which shows free technical charts and more. For charts of Canadian companies add .c to the symbol. I hope this is useful to some members. Thanks for the great service, Frank
Read Answer Asked by Frank on July 09, 2018
Q: With reference to Sheldon's question on Recognia and MACD crossovers, a free resource for positive and negative crossovers can be found here:
http://stockcharts.com/def/servlet/SC.scan
Read Answer Asked by Randy on July 06, 2018
Q: Payout ratios

I am confused about payout ratios. I have read here several times that you prefer to stick with dividend income stocks that have payout ratios below 50%. You have also suggested recently that the following were good solid choices for dividend income stocks. Your website does not include payout ratios, but I suspect your calculation is different from those I have found elsewhere. Below are the payout ratios I found in other places. As you can see, they are mostly above 50%, and some are above 100%!

Could you please comment on your calculation of payout ratios, that have these below 50%, or why the high ratio is acceptable presently?

Thanks again.

PWF 72%
BCE 97%
CU 116%
TRP 78%
ENB 182%
TRI 169%
QSR 79%
AQN 130%
T 82%
Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 06, 2018
Q: Hi All, I have a 30 yr old son who is very bullish on cryptocurrency. He is quite excited about a new product, similar to "acorn" which I believe operates as a trading platform in the form of a downloadable app., and allows trade, buy, sell crypto with ease. I think I know your answer, but what do you think of investing in this idea? Is there an existing platform?
2nd question - What can you tell me about Clovyr? Does it trade on the TSX or DOW?
Thank you! The 5i team has helped me invest wisely over the years, and sleep well at night. I appreciate your research and members questions.
Read Answer Asked by Donna on July 06, 2018