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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: I find that 5i has some interesting perspectives but I continue to be confused about how the service operates in the following respects: 1) You have companies in your portfolios which you do not rate and you even comment on them in the media (e.g. WEF in the Globe recently) but you have no reports on them, 2) I am unsure about portfolio movements as you seem to sell/trim A- names while there are still plenty of B names in the portfolio - what do the ratings really mean? Personally, I would prefer not to have the portfolios at all and just have updated reports on a range of companies
Read Answer Asked by Robert on June 20, 2018
Q: where can I find info on whether a preferred is rate reset or not? my discount broker cannot seem to offer help in this regard
Read Answer Asked by steve on June 20, 2018
Q: when considering a new stock to buy what are the three most important things you look for
Read Answer Asked by LARRY on June 18, 2018
Q: Our 35 year old son parted ways with his financial advisor and I have been chosen to invest the sizeable cash balance in his rrsp. I get that you discourage market timing. Many are talking about a late 2019 correction; who knows. I can average in over 6 months, but that is little help if the above correction happens. I can average in over 18 months; is this practical. I don't want to be the one responsible if he suffers a large draw down.

Based on your years of successful investing, please help me benefit from that experience and comment what you would do in this situation. The etfs mentioned would be the investment vehicles.
Thank you for your input.
Read Answer Asked by Richard on June 18, 2018
Q: 5i has had a bit of criticism recently regarding the income portfolio performance. Obviously 5i does not need me to “rebut” this. However it is worth pointing out that 2 other respected advisors (John Heinzl and Gordon Pape) have outlined their own concerns recently with the performance of their income portfolios and have made some adjustments.

I also have a couple of cynics sceptical of my “wisdom” in sticking with an “income” focus. I wish to educate them by sharing some long term data with them regarding share prices and dividend growth. Companies like Enbridge .... a signifcant casualty in my portfolio comes to mind. Where can I go to find historical data on stocks - ideally going back as far as 1990?

Thanks for your help. Good luck and keep up the great service you provide for your customers.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on June 18, 2018
Q: What is CRA's position on short term trading of a security in a TFSA while it is also being held in a non- registered cash account or a corporate holdco account?
For example if I have a long term position in ENB.to in my core dividend growth portfolio am I allowed to swing trade ENB.to in my TFSA account? Additionally, would it make a difference if the long term position was in the black or red?
Thanks,
Read Answer Asked by Randy on June 15, 2018
Q: 5i team,

Your general opinion of the fed hike decision and commentary yesterday? Thoughts on the impact to markets moving forward?

Thanks, as always for your insights.
Read Answer Asked by Ray on June 13, 2018
Q: What do you think generally of trailing stops as a protective strategy? And specifically, I was fully invested in Shopify at an average cost of about $90. Now it is starting to seriously unbalance my portfolio, and yet I hate to sell any of it when it is doing so well. If you think a trailing stop would make sense in my case where would you set the delta?
Thanks.
Chris
Read Answer Asked by Christopher on June 13, 2018
Q: I have noticed in the last few minutes of trading on the big US boards large trades in AAPL, AMZN, BRK, GOOGL and V to name a few of the stocks. Does this mean anything?
Read Answer Asked by Clayton on June 12, 2018
Q: With Michael's Q on D. Rosenberg interview. What I am curious about was DR's call on the Fed fund rate for next year. He was saying it should be 2.75% now and that this is what it will be next year. As I heard DR he was saying the market is unprepared for this eventuality. So first, do you think that is a reasonable observation i.e. market unprepared for that large a rise? If so, is it enough to cause a 10%-20% pullback?

TIA
Read Answer Asked by Gerald on June 11, 2018
Q: 5-I,
What is the most time efficient way of keeping track of dividend cuts made by individual stocks or ETFs? I have set up alerts of dividends paid from the brokerage but am looking for a more efficient manner. I see your listing of dividend increases in Moneysaver which I find very good . It is the cuts that I most want to keep track of.

Thank you,

Paul
Read Answer Asked by paul on June 11, 2018
Q: Hello 5i team,
Having noticed from the monthly reports the presence of CLIQ in the Growth portfolio, I'm wondering if I missed the addition or removal of any other stock from any of the portfolios. Where can I find all the historical changes (stock and timing) you have made to them?
Thanks,
Antoine
Read Answer Asked by Antoine on June 07, 2018
Q: I see a lot of sites that end with 'do your own due diligence' and while I understand the suggestion and concept, I don't have any idea what the steps are. Can you help me with a step by step DD?
Read Answer Asked by Gregory on June 05, 2018
Q: When you speak of 5% as an optimum weight for a stock holding are you calculating that on the total portfolio or on the part aside from the fixed income? For instance, with a portfolio of one million with 50% fixed income and 50% eqities, would the 5% max per stock apply to the one million portfolio or the $500,000 after the fixed income had been split out?
thanks very much
Read Answer Asked by joseph on June 05, 2018