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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: Hi 5i,
My current strategy is to have a hybrid approach so that I have some of the income portfolio holdings, some growth and some from balanced. In addition I have taken the same approach with US holdings and UK/Australian (to a lesser extent) so my version is diversified (both by sector and geographically, well hopefully) and I think of it like a balance equity portfolio.
Generally how does this (balanced) approach compare to the income or growth portfolio which seems more targeted in its purpose. Are there persuasive arguments to follow one style over another?
Thanks
Mike
Read Answer Asked by mike on November 27, 2018
Q: Hi 5i: Are there any general observations to make about how markets and different sectors usually react once a yield curve inversion occurs? I understand that subsequent recessions may not typically begin until 9-18 months after a yield curve inversion but I’m wondering if bear markets in equities most often tend to lead recessions and by how much. Along similar lines, at what point during the sequence of events would you expect to hear a lot of talk about 'engineering a soft landing’ and expect to see ‘easing’ steps such as interest rate decreases? I’m happy to do a little further reading on this myself if there is a good info source you’d like to point me toward. Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Lance on November 27, 2018
Q: Apart from P/E ratios, is there a key valuation metric for a sector that would help one to select one stock over another in that sector?
There are many valuation metrics - P/BV, FCF, FFO, EV/EBITA, for example. Some are more suited to one sector versus another. Could you advise which valuation metric(s) you rely upon for each sector.
Thx

Sam
Read Answer Asked by sam on November 27, 2018
Q: Using numbers from TD Waterhouse as an example:
GS EPS (TTM) is 1.27 and 2018 EPS expectation consensus (Mean) is 1.09.
SLF EPS (TTM) is 3.52 and 2018 EPS expectation consensus (Mean) is 4.84.
What is the explanation if the TTM is above or below 2018 EPS expectations towards end of reporting year? Will the TTM revert towards the mean consensus? Can I interpret anything from the positive or negative variances?
Read Answer Asked by LARRY on November 27, 2018
Q: Hi 5i
I always thought tax loss selling was mainly a thing in the Nov/Dec timeframe. With the increased volatility in Oct / Nov is it possible to judge whether the volatility could be attributed to earlier tax loss selling or just general fear & profit taking? I'm not qualified to make a judgement like this and my question is more a request of what you'd expect for the remainder of the year and whether January would bring some relief.
I know you can't know with certainty but at a gut feel / guess what do you think the remainder of the year has in store?

Gullible :)
Mike
Read Answer Asked by mike on November 26, 2018
Q: Dear 5i
I'm very much interested in the conservative portfolio for when i retire with in the next 6 months . I especially like bank , utilities and reit ETF`s as the yields seem reasonable and the fact that the ETF`s pay the dividends monthly which provides consistent income during retirement .
My dilemma is that i think i prefer to hand pick similar stocks myself within each of those categories most of which have been recommended by 5i .This way would all likely offer a higher average yield as there is no MER to consider . The problem is that most of the stocks in those 3 areas (utilities , banks and rents ) only pay the dividends quarterly so as a retired person there is not the consistency on monthly income as there would be with buying the corresponding ETF`s . Is this generally a personal preference thing or is there one way you would advise for a soon to be retired person .
Thanks
Bill C.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on November 26, 2018
Q: In most of your reports on the listed stock say the stability is low. If low why the high rating and how is the stability factor determined.
Read Answer Asked by Ross on November 26, 2018
Q: Thanks to your stellar advice my portfolio is stacked with market leaders. Consequently I felt like a hero during the summers peak. Not so much these days. I felt a little better after reading that market leaders tend to plunge 1.5 to 2.5 times the market average during a downturn. Thought I'd share that with you.
Question: will those that lead the downturn e.g. tech, lead the upturn?
Thanks
Peter.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on November 23, 2018
Q: Hi,

Donald's analysis regarding Fairfax returns was quite interesting. You mentioned that timing is everything. The long-term MACD (a monthly trend/momentum indicator) for the S&P 500 now making a bearish crossover.A bearish crossover (sell signal) occurred at the 2000 tech bubble peak, the 2007 market peak, and the intermediate market peak in 2015. I came across this article and would like to get your opinion on it and keeping in mind timing as a big factor should we reduce the risk by lowering our percentage of stock holdings and get back in at a better time.

https://www.financialsense.com/blog/18799/markets-long-term-momentum-just-went-negative

Great service
Thanks
Ninad
Read Answer Asked by Ninad on November 23, 2018
Q: Please help me understand ETF's. If I owned an ETF which holds, say, technology stocks and I wanted to sell it because AAPL is doing poorly presumably I sell it in the market; which means that someone else buys it. That should not affect AAPL or MSFT, ABDE, etc. Does the ETF need to sell those securities?
Read Answer Asked by Ian on November 23, 2018
Q: Is there an easy way to follow the S&P Energy Bullish Percent Index?

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by SHANE on November 22, 2018
Q: Hello
Would you please tell me where I can find the Screener-Tax- Loss selling list of companies.
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Ignatius on November 22, 2018
Q: Would like to ask a question about your tax loss selling list on the home page. Great document, but could you confirm where you got the expected Revenue Growth from. How can you predict Revenue from oil and gas stock when the commodity price is so uncertain. That would hold for the majority of the stocks in the list.
Read Answer Asked by David on November 21, 2018
Q: 5i does a great job of alerting us to stocks good for buying. But I am wondering if you view it as also within your sphere to alert us when to sell (selling suggestions seem to come only after a problem and a large drop in stock price). For example, when a high-beta stock is at an all-time high maybe it's time to sell (or is the idea that you sell only enough to re-balance). But I have ringing in my ears from lots of sources "let your winners run". But it's hard to see a winner go up +70% over a year only to see it drop 80% in a few days (estimating here). I guess the game plan is if nothing fundamentally changed the stock will eventually recover the drop and then some.

Thank you for any insight you can provide on this.
Read Answer Asked by William on November 21, 2018
Q: When one reads the balance sheet are the pref shares included in the long term debt.
Read Answer Asked by Leon on November 21, 2018
Q: Hi guys:
In this correction, companies are so called on sale. Unfortunately retail investors only have so much money to deploy to buy shares. For example I own cargo jet and have done great on the name. Would it be wise to sell the winner and take the cash and add more shares to a savaria , New flyer , ccl , or pbh for example and dollar cost average. Or should I just stay put for my entire portfolio.
Thank you
Mark
Read Answer Asked by Mark on November 21, 2018
Q: Hi Peter,
Time for a different type of question in these markets. I enjoyed your recent appearance again on Market Call. Aside from you and Ryan, I don’t watch many others. I am curious though about how you go about formulating your new top picks and the ground rules set out by BNN. You have been on BNN several times this year but they tracked your past picks from October 2017. I assume that is to give your picks one year to perform. Do you use the same process for picking your top picks for BNN as you do in your daily 5i stock assessments or are there differences? I read your new 5i BLOG on tax loss candidates, where you identify many stocks that have been crushed. Many are tax loss candidates but you say you would be reluctant to sell TSGI, PBH and SIS due to the rebound potential in the new year. Would those three, among others with strong rebound potential (KXS), have been considered by you for your BNN Top Picks?
Thanks for the insight.
dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on November 21, 2018
Q: Hi - are you aware of any fixed income oriented newsletters that you would feel confident enough to recommend? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Kirk on November 20, 2018