Investment Q&A

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.

Q: With reference to Sheldon's question on Recognia and MACD crossovers, I have been a subscriber to Vector Vest for a number of years. They provide both fundamental and technical information which I have used very successfully. They offer trial subscriptions for ~ $10.00 USD.

Q: Recognia provides a service of Technical Alerts to at least iTrade and T D Waterhouse, and perhaps others. This past weekend they have changed their platform for technical alerts drastically, leaving me to seek out another platform that issues technical alerts.
I use the MACD indicator in my alerts amongst 200+ stocks that I have researched and screened on a fundamental basis. Due to the number of stocks I follow it is essential that I have a technical alert service that alerts me when the MACD crosses either positively or negatively, indicating a buy or a sell. They used to email me a list of any of the stocks on my watchlist when it did a cross over after the close.
Now that Recognia no longer provides the service I am looking for, can you suggest one (I am willing to pay),

Thanks in advance


Sheldon

Q: In reference to Donald’s question about the Td GIC linked to banks and utilities:
I agree generally with the reply provided by 5i. However, in your response you talk about “going to cash” and I think this may be confusing. The product offered is a GIC and is insured. The principal is protected so there isn’t an issue with “going to cash” in a bad market. You will get your money back at the end of the term. It is essentially a cash investment all along, although one is locked in for the term.
What motivated me to write this was the deceptive way, in my opinion, TD is offering this product. It says the MINIMUM return is 2% and states quite clearly that this is an annual return on the main webpage describing the GIC. However, if you read through the prospectus (so dry and complicated it will give you a migraine) or click on the tiny footnote you will see that the 2% is actually a 3 year compounded return of 0.66% per annum. The 2% is a total return. If the market goes down or sideways, you will get a whopping $20 per $1,000 invested over 3 years.
I am a long time TD client and shareholder but I am disturbed by what I feel are decptive practices and the “pushing” of products on Canadians. This is approaching Wells Fargo behaviour, IMHO. It can’t end well for anyone. Sorry to take up your Q&A time with this but I feel the investment community needs to speak out about this.
Good luck fellow investors!
John

Q: TD is offering Market Growth GIC’s and suggesting “earning up to 18.8%” on Canadian banks and utilities. Guaranteeing the principal.

For a retired income focused investor would this be a meaningful part of the fixed income part of a portfolio?

Too good to be true?

Thanks for your help.

Q: I'm a young investor (early 30s) and have previously had all of my portfolio in equities. I'm concerned about risk and want to put about a quarter of the portfolio into safer, fixed income type investments. I'm struggling to understand the benefits of investing in GICs (currently with rates of 2.8-3.5%) vs Bond ETFs (like VAB or ZAG). Can you help explain the difference and benefits between Bond ETFs and investing in a direct GIC? Can you recommend the better choice for me; GICs or Bond ETFs?

Q: Seems likely we’re headed for a bit more inflation. Assuming this thesis plays out, which sectors do you think should benefit and which sectors should be avoided? Are there specific companies that could benefit greatly and which companies could be badly hurt?

Q: I rarely ask a question so this is more a general question. ENB today is down 1% in Toronto on above average volume and up 1% in NY on below average volume. I would expect this to sort itself out over the day but I would like your opinion on why? I could I guess transfer my ENB.TO to my US account and get a 2% pop.
Thanks for the great service.

Q: I am purchasing a US stock, is it best to purchase in cdn dollars or in US dollars in a RSP account. I am able to do both. Ultimately (years) down the road I will withdrawal in cdn

Q: You reference on your website that you follow 70 companies. Do you have a link to those 70 companies? I have looked through the site without success on that point. As a new user, this would be very useful. Thanks Rob Ward

Q: Hi There,

Can you suggest where I might find free downloadable historical Canadian and US stock prices? I wish to analyze long term price trends and behaviour for a variety of Canadian stocks and ETF's. I could not find this on your web site but, it would be a nice feature to add in the near future.
Have a nice Canada Day!

Q: New member here. Have been unsuccessful finding payout ratios in any of your company info. Do you provide it? I did see you recommend PR based on Cash Flow. Where would one also find CF? Thank you.

Q: Please a one sentence response to a new technical term,commodity channel index CCI..Please do not deduct a credit.Thanks for u usual great services & views

Q: Where can I find out what the payout ratio (dividend) is for Telus or any other company. I cannot seem to find it in your company profile. Also what percentage would you consider the payout ratio to be too high?

Q: I like the overview that is provided there.

However, with diversification and sector blends being frequent topics of interest and sources of questions, it would be helpful, at least for me, if 5i were to provide a sector overview each month as well as a frame of reference for managing our own portfolios. For example, technology 25% of TSX in May, up 3% over 2017; etc by sector and in a simple chart format. Any chance of that happening?

In the meantime, where can I find that kind of information. I have looked at the TSX.com website as well as the RBC Direct Investing sites and been unsuccessful.

Thanks for you help and guidance here.

Q: Hi Peter/Ryan
Are there any ethical type ETFs (CDN, US and foreign) or low cost mutual funds that you could recommend? Any thoughts on this approach.

Much thanks

Q: A few years ago you recommended using longrundata.com. This was a fantastic site. I made a lot of money by utilizing the information I could obtain from the site. It was an eazy method of finding annualized total returns and dividend increases. Longrundata is no longer in operation. A few months ago I asked you if there was a similar site that I could use. Your reply was that you would investigate to see if there was an alternative; maybe something 5i could get into.
I would be more than willing to pay an extra subscription fee if you could duplicate longrundata.com and I'm sure many of 5i's subscribers would also be interested.
Any chance of reviving this site?
Michael

Q: I'd like to know how much you find important to diversify through asset classes for a young investor with little financial responsabilities and a salary covering well over his regular expenses.
In my situation, I have no real estate, but 95% stocks diversified across sectors and geographies and 5% cash position to cover 8-10 months of living expenses in case of emergency. I am 27 and wondering if it is OK to have no bonds at all and focus on stocks? If one can tolerate a severe market correction-recession and has 25-40 years ahead of him, would bonds only be useful to help the investor feel more comfortable and a full-stock portfolio still be a better option?
Is the %Stocks=100-age a good thumb rule or just an overrated commonality?
If you consider one should still always hold some bonds, what would you consider a reasonable weighting for a young investor and what ETF(s) would you suggest?
Thank You!

Q: Hi

I have noticed that most publicly traded companies do not publish a separate fourth quarter report . Why is that ?

I would like to know if by subtracting every line of the annual report from the first, second and third quarter statement of the income, balance sheet and cash flow, an investor can derive the fourth quarter statements?

Could you list the lines which are not suited to this exercise?

Q: More of a portfolio construction question, I would really appreciate your opinion on the following. Whether in The Post or The Globe, more and more, I’m reading in the ‘personal financial profiles’ that individual investors should be allocating, in some cases up to 30% of their portfolios, to alternative investments. These typically include private company debt, individual mortgages, and ever-increasingly now, factoring, the assuming of small business’ accounts receivables.

I’m a conservative investor, close to retirement, no pension, planning to live off the income of my portfolio. Without over-reaching for yield, I invest in mostly blue chip big-cap, reasonably diversified, with an allocation to some of your growthier names. But when I look at what is increasingly being suggested by planners, always under the auspices that alternatives are safer because they cannot be marked to the market in times of corrections, I cannot comprehend it. Companies that cannot qualify for the better rates that banks offer, people who don’t qualify for bank mortgages, and companies who have to sell their receivables because they cannot wait to collect them on their own, sound very high risk to me, worlds higher than investing in a mix of banks, lifecos, utilities, pipelines, industrials, tech, health, reits, preferreds, fixed income, and the like. While the market values of what I typically invest in can tank during correction periods, in my mind, they certainly don’t carry the very high risk of permanent capital loss that these so-called alternatives do. Particularly so since most of the ‘alternatives’ I assume are small companies.

Are these being offered because, a) you require a broker to get them for you, hence you must use one and pay fees, and your accounts likely become stickier because of it, and b) so a broker, when in a correction period, can point to these and say they’re safer because they’re not reacting to the negativity — but only because in truth, there is no market to mark them against. Not until you try to sell, that is.

Long question, but am I missing the bigger picture, and these ‘alternatives’ are something that should be considered?