Investment Q&A

Q: Hi,
A few days ago I read a question/comment from a member about trying to buy U.S. treasury bills at TD and was told No, he could not. I called TD today on another matter and also asked if I could buy U.S. treasury bills in any of my 3 U.S. accounts (Cash, RRSP, TFSA). I was similarly told No, TD does not offer them. She could not provide a reason and said they only offer Canadian treasury bills. Seems odd.
dave

Q: Hello 5i.
I would like to ask about Portfolio Management as an Individual Investor.
This year I was going to implement an action plan that would engage selling at the point of stock chart breakdown......to help avoid 40% losses like Cineplex handed me in 2017/2018.

The Portfolio has been set up to be well diversified with 5i holdings and a host of other Canadian investments through all sectors.
It feels quite silly to just sit and watch individual names break up trends, breach 50 day and 100 day moving averages and continue to decline in price........taking down the Portfolio value each day.

Some of the names have been spoken about as lifetime holds but seem to be getting hit quite hard as some group of investors have decided to exit their positions.

With the cost of only 9.95 to enable a small investor to get out of the way, what is it about investing that sees recommendations implying Hold these names for the longterm?
(BAM.A, BIP.UN, FTS, PPL, IPL, ENB, BCE, PSK)
Watching 2017 gains slip away hardly makes sense to me.

What is 5i perspective on dealing with markets that seem to be taking away gains thru declining stock prices? How and When does an investor decide getting out is the right action (before I get to the point of maximum pain and then sell)?

I have had a few stocks go to zero. Clearly I can not determine the difference between a short term blip and a developing permanent loss.

Thanks for you insights
Dave

Q: Good morning Peter, Ryan, and Staff,

I notice that 5i often includes a stock in a different sector as compared to the TSX. For example, you have GSY in the Consumer Cyclical sector, but the TSX has it in the Financial sector. Could a case be made to include GSY in the Financial sector? (Has it grown a lot since 5i first started following it, and perhaps has become more "financial"?)

I am confused when looking at a stock that 5i doesn't cover. For example, several members recently have expressed interest in Pollard Banknote PBL. The TSX lists PBL as Consumer Cyclical. Would you concur? When in doubt, where can we determine the appropriate sector for a particular stock?

Thanks in advance for you insight.

Q: I see you use these Greek origin words often. Please explain what they mean.
Thanks,
Jim

Q: I am rebalancing my portfolios which include two nonregistered accounts (1 Cdn $ and 1 US $), a TFSA and an RRSP. I am 70 years old and collecting both CPP and OAS and some of my OAS is clawed back each year. Do you have a chart showing what is the best suited for each of these accounts. So for example are my dividend accounts best to be held in just my RRSP or perhaps in my TFSA as well? What about growth or value stocks, bonds, interest income or EFTs – where do they best belong?
Thank you for your advice.
Dave

Q: Do not chuckle at my ignorance here please, but my question here is on ETF and Mutual Fund fees bought in self directed brokerage portfolios. If a posted managed fee (ie 1.5%) where does that withdraw fee show up and is it taken our annually or monthly? I never see a charge on my monthly statements for the etf management fees. How are they calculated, on the purchase price or a share value on a set date? Thanks

Q: TD Waterhouse said, they did not have any US Treasury Bills in their inventory. Therefore, I could not buy any US Treasury Bills. Is this right and where can you go to buy? TD does have TD Ameritrade in the US, why would they not have US Treasury Bills there?

Q: Greetings
What’s your view of companies that offer to repurchase shares via a ‘normal course issuer bid’ and simultaneously issue a similar amount of stock to officers and directors through stock options? The two activities run more or less concurrently but of course are issued under separate notifications.
Thank you

Q: Is this a risk-free place to park money ? If not, could you please explain what and how likely, the risk might be ?
Many thanks.

Q: Hi,
On Jan 23 someone asked about insider transactions info.
CEO.CA has a very easy-to-use insider function (sign-in not required).
Just enter the stock symbol in the CEO search bar; then click on the SEDI tab.
As an example, here is the link to Stella-Jones page.
https://ceo.ca/sj

Q: In case there are others looking for an alternate to the now deleted Financial Post listing for convertible debentures, the following site may be helpful. Although not a complete listing, it presents a number of debentures, along with their relevant detail.
https://convertibledebentures.blogspot.ca/
I use both RBC Direct & BMO IVL, neither of which offers a listing of debentures, so it is information that is not all that easy to locate.
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Dawn

Q: Hi 5i: Just a comment regarding Steve's question about the availability of insider trading reports by INK Research. I use discount brokerage platforms of a couple of the big banks and often find that diversity to be an advantage over a just a single brokerage approach. The platforms are not all identical and the ones I use have different strengths and weaknesses. One of the advantages of the TD Waterhouse site is that it does make INK insider activity reports available to users of the system, at no extra charge. It might not be enough to make it worth opening up a TDW trading account just for that purpose but if you are interested in broadening your exposure to what is available it is a nice feature to pick up along the way. Hope that may be helpful!

Q: What is your view on seg. funds, pro's and con's, thanks?

Q: Can you suggest best websites that provide insider selling, buying and holdings. I have visited INK Research, but fairly expensive for subscription. Any others that are more reasonable cost, or best, free!!

Q: In regards to the reply to Terry's post, I'm a prime example of that. With all the uncertainties of Trump, US Gov't debt, NAFTA, Canadian housing & credit card debt, Brexit, etc. I've been expecting a correction/pull back for well over a year now. In the meantime I've held off buying ETFs for the US and Europe markets while watching them run up to record levels.
So here's the worse part. Psychologically I have a real problem buying those ETFs at today’s prices when I know I could have bought them much cheaper even though it looks like the run still has a way to go.

I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat, so if there is any advice as to how to avoid getting into a trap like this, it would be greatly appreciated. Do you think in times of uncertainty, it is better to add monthly into an ETF rather than one lump sum?

Thanks for any help!

Paul

Q: Hi,

5i talks alot about "momentum" behind stocks. Increasing volume + increasing price = good situation.

Are there one or two indicators you recommend to monitor momentum? I'm thinking of things like the True Strength Index, On Balance Volume, Williams Accumulation/Distribution, etc. I might be way of, but am hoping to use one or two that I can review to assess where an equity might be going.

Thanks,

Cam.

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

Just read your answer to Stuart. We keep a spreadsheet on Google Sheets that automatically "captures" price data from Google Finance, and unfortunately Google Finance doesn't provide Aequitas prices. Any ETFs or stocks listed with Aequitas have to be manually entered. :( Other than that, I suppose that Aequitas is "okay".

Q: Your question subject index seems to have disappeared; ie all questions pertaining to dividend and income stocks, etfs, etc. Please say it ain't so and tell me how I can access it. Thank you.

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

Just read your answer to Stuart. We keep a spreadsheet on Google Sheets that automatically "captures" price data from Google Finance, and unfortunately Google doesn't provide Aequitas prices. Any ETFs or stocks listed with Aequitas have to be manually entered. :( Other than that, I suppose that Aequitas is "okay".

Q: For several years I have used Google Finance as a good starting point to understand a specific company's historical stock price trends, dividends, etc. as well as a means to compare with other stocks. This all changed in November 2017 when Google decided to abandon this excellent site with one that, from my perspective, is essentially useless. The new site also concentrates on US stocks, ETF's, etc. whereas the old site also contained information on Canadian securities. The change has prompted me to look at other sites. The only one I can see which provides something is Microsoft Money. It is somewhat more unwieldy than the old Google FInance but does provide some information. Can you provide some information as to what you would recommend as a replacement for the old, excellent Google Finance? I read that perhaps Morningstar or Yahoo were good alternates but it seems that Morningstar is somewhat restricted. I have not tried Yahoo
Thank you very much