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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: Good morning Peter and team,

In the 10th anniversary edition of his book The Little Book of Common Sense Investing John Bogle states:

"My own total portfolio holds about 50/50 indexed stocks and bonds, largely indexed short- and intermediate-term."

Warren Buffett famously wants a 90/10 indexed stocks/government bonds mix for the trust fund he is leaving to his wife.

Given that interest rates will certainly go up from today's levels which will drive bond values down, wouldn't an investor be better off holding cash instead of bonds, cash drag notwithstanding?

Thank you.

Milan
Read Answer Asked by Milan on October 26, 2017
Q: Peter and team:
I read a question from someone this morning about a TFSA for their 18 yr. old daughter. I had just been thinking about this prior to turning on the computer. I too am in the same position. I had been thinking RRSP. Which vehicle (RRSP vs. TFSA) do you feel is best for a young investor to start with? Also, for an RRSP, what would you think of a low MER high quality Mutual Fund such as MAW 104.

Thanks as always for a great service.

Phil
Read Answer Asked by Phil on October 25, 2017
Q: Hi 5i team, I know that you are not promoting market timing but I was just wondering what your thoughts are on the following; I am a young retired person with most of my financial needs met with my defined benefit pension. My investments are 100% in equities as I consider my pension to be the fixed income portion. Where the market has been so strong lately and with no recent correction do you think it would be wise for a conservative retired income investor to take approximately 25-50% of his investments and purchase good quality rate reset preferred shares with the belief that during a period of extreme volatility and market correction that these instruments would be affected far less than common shares? The only preferred shares I hold currently is ECN.PR.C. Please tell me if you believe my logic is flawed and if it is not could you recommend a few other good yielding preferreds or other instruments you believe would hold up well during volatile markets. Thanks again for all you do. Mario.
Read Answer Asked by Mario on October 25, 2017
Q: Hello,
I would like your opinion on this. Do you feel it is important to try and keep a certain number of stocks in your portfolio, based on the size of it of course. If you do, could you advise what "approximate number" you would have for each of following sizes of portfolios to give me a sense of how you would handle this:
-$100,000 portfolio
-$500,000 portfolio
-$1,000,000. portfolio
-$1,500,000. portfolio

Thank you
Margaret
Read Answer Asked by Margaret on October 25, 2017
Q: I seem to have a ...bad... habit of selling my winners and keeping my losers, especially Cdn resource co's, waiting for them to turn around.

Forest Co's under perform, constantly under U.S tariff threat.
Gold Co's and base metals ...who knows where commodity prices will go ?
Oil and gas ...Regulatory and fed govt is a disaster compared to U.S investment climate.

Are Cdn resource Co's only for stock pickers and short term traders in todays economic climate ?
Read Answer Asked by Bernie on October 25, 2017
Q: I am approaching my TFSA contribution limit and have opened a cash account. I'd appreciate your advice on how I should allocate stocks between the two accounts.

Currently my account consists primarily of micro/small/mid cap growth stocks and high dividend stocks. I am planning on adding some high dividend etfs.
I'd like to separate high growth stocks from dividend stocks/etfs.

My initial thought is to use my TFSA as a tax free income generator with the dividend stocks/etfs. As these stocks produce somewhat guaranteed gains I will definitely be utilizing the tax free incentive of the account.

While having my riskier growth stocks in a cash account where I am more likely to incur loses and can take advantage of tax loss rules. Also, if Im lucky enough to have a multi bagged I hope I wouldn't be too upset paying a bit of tax on the gain.

Does that make sense? Would you suggest otherwise and if so why?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by EVAN on October 25, 2017
Q: Many of your subscribers discuss their weightings on individual investments.
If I have 5 accounts and a total invested capital of 2,000,000 and if I want to have a minimum of 5% weighting on each stock,ETF or mutual fund would you suggest that 20 holdings averaging 100,000 each would be appropriate?
Or, in the case of some of your smaller capitalized companies like sis and aar.un, would a smaller percentage allocation be more appropriate?
I am 71 and have been in the market for over 40years.
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 24, 2017
Q: 5i Team - Altagas (ALA) is has a scheduled ex-dividend date of of 10/24/2017 for a sweet payout of $0.175 per unit, payable on 11/15/2017.

Is is safe to assume that on the ex-dividend date, the ALA stock price will decline by the percentage associated to the dividend payment? If not, is this the best time to buy this stock and take advantage of the payout?

Secondly, If I purchased the stock on 10/24/2017 and sold it the next day 10/25/2017, will I still be paid the monthly dividend on 11/15/2017? Is it a good strategy to purchase all dividend stocks on the ex-dividend date so as to maximize dividend returns?

Thank You - LG
Read Answer Asked by Luigi on October 24, 2017
Q: Regarding Grant's question earlier today on tracking gains and losses, I also use TD WebBroker. While there is no field in the Order Entry screen, the data is there. In Account Detail, there is a Tab for Performance, which shows your ROR Yr to date (and other intervals) and a Tab for Gain & Loss which shows the total $ Gain and Loss for the year and individual $ Gain and Loss by security. TD cautions that it should not be relied upon for tax purposes.
dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 23, 2017
Q: TD WebBroker: Click Accounts > Gain & Loss.

Paul

October 23, 2017 - Asked by Grant

Q: How do people track their overall performance as traders? I use TD Web Broker and after I make a trade there doesn't seem to be a filed that tracks the loss or gain on the trade. Do people track this in an Excel Spread Sheet or is there a program/app for this?

Thank you for another great year of smart stock picks!

5i Research Answer:
From what we have seen, most automated programs don't do a great job of tracking this as withdrawals and deposits tend to skew results. Excel is likely the most reliable way to do this albeit can be a bit more time consuming.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 23, 2017
Q: Hello team, thank you in advance for your perspective. If the US and Canadian dollar fall relative to the Euro, can one predict whether it would be more helpful to own a European ETF in CAD or US dollars? Is it more advantageous to own both a hedged and unhedged version of Europe to help cancel out currency effects? Would you consider a combination of the above two funds as one way to cover off potential currency changes? Please deduct as many points as appropriate to help enhance my understanding of this puzzle.
Read Answer Asked by Joanne on October 23, 2017
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