Investment Q&A

Q: Hi 5i Team:
While I have a good sense of how my overall portfolio is performing I am struggling to find an uncomplicated method of assessing the contribution of individual holdings. When I try to apply a formula for CAGR say, I find myself stymied in almost all cases by having bought and sold shares over time,or having return of capital issues, or at the very least not necessarily re-investing the dividends in the same stock over the time frame in question but just somewhere in the portfolio. Can you suggest a workable way to bring some discipline (objective "hard numbers") to assessing the contribution of individual holdings to the overall portfolio given the above types of complications (and more)? If the answer is too involved/lengthy for Q&A perhaps you would consider the topic for a future blog?
Thanks,

Q: As a new member, I am puzzled by the composition of the Coverage Summary spreadsheet and accompanying 70-company report database. Perhaps I am missing something, but it seems to me that the research database would be more useful to an investor if it contained 70 companies all of which are highly rated. I don't understand the rationale for including companies that are rated lower than B. There must be more Canadian companies that would fall into the A or B categories. It also puzzles me that many of the companies in the model portfolios are not covered by the research.

In summary, would it be possible to include some notes on the website or accompanying the spreadsheet/database explaining how the 70 companies were chosen, how this research is to be used by an investor, and how and when companies are added or removed from the coverage.

Thanks in advance.

Q: Assuming you can't afford institutional IT (eg. Bloomberg), what is the best service for maintaining a watchlist; ideally, one that you could set to send alerts when price targets are hit or a stock is up or down a certain percentage? I am a 5 star client with BMO but their alerts are 15 min delayed (at best).

Q: When I see a company say that they are redeeming senior notes for example due in 2021. What does that mean? Is that good for the stock. Is it something they do because they may be putting themselves up for sale at a future date and don't want to have any debt outstanding? Please excuse my ignorance but I need to be educated on why a company redeems senior notes or whatever other notes early. Is it just because they have the cash to do so and it reduces the cost of their debt? Thanks.

Q: Please help me understand how an investor would go about buying some of the new shares being offered at $38.00 instead of buying existing shares on the market at today's price, most recently $40.00. If I wanted some, or in my case, more, shares of KBL, why would I buy in the market instead of the new issue?

Q: Some stocks like GSY OR RPI.UN seem to be decent performers but trade very light.Could you expand on that.

Q: Hi 5i, As one who remembers double digit interest rates, I've been wondering if and when the worm will turn again. It sounds like expectations are becoming pretty entrenched for higher rates in the US, and if that turns out to be true would expect Canada to follow with a year or two lag. Is there a typical pattern or approach that suggests which sectors and investment types benefit in a rising rate environment?

Thx for your excellent service!

Q: Hi Peter and the super team!! I know what a PE ratio is....but I have heard reference made to a "normalized PE ratio". What kind of beast is this? There are also forward looking PE ratios...and possibly others. Could you give a brief run down of the various PE ratios and their definitions? Cheers, Tamara

Q: Hi I am seeing a few dividend questions popping up. Here is a good dividend info site (especially the excel sheets) to pass on if you think appropriate.
http://www.dividendgrowthinvestingandretirement.com/canadian-dividend-all-star-list/

Q: Enbridge issued a press release regarding an unsolicited mini-tender offer made by TRC Capital to purchase up to 2,500,000 common shares or Enbridge at a price of $53.38 per share which is 4.47% discount as of April 6, 2017 closing price. This type of mini-offers has happened to other publicly traded companies. What are the possible reason(s) for a company such as TRC Capital make an offer at a discount below market and believe this offer would be accepted? Perplexed… Thank you.

Q: Do you know of a good site to get a list of the largest market gains and losses during the trading day. It would seem like a relevant piece of data, but I haven't been able to locate it.
In addition, do you know a site which shows the list of largest absolute dividends paid by Canadian and us companies? In Canada the banks must lead the pack. In. The us I'm thinking xom or the big telcos. If not, wondering if other readers know. Thanks in advance.

Q: Hi 5i, I noticed sometimes the gold stocks went down when gold price is up , same as energy, just my curiosity want to know why? What's the reason behind that? Thank you.

Q: Given an oustanding share count under 50 million per say, is it a significant event ( maybe a bit of a milestone )for a company to reach a $500M or $1B market cap. How significant is such an event to analysts or large investors?

Thank You
Clarence

Q: Good Morning: A question for myself but other subscribers will be interested as well I'm sure. Do you know if our subscription fees are tax deductible as investment expenses with the CRA. Don

Q: Thanks for your so fast answer on ex dividend.Sorry I did not make clear on dates,so here goes again.Ex dividend date is Apr.6.I buy on Apr 3,so do I can get dividend & 2)when can I sell subsequently & still get dividend.Thanks a lot for u normal great services & views

Q: Please do not deduct credit as minimal amount of time.2 part question on Ex dividend.Say the ex dividend is April 6 & I buy today which means settlement date of April 6. 1) Do I get the dividend? 2)Can I sell on April 6?.Appreciate U usual great services & views Congratulaions for your 5 small cap picks--PHO,ZCL.GPS,ITC & GSY--on NP,saturday & Van.Sun,monday.All had sharp increases today ranging from 2.47% to 9.2%

Q: I've been wondering about growth vs. sector allocation. My portfolio is well diversified and has a growth bent due to my situation and not needing income for a number of years. The question is: when looking for growth, is it advisable to look for growth companies in all sectors? Or would you focus the growth more in certain sectors such as technology, and more stable companies in a sector such as financial? I need to add to healthcare, financials, telecom a bit but not sure if they are the best place to add small-cam growth, or look to find that in technology/industrial/discretionary. If in all categories what are best suggestions for small cap growth in health (other than gud), financials and telecom?

Q: Having traded with the Active Trader Program with TD. which has ended, I am looking for a recommend on a new broker with a better trading platform than the new platform (TD-Advance Dashboard)which is deficient compared to ATP for Canada. I am happy with Think or Swim for my U.S. trading. Any suggestions. Platform is very important for active traders. thank you for what you do for subscribers.

Q: Would you please explain how "dividend yield" is calculated on a stock that you own.

I notice that "yield" doesn't remain constant but changes.

Thank you for your reply

Peter

Q: This is a follow up to a question I submitted a few weeks back that I should have been more specific about. I had asked about transferring our investments from the financial advisor we have been dealing with to a discount brokerage so that we can manage the funds ourselves and the relative pros/cons of transferring the investments "in kind" versus in cash. The transfer will involve a couple of RRSP accounts, a couple of LIRA accounts, a family RESP and a non-registered "in trust for" account. Any benefits/drawbacks of in kind versus cash transfer based on the type of account being transferred? We do plan to sell the bulk of our current holdings and start from scratch, but is that best done at the start or end of the transfer process - or does it really matter one way or the other? Thanks.