Investment Q&A

Q: Just a thank you to 5i for all your insight and answers at such a busy time during q3 results . Great team!

Q: This is my first year investing in a non registered account. I've invested with BMO Investorline. My question is do I trust the average cost they post for each stock? How do I verify it is correct? I can set up an excel spreadsheet but not sure how to accurately figure out the adjusted cost base. Thank you.

Q: What metrics do you look at to determine if long term holds for dividend income are still safe for that dividend income? I have a pretty diverse portfolio and more than half of it is in banks, oil, telecoms and utilities. I have held these since before Covid, Financial crisis, two wars presently raging and introduction of AI, let alone the Climate Change growing issue. So I'm looking out say 10 years and want to look at each of my long term holdings to determine if they are still long term eligible and if so will their dividends be safe. Any thoughts on a frame work/lens that I should be considering in this kind of a review?

Q: Hi 5i ,
As a follow on to my previous question on not receiving Hmax dividend ...how does one go about inquiring about this type of issue...I see no contact information on Hamilton website...any suggestions on how to move forward?
Thx

Q: if one Canadian person has ,say $ 1,000,000 invested with 10 DIFFERENT institutions, is the whole 1 mil covered by CDIC and FSRA insurance

Q: ETF's. Is this true? Thank you.

Most funds allocate assets in one of two ways. The first and most straightforward way is equal-weighted, which means the money you invest is equally split between the stocks the fund holds. If a fund has 500 companies and you invest $500, each would get $1.

The other primary method is distributing investments by the companies' market capitalizations (market caps). In this case, companies with a higher market cap receive more of the invested amount. For example, if a fund has 500 companies, a $1,000 investment could mean $5 to the largest company in the fund, while $0.10 goes to the smallest. The exact distributions will vary based on the range of market caps in the fund.

Q: Do you know of an app tied to daily US/Cdn $ exchange rate which I can use to track performance of US stocks in terms of Cdn $ which is required for Canadian tax reporting . I have DRIPs on US stocks but of course their cost in C$ when drip shares are purchased is what is required when asset sold. My online account only tracks the US$ ACB which doesnt track currency on drip settlement date. Thank you.

Q: ex-dividend on the 11-14-23 if I sell on the 15 do Istill get my dividend?

Thank you

Q: I apologize for this very basic question but I need to confirm the following please:
If I buy a canadian company’s stock (ex CM) with U.S. dollars on a
U.S. exchange, will I receive the dividend in U.S. dollars?
To receive the dividend in $U.S. , I don’t need to advise my brokerage or make any special request ?
There would be no withholding tax, right?
Thx
John

Q: Hi 5i,

I thought that I had sent this question but I will try again.

Re DRIP's. I hold different accounts. Over the years I have noted a discrepancy in the time it takes to deliver the shares. Some are delivered very quickly whereas other management accounts will take up to 10 days to deliver.
Is there an advantage to the management company by delaying the payment? Are there rules to the DRIP process?
I like the new rules to question time.
Thank you,
David

Q: Price movements in the US after-hours market have had me puzzled for months. I have noticed *unexplained* spikes in share prices in after-hours trading. As a simple test , I set up price alerts on a dozen Nasdaq-listed companies and asked Schwab’s platform to alert me if the prices fell by significant percentages— amounts that were , say, 20% below closing prices, and that price drop was not attributable to earnings releases or other news .
To my surprise, the platform sent me far more alerts than I expected. All alerts were after hours.

Here is an example on trading in NVDA after 5 PM November 8, 2023. NVDA traded almost 35 million shares during the day within the price range: US$459.68 – US$468.67 (a tight range of 0.21% , from high to low).

At 5:17 PM I received an alert that NVDA had fallen below US$393. I checked on nasdaq.com for the after-hours trading. The low price shows is shown at 5:35 PM as US$228.29, after which shares went back to US$461, apparently soon after.

The above is not necessarily an isolated case, going by my alerts being triggered. Notwithstanding that my test is simplistic , I ask if you have any knowledge of how, and why this happens.
(Screen shots below but I am not sure if your system will show images).

Q: Good Day.
Wondering if you could, "feed me a fish," by finding the short positions in both the US and CAN markets; then "teach me to fish" by showing me where I can source this data on my own. I cannot remember where I have found it in the past.
Thanks

Q: Can you please tell me how the 10-year total return of XEI compares with XIU and XIC? Do you know methodology used for selecting holdings in the S&P/TSX Composite High Dividend index? Where can I find a complete list of the holdings in XEI?
Thank you!!

Q: turning asking questions into a popularity contest seems out of place in a service we pay for.

Q: Re: DRIP's. I have accounts held with different companies. Over the years I have noted that the proceeds from the DRIP's arrive in my account at different times in relation to the release of the dividend itself. One company is very prompt in its delivery whilst another often takes 7-10 days. Is there an advantage to the second company? Are there any rules governing the payment of DRIP's?

I like the changes that you are making to question time.

David

Q: Adding my two cents on the recent interest in direct registered DRIP programs, I would like to highlight the fact that some companies offer a direct share purchase program as well. Depending on the company, there may or may not be fees. I have several direct holdings and have found the ability to send a small cheque to add to my holdings as funds become available to be quite beneficial over time; especially with respect to the companies that permitted this with no transaction cost.

Q: Are withdrawals from a First Home Savings Account eligible for the purchase of land to enable a person to build a house themselves, or is it only for the purchase of existing homes?

Thank you for this excellent service.

Q: I have a follow-up question to my Oct 26th question asking what are the 3 most important ratios to use when evaluating REITS. Your response to my initial question was "We would consider debt ratios (debt to value), with caution above 55%, cash flow to interest, with caution below 2X, and dividend payout ratio, with caution above 80%. Book value can be important but is often over or under-stated and needs to be looked at carefully. Valuation metrics (price/cash flow) are also important."

For NXR.un you calculated those ratios as NXR.UN 48%, 97.1%, 1.6X.

Is the Dividend Payout ratio calculated after the interest payment? If not, does that mean these companies are taking on debt to pay either the interest or dividend?

Q: I just received a Chapter 11 notice on a small holding I have AKUMIN. Another in a long line of US Healthcare companies that list in Canada and go bust! Looking at the trading history on your site, it looks like it was trading very small volumes (9.5k) at around .20 for 4 or 5 months and then all of a sudden on Monday October 23rd, its last trade, was at .51 for 1,170,000 shares. Two questions 1) why would anyone buy a large block and pay a huge premium for a stock that is in trouble???.......does this not wreak of foul play? If not, why would someone have purchased these shares? 2) Is my money dead or is there hope it will come thru bankruptcy with some shareholder value? I would love your perspective as this seems really odd to me.

Many Thanks

Scott

Q: Hi, With respect to recent topic of DRIP discounts, we have had our accounts with CIBC Investors' Edge for a long time and we have never had any issues receiving DRIP shares with a discount, if the company offers it. Of course, the brokerage only buys DRIP shares with a minimum of 1 share and balance of dividend is received in cash. Generally, we would need to make sure that we call the brokerage to register a DRP with the company well before the Dividend Payment Date, preferably before stock going ex-dividend.

If company does not have a DRIP program, then brokerage also offers a Synthetic DRIP, as per the their own approved list of names.

Hope this helps.

Thank You