Investment Q&A

Q: Hi, can you please comment on which debt ratios are best to look at for survivability?

For example, debt/cashflow vs. debt/equity vs. debt/marketcap

Even if debt to cash flow is not too high, is there a point where the debt to marketcap is so high that everyone will shy away from it? For example TBE earlier in the year?

Q: Am I possibly missing something, I am setting up a portfolio for my Grandchildren over 15 year time frame.
Considering - dis, goog, fb, amzn. Set it and forget it.
With the current US ex, is this a detriment over the long time frame.

Q: What's the last day of the year for tax loss selling, thanks

Q: Two questions. I was looking at a stock on a stock website and clicked to level II for shares bought/sold data. I see it occur frequently, where a security company (for example 007 TD Securities) is both the seller and buyer of a stock. I have assumed simply the company was satisfying different clients while obtaining commission on both sides. Is that a good assumption?
In this case the security co. was clearly selling off many thousands of its shares ($9.70/share)over several days and to several different buyers. But its first and by far largest sale was to itself - both seller and buyer of one block of 11,000 shares. It just seemed a bit odd to me that a non-bank security co. would have a client who wanted, at full price and at least fair value, 11,000 shares of a stock the firm was selling off. Aside from a large shareholder selling off should a transaction such as this raise any other concern? Perhaps this is a way to maintain the share price for the further sales...
Thanks so much for your patience, hope you guys do take some time off for the holidays.

Q: I am looking for some holiday reading regarding investment strategy, finance or economics and would like to know what you would suggest? I have read many of the classics and would like something more resent although I realize some strategies and theories are timeless so don't be afraid to suggest something that must be read from the past.

Thanks very much for the great advice as always.

Q: Can you please tell me what the ticker symbol for
Oil, Natural Gas & Gold is please.

Thank You
Craig Ogilvie

Q: Good Afternoon: My question is really currency related rather than Visa specifically. I own a few US stocks including Visa which fortunately for me I purchased when there was not as much difference between the US and Canadian dollar. As a result of stock performance and the difference in currency valuation I have done well. I would like to make a few more US purchases but cant make myself do so with the almost 40% hit. In my opinion some time in the future our dollar will get stronger. Do you have any suggestions or can you recommend Canadian companies or ETF's that I can buy without being so concerned about the currency. Thank You.

Q: Peter; I think I saw some babies being thrown out with the bathwater this morning - what do you think? Rod

Q: In the past you have suggested a 30% weighting outside of Canada. If using vxc or xaw for said international esposure and the remainder 'canadian' stocks from the balanced and growth portfolios(atd,csu,cxr,bns,cxi,phm,mg,mda,enb,it,bos,sj,wsp) is 30% still appropriate today? Assuming this is a young investor that would work toward 20 names from the 5i portfolios as funds become available. Thanks

Q: I currently have 25% of my assets in $US but only 20% is in US stocks. The other 5% is EEM. I would like to increase the US component to 25% but that would give me a 30% $US exposure. While I think that the US dollar will remain strong for the next year, I am wondering if 30% exposure is too high. Should I sell EEM, which hasn't done much but is my only international exposure (other than multinational US companies), move up to a 30% UD dollar weighting or stay the course?

Thank you for your insight.

Paul F.

Q: Peter; What do you make if the negative interest rate statement by the BOC? Is it a sigh of weakness ( no pun intended) in our economy or just forward planning? Thanks.Rod

Q: hi Peter

Can you give us a few names in sectors outside oil& gas that you would pick up during this tax loss selling season.

Thanks Gord

Q: You folks at i5 are excellent for all things CDN. Could you recommend a similar service like yourselves covering the US markets?

Q: In your recent Canadian Money Saver article about using call options to enhance income in a US portfolio, you gave a few examples of securities that could be considered for this strategy. As someone who invests only in your BE and Income portfolios, are there any names in these that would be the type of company you would consider for the same strategy in Canada?

Thank you.

Q: Don't know what rules various brokers have for same day selling & simultaneous
purchase of same security between US & CDN mkts. but it is not illegal.
Some brokers specialize in this area & are happy to make a few pennies on a trade.
It's really a necessary function to keep things balanced.
Joe

Q: In their most recent 10-Q, I don't understand what's going on in the Cash Flows from Investing Activities for the past 9 months - can you explain what is meant by 'purchases of marketable securities', 'proceeds from maturities of marketable securities', and 'proceeds from sales of marketable securities'?

Q: This is a comment on Joe technique for currency conversion. Last time I called TD discount broker to do a similar transaction, I was told that security regulation wouldn't allow me to own two positions one short and the other one long for the same security. The trade could be cancelled if I do it. Don't know if this is a security regulation or TD regulation?

Q: You have XHY in the Income Portfolio. It has not performed well overall. I did a graphical comparison with ZWH and ZWH looks far superior. ZWH has increased in the last year whereas XHY has gone south.

I'm thinking of selling XHY and buying ZWH. May I have your thoughts on this move?

Thanks ... Ron

Q: Re converting US to CDN $'s. Last time, I used Barrick, Sold short in my US a/c.
10 min. later bot in my CDN a/c. Called broker on the CDN. value date & had them tfr. to my US a/c. You're welcome.

Joe

Q: I noticed a little price increase today but I did not see any news out on the company. Do you have anything new today? I also wanted to ask how much each of the metrics you use to grade a company influence the final grade. This company has only one C- but is graded a C+, obviously not every valuation carries the same weight but what is most important to yourselves when evaluating and can I assume that the grade is based on a long term hold in every case? Can you please give the answer as a percentage of each area of the scorecard.
Thank you
Jeremy