Investment Q&A

Q: Why do companies do a stock split and do you think any of the banks will do a stock split in 2026.

Q: How can we read Peter's information in the magazine, the last one, and the future?

Q: I have held BIR for a number of years but was unaware that a management change had taken place, presumably somewhat recently.
Since management quality is so important to the future prospects of companies, would you have the resources/time to be able to provide a management change alert with commentary on the implications, whenever one occurred for the companies in your portfolio coverages as well as those on your watchlist?
I believe that companies are required to notify of management changes at senior levels, however, it is difficult for outsiders to evaluate the significance of such.

Q: BMO now has a selection of CDRs
Is there a difference or any concern compared to those offered at CIBC
Thanks

Q: In your answer to Scott Jan 23 26 about the CIRO data breach you say "We would not be concerned here"
It is not clear to me whether you advise just ignoring it or registering for 2 year free credit monitoring.
Or is this a trap to start charging me a fee for monitoring after the 2-yer "free" period? These day we get so suspicious of everything.

Q: Follow-up question to Scott's question on Jan 23/26. I too received a letter from CIRO regarding their system being breeched on Aug 11/25.

Your response was " We got one as well; such procedures following a breach are very standard and we would not be concerned here."

Your answer may have been crafted exactly as intended, although it did not specifically say that we should follow through with the two recommendations contained in the letter. Should we just file the letter and not waste our time following up....or....should we follow the directions in the letter? I am guessing you probably intended any follow-up action to be an individual's choice.

I've made this question private on purpose, so as not to flame any potential fire. Make it public if you think it would help.

Thanks for any clarification you can provide.
Steve

Q: I just received a letter from CIRO (Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization saying that their system was breeched on August 11, 2025 and my personal data was compromised. They suggest 1) I call Equifax and TransUnion (although the phone numbers they provide don't match the company's contact information online) and 2) access a website to register for 2 years of free online credit monitoring and identity restoration services.

Before I take the recommended action I thought I would check with you to see if you heard of this and if it is legitimate.

Thanks

Scott

Q: Practicing "let your winners run" I now find two of my stocks accounting for
29% of my portfolio of 19 stocks - CLS 18% and PNG 11%,

Is there a corresponding expression to tell when and how to decide they've run far enough and start cutting back ?

Thanks as always for your help. It's greatly appreciated.

John

Q: The psychological make up of individuals cannot be overstated when making financial decisions. For example, I have done well with EIF over the years; great management, fiscally conservative yet growth oriented, good industries . It’s been “ up and to the right “ for years. I do not intend to sell this long term winner , but yet when I look at it to deploy new money , I think “ It’s at all time highs, too expensive , don’t buy “. Weird eh ?

Q: General question for buyers and sellers of ETF's from Canadian and US exchanges. How can one know whether one is permitted to hold it in ones accounts like; TFSA, RRSP and NonReg's. There are many strategies offered like levered products etc. How can one avoid holding the wrong product and getting nailed by CRA with fines. Hope you can provide some guidance.

Q: Many of the questions you receive are similar in nature and often are subsequently asked again by another subscriber.
Examples would be: “what are your top 5 CAD stocks or USD stocks; or favourite AI stocks ….” “Top 3 sectors for 2026” etc.

I like the way you have categorized the questions on the sidebar.
However I can’t find anything there that captures those types of similar, frequently asked questions.

If i have overlooked it please let me know how I can find them other than scrolling through days and weeks of questions to find those types of questions and answers.

Thanks again.

PA: And by the way your report on AI yesterday is outstanding both for the breadth of its coverage and the detail on stocks or funds in each category. Fabulous material and clearly a VALUE ADDED differentiator in favor of 5i. BRAVO.

Q: Hi 5i, a member referred to useful articles that you published on all-in-one ETF's.
Could you please point these articles out.
Thanks, and keep up your great work in 2026.
Terry

Q: I don't know who else to ask on this one. I trade on both TD Waterhouse and NBDC. On occasion, I find them giving quite different stock readouts. For example, right now, it's 12:52PM on Jan 19. NBDB is showing VXM at 49.80 -08% with a bid/ask of 48.77-50.92. TD is showing it at 50.79 +1.84% with a bid ask of 50.25-50.92. How can they have such widely different quotes?

I realize NBDB doesn't show live quote on its main page, but it does when you bring up the buy/sell pop-up. So these quotes should be identical. But this is not the first time I've found such wide ranges.

Q: What are your trusted sources for forward sales, earnings and ebitda in trying to determine valuations?

Thank you,

Q: Sorry for yet another CSU question! As a long-term holder of CSU, we've made a hefty profit….not as much as it was, but still hefty.

Having said that, I need to rebalance our portfolio, which I can easily accomplish by selling some, not all, CSU.

Is portfolio rebalancing justification in this scenario?

Thanks in advance for your valuable insight.

Q: TD Direct Investing:

We have been advised by our personal advisor that our charity Margin account will not be allowed for options trading. He has advised that all open orders should be closed within 90 days.
It was just a phone call and were advised there would be no written communication.
We have had our account with TD for more than 40 yrs and the charity account for 15. I am nearly 90.

We would appreciate your comments if this action is allowed and verbal notification is sufficient.

We would also appreciate if any of your members have had his same fate or if this is a personal vendetta.

We leave it to your discretion as to how you treat this question.

All the best and thanks for the excellent service.

Thomas

Q: I have an incorporated business investment account. There will be no new money coming in and I will not need the money for five to ten years. Currently, I have roughly 5% in each of CSU, SVI, WSP, MELI, and TSLA, and 10% in ZSP. The remainder is split between EIT and FIE, whose distributions are primarily capital gains and eligible dividends. Would you have some suggestions on how to tweak the portfolio? Thanks.

Q: Today I received an email called Chart Attack.

Of course I've recieved them before but never made good use of them

I'm sure a lot of work has gone into it by 5i and was just wondering how would you suggest your subscribers use these to influence/improve their investment decisions.

Thanks

Sheldon

Q: Regarding Dawn's problem with transferring/contributing USD to TFSA/RRSP accounts with TD:

TD won't transfer USD cash into registered accounts like TFSA or RRSP, but *it will* transfer US assets in-kind . Actually, as far as I remember, you can do it yourself.

So, all you need to do is to buy a money market fund. I used at the time TDB2915 recommended by TD Direct Investing staff (worth confirming if it's still the best to use for this transfer) because there are no fees when buying/selling TD funds.

So, buy as many units of the fund as needed in your USD margin account , and then after a day or two you can transfer online the fund units in-kind into your *CAD* TFSA/RRSP account. Here, I don't remember if you have to move the units into your *CAD* margin account or not first, in order to be able to do the transfer in-kind online by yourself. Anyway, once you have your fund units you can ask the TD staff to do it for you, if you prefer.

Once into the CAD registered account, you can transfer them into your USD TFSA/RRSP account and then sell them for cash. No buying or selling fees should apply.

Hope this helps. Best regards.

Q: Good Morning 5i,

There has been a noticeable trend of the 50 day and 100 day SMA's converging across many stocks with a market consolidation. We have a rule about selling or trimming when the 50 day crosses over the 100 day. An S&P at 7100 before March will trigger a larger trim and adjustment to safer stocks. Can we have your thoughts about the 50 day crossing over the 100 day and the general consolidation that is occurring?

Thank you for your help

D&J