Investment Q&A

Q: In one of your podcasts Peter had mentioned looking at small caps for growth opportunities. Can you suggest what screening criteria one could use to come up with a list to potential candidates?

Q: Me, would like 5iR's take/opinion on 2 measures - Piotroski Score where a higher scores classify a stock as a strong financial position, and also Altman Score that helps investors to gauge the probability of a company going bankrupt ........Keen to hear what you have to say about these two measures/scores......Thanks.....Tom

Q: Hi 5i Team - If a company is listed on both the U.S. and Canadian exchanges, do you have an opinion on which would be the better choice, I realize that this may be a bit of a complex question with a number of variables to consider so if you could address just a couple of those variables that would be great.
As a corollary do U.S. dividends need to claimed in RRSP's and TFSA's.
Thanks.

Q: Hi 5i
The options market seem to be very busy these days especially in the AI area. ..,,,How does this affect the share prices of these AI companies... If so can you give a coles notes explanation how this might work.

thx

Q: My question concerns the significance in a stock’s price bid & ask price difference. Today LMN’s bid ask difference is .15 cents while BCE’s is .01 cents. Question 1 is why do stocks have varying bid ask differences. Question 2 is it better to buy stocks with small bid ask differences. And question 3 does a third party prosper if a stock has a large bib ask difference. Thanks … Cal

Q: I would appreciate your opinion on the use of covered call ETF's for income oriented investors. There seems to be a lot of advocates for this Passive Income Investing strategy for the higher than normal yields being generated but I just wonder, when something seems too good to be true, it often is. Maybe you have answered or have an opinion elsewhere. Is your view the same in registered/non-registered accounts.

Q: Where can I find founder ownership percentage of a company?

Q: Hello folks,

This is a follow up question to Ross' on March 6 2024.

You didn't answer the second part of Ross' question!

Are there any studies comparing "selling" calls or puts and buying and holding the stocks?

I know intuitively that it depends on stocks! Some are so good for writing calls. Some are good for puts and some for buying and holding! But that is not evidence based! Also a "cop out" answer!

Any studies that you know of?

Thanks Ross for asking that excellent question. Thanks Peter et all for your answer.

Q: A full position is considered to be 5%. So if a family has say 2 tfsa’s of $50k each and an RSP of $100k for total of $200k, would you look at a 5% full position in each account, which would amount to $2500 in each tfsa and $5000 in the RSP, or would you look at 5% based on the household registered total of $10,000 and be ok with a $10,000 hold in 1 RSP account even though in that account its 20% but still only 5% of the family portfolio if you will. Hope this makes some sense.

Q: Put Options betting the stock will go down or Call Options betting the stock will go up.

Do you prefer one over the other?

Thinking of trying both, I'm a 10 year self investor.

Or just continue to buy stock for the long term?

Are there any statistics that prove using Put & Call's perform better than buying and holding stocks?

Thank you.

Q: I was unable to attend the recent webinar on the US market. I was hoping to be able to view it via your YouTube channel but I have not seen it posted there. Can you provide a link to where I might be able to watch the presentation/discussion? Kind regards,

Q: How does one use the question text selection effectively in your Q & A feature?
thanks Hugh

Q: Everyone,
What is an appropriate PE ratio for LMN in five years?
Clayton

Q: In response to Ben’s question on March 1 regarding to buy LMN or not you stated that if one has a time frame of 5 years or more, then he should buy it at the going price. Are you saying not to buy the stock if less than 5 year timeframe?
What if one does not use timeframes as a reference but uses percentages ? In my TFSA ( where I have my riskier stocks ) I use 20% as a point of consideration to sell. I may be leaving money on the table but I have locked in a good gain. I would appreciate your thoughts on this approach. Would your answer on LMN be the same if one used the 20% ?
Thanks . Derek

Q: I am curious as to your take on this brief article (https://findependencehub.com/when-low-rates-cause-people-to-do-dumb-things/#more-207962) and the author's argument that given the elevated earnings multiple of growth vs value stocks (especially in the US) and historical reversion to the mean of returns, that going forward investors would be better served by exposure to value vs growth stocks (again, especially for US equities) and seemingly Canadian vs US given the "far more attractively valued" Canadian shares. Thanks.

Q: My View! Bought my 1st. stock 50 years ago, and have owned stocks since, so i have had a lot of ups and downs over the years, but what i have learned is that people take too many gambles in the market and than have wipe outs or tax loss selling, when all they have to do is buy great companies that make lots of money. It is amazing how much your growth is if you do not have to write off these loses on IFFY companies. I love 5i for reading but sometimes i wonder where do they find these IFFY stocks, are they looking for another 1000% banger or a another tax loss seller. If you take Berk.B and only bought it 5, 10, or 20 years ago you would be very happy with just 1 stock, they do not buy IFFY and hope. The market will reward you over time, but Greed is hard to control.

Q: What is the best way/strategy to make money in the stock market? I have tried trading, but that only led to small profits.

I tried buy and hold, but then I didn’t cut my losses in time.

Q: Hi Peter,

What does deterioration in fundamentals mean for a company from your perspective? And what are the indicators to watch out for?

Best,
Matt

Q: Hi,
Let’s say I want to (re) buy a looser stock during the year. Are there any periods that would be more favorable?
Quarters’end, triple witching days, seasonality for the sector ?
I try to avoid January and earnings period. But I found bargains from mid-October thru-December.
I guess this is not part of your philosophy but I'm curious.

Thanks and great week-end.

Q: Chris's podcasts, a brilliant idea! Seeing you talk together in this way makes you even more sympathetic and human.