Investment Q&A

Q: Increasingly, larger and larger corporations with supposedly robust firewalls are being hacked. Also, an article last week on the CNBC website reported that a number of US based online brokerages/dealers had been hacked and account holders had lost their money as a result. This raises the concern that independent Canadian online brokerages (like Questrade, for example) are now vulnerable to being breached and account holders could have their funds stolen. Am I being paranoid or is this within the realm of possibility given the ever greater sophistication of hackers? If so, do you know if these brokerages have government mandated cybersecurity insurance that would compensate account holders for their losses? I wrote to Questrade about this and they seem to be stalling on giving me an answer. It would seem easy for them to tell me whether or not they have this type of insurance. I'm wondering if I might be better off transfering my account to a bank-run online brokerage service. Or is it just as vulnerable to attack?
Robert

Q: Hi 5i gang. I am a new subscriber and appreciate your advice on Canadian stocks. Can you recommend a newsletter/club that will give me similar advice on American stocks? Is there an American equivalent to Market Call on BNN? An unrelated question, is the trip to South Pacific in 2016 tax deductable under cost of investing? Thank you:)

Q: Good morning. I enjoy your service and appreciate the knowledge gained. I look forward to your new growth portfolio.
I was wondering if you would consider implementing a TFSA portfolio. I myself would find this to be most helpful. I understand that the strategy used would be different for different people. Possibly 3 portfolios with one for income oriented, one more balanced and a third growth orientated. My problem is finding the right mix for diversification and growth in mind. Specific TFSA advice would be most helpful since it is such a great avenue for wealth building for Canadians. Each january a new stock could be added. Just a thought.

Q: Hey Team :)

What is the point of price targets on stocks when in my experience the price targets are often miserably out of whack with what the security is trading for in real time? How does this practice continue without vehement discussion? And given the often ubiquitous price mismatch why does anyone give analysts price targets any credibility? Can we take anyone's price targets, valuations seriously?

Q: Re Rick's question/comment to be able to "star" a question for review later.
Perhaps this might work. I know it does for me: I take a screen shot/ picture of the question which then shows up on my desktop. I then drag it into a folder on my desktop simply called "5i" - and then I am able to review these questions whenever I want and do so quite conveniently. Hope this helps.

Q: Please explain in detail how you can find insider transactions by using sedar.com . I went to the web site but could not find any insider trading information after searching for about 20 minutes.

Q: I read in the Intelligent Investor that one good measure of a stock valuation is to multiple the PE ratio with the PB ratio. If the result is under 24, that's good. Canadian banks currently fall under that threshold. However, Glusheff is far above that threshold (PE = 12, PB = 6.6). (1) Do you like this measure (2) Does it apply to most stocks, even money managers? (3) Could educate me on how you use the PB ratio in your evaluation?

Q: Hello Team, I'm considering attending PDAC in March. How do you feel about this conference? Do you think it would be worthwhile for a retail investor like myself to attend & if so, what can I expect to gain from it? Any insight you can provide is appreciated. Thank you.

Q: There are often questions about sectors. I stumbled onto this web page that gives a clear description of each sector along with reasons for considering each sector in the light of economic conditions. I believe the 11 sectors listed (a separate one for real estate) aligns with 5i's view of how sectors should be divided. I found it helpful and thought I'd pass it along: https://www.fidelity.com/sector-investing/compare-sectors

Q: Hi 5I: When I read about a company missing its earnings or some other estimate by a small amount, with the result that the stock sells off, I get frustrated. I guess that's the problem with being a statistician. Two thoughts come to mind: (1) Why are analysts assumed to have such market-moving prescience, when in fact they do not all agree, i.e., they generally give different numerical estimates? And (2) given that they don't all agree, why is divergence from the mean of these estimates (arithmetic average) given such prominence? At the very least, the statistical error of the mean should also be provided so that the statistical accuracy of the mean can be assessed. Such an assessment would most likely result in many small "beats" or "misses" being classed as uninformative which should mean fewer false market moves. As it is, many of the quarterly market reactions just contribute to general market noise. There is enough of that already without unnecessarily adding to it.

Q: Any good books you can suggest for
Investing

Q: Finding out whether or not investments are foreign, even if listed on the TSX, is only part of the fun.

Here's the CRA updated information for Form 1135 for 2014.
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/nnrsdnts/cmmn/frgn/1135_rprtng-eng.html

I had thought the old form wanted adjusted cost base but now they seem to be talking highest fair market value at the end of any given month. At least it's aggregate.
I'm tempted to just go with what my monthly brokerage statement deems as foreign, and that total ( which does not always agree with what I suspected was foreign, or with where head office is!) since that is the tax paperwork that the CRA will get.

Anyway, enjoy everyone. We all know that 5i is not a tax accountant service!
Marilyn

Q: Hello,

Please give me your opinion or a resource on how do you research the management of a company. They say superior management is the key to superior market performance. Sabina Gold and Silver has just hired a new CEO effective February 15th name Bruce McLeod. Can you please advise on the company and new management.

Q: 10:32 AM 2/9/2015

Hello Peter

I was shocked the other day to see your answer to a question on Currency Exchange International CXI in which you say is is an American Company and thus deemed to be a Foreign Investment from CRA's perspective requiring a Form 1135 report. To me it seemed to be just another TSX listed company!

Is there any reliable way to find which TSX listed companies are actually Foreign or do I just have to search for the company corporate head office address and assume a foreign address is the key?

Are all US [and foreign] companies with a TSX listing considered foreign? And are Canadian companies interlisted in New York considered not foreign?

I wish to avoid the tax and dividend complications of foreign ownership.

Thank you.... Paul K

Q: Team

I am sitting on quite alot of US and CDN dollars in my RSP.

I would like to start picking away at some of the Canadian dividend paying stocks ( ie: BCE, CPG and others).

The one's I am looking at trade on both the CDN and US exchanges.

We the current exchange rate favoring the US dollar, would it be prudent to buy these Canadian companies on the US exchanges.

Assuming, for example, CPG/BCE stock price increases (along with the dividend it pays out), buying it in US would also give you the additional exchange amount, as well, if you wanted to convert back to CDN dollars at this time.

As always, thanks for your excellent service.

Mike

Q: The question about CXI and reporting got me to checking my portfolios. Do I have to fill in Form 1135 for ETFs based on the S&P 500, like VFV and XSP, which trade on the TSX? What about EWWS and EWU which trade on an American Exchange?

Q: Hi Peter, I wrote a few weeks ago but haven't heard back so I will try again. Also, up to you if you decide to publish but any assistance you can offer would be appreciated.

My Father-in-law passed away in 2009 and since everything was co-owned with my mother-in-law we did not have to go through probate. Subsequently, we have now located a number of old stock certificates in his name only. We have been advised by his lawyer that we will need to register these certificates at probate in order to have the ownership transferred to my mother-in-law. Most of the certificates are nearly worthless, However, he had certificates in Young Davidson Mine which was taken over by Aurica Gold last year. He purchased 1,000 shares in 1984. Through various takeovers we believe he would now own 789 shares of Aurico Gold today so it is certainly worth the time and expense to get these shares registered in my mother-in-laws and surrender to Aurico gold. Could you tell me how I can find out what the value of 1000 shares of Young Davidson Mines would have been at the time of his death - December 26, 2009 - this is requried in order to file the probate with the courts.
Also, he had purchased 10 units in 1991 for $10,000 of Lakewood VIII Limited Patnership (National Trust Company is listed as the Registrar and it states the subscription is acepted by 170944 Canada Inc as the General Partner). Any ideas how I can find out if this is worth anything? I haven't had much luck on the internet.
Peter thanks for any help you can porvide to me so we can finalize the estate. I must say it was pretty cool finding all these old stock certificates in the basement and I am sure other boomers are also encountering this as they clean out their parent's home. Might make a good article for Money Saver - what to do with old stock certificates.
Thanks again.
maggie

Q: On an earlier post a few weeks back you used non-GAAP earnings when commenting on the quarter 0.97 cents.
Looking at forecast estimates on the TMX website for the next quarter it seems they also must be using non-GAAP earnings. It is confusing to me when in other places EPS is shown as GAAP earnings. Why use non-GAAP? Which is better when calculating PE etc?

Q: In response to a question on how to download market data directly into Excel, this is what I use:

=NUMBERVALUE(WEBSERVICE("finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=" & A2 & "&f=l1"))

In this case cell A2 contains the symbol I would like the information for (ie ALA.TO for AltaGas). The l1 looks up the last trade price. The website below shows other codes to use to lookup other information.

http://www.jarloo.com/yahoo_finance/

For example =NUMBERVALUE(WEBSERVICE("finance.yahoo.com/d/quotes.csv?s=" & A2 & "&f=j1")) will get the Market cap.

Unfortunately WEBSERVICE is a non-volatile function, meaning it doesn’t re-download the information from the web automatically. To refresh, you need to either

- Hit CTRL+ ALT + F9
- If that doesn’t work for some reason on your computer you must use VBA to refresh at opening (Application.CalculateFull) .

It is a little complicated for some, but is the only good way I have found if you want to stick with Excel and not move to Google Sheets.

Q: Hi Peter,
I would like to download market data on stocks from a source for analysis. Could you please give me a source for this data preferably in excel format.
Regards
Simon