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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: I am trying to establish an asset allocation program. I am 74 yrs old have some money in RRIF act's professionally managed and some money I manage myself. My desired return for my self managed portfolio is 5-7% with medium risk tolerance. Please suggest an appropriate allocation.
Read Answer Asked by PETER on December 08, 2014
Q: Hi 5i team,

Could you please provide me with two must read investing books that should be on every investors wish list for Christmas?

Much appreciated,

Jon
Read Answer Asked by Jonathan on December 08, 2014
Q: This is a comment to an answer to trading in a TFSA. It has always been CRA tax policy to tax stock traders differently than investors. If the CRA declares you a trader due to more than a normal number of trades, they have always been able to tax that individual on the proceeds from the trade. The newspaper article was poorly written and the writer does not understand tax rules. Just another example of newspapers more interested in selling papers rather than educating people.
Read Answer Asked by Robert E. on December 08, 2014
Q: I have just read that CRA is investigating TFSA trading accounts.Apparently if you do a lot of trades and get quite good at it,individuals or their institutions could be taxed and you cannot withdraw money while being investigated.Could you some light on this subject.As usual tks 5I
Read Answer Asked by Guy on December 07, 2014
Q: 12:06 PM 12/6/2014
Hello Peter

It is said repeatedly that stocks in interest sensitive sectors like banks, pipelines, power producers, utilities, and real estate, will suffer if interest rates rise in the years ahead.

It would seem to me that with today's remarkably low rates that any responsible company officials and boards of directors would be securing all necessary very long term low interest rate financing for a decade or more in advance. Surely they would be irresponsible and negligent not to.

Fixed Income is the only real income investing option other than stocks. Bond yields would have to rise to the 5+% range to be any real competition for Dividends in the 4-5% range, and that seems unlikely in the next 5 years or more [just look at Japan] given all the almost unpayable Government debts in most countries.

So why then are "interest sensitive" stocks vulnerable?

I really have little option but to invest in these large companies with good dividends for ongoing income. So should we be concerned?

Many thanks....... Paul K
Read Answer Asked by Paul on December 07, 2014
Q: I just read that you are providing an investment seminar on Feb 28, 2015. Some of us are not situated close to your Ontario office. Would there be opportunity to host a webinar (over the internet) so that those of us that are out of town can participate? Or can it be recorded for later playback? I think that members would be willing to pay some form of reasonable fee to ensure a profit can be realized by your organization.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on December 07, 2014
Q: First thanks for all the great advice.
On tax loss selling, is a spouse considered "beneficial?" In other words can I sell something for a tax loss and if she buys the same stock within the next 30 days, do I lose the tax loss?
Second,is there historically or generaly a dip in upwardly momentum stocks after the Dec 24 deadline as people who want to take profits and want to move the tax gain into the new year. ie a stock like CSU, which is not a tax loss selling canidate, will managers in general wait to shave?
Many thanks
Read Answer Asked by Don on December 06, 2014
Q: I presume everybody uses Stockcharts to sneak a technical peak .
In addition to the default MACD and RSI , I insert Bollinger Bands and Full Stochastics ( they are fun and easy to use ) .
I realize that you don't put much faith in technical analysis , and that you subscribe to a more sophisticated service .... but which oscillators do you suggest for lowly "Stockcharts" people ?



Read Answer Asked by Thomas on December 05, 2014
Q: Just for clarification purposes:

If you sell a stock at a loss in a non-registered account the superficial loss rule applies to all accounts, registered and non-registered.

If you sell a stock at a loss in a registered account the superficial loss rule DOES NOT apply. One can buy that stock back in any account, registered or non-registered.

Thanks for your confirmation or clarification.
Ron
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on December 05, 2014
Q: Peter, so many questions around energy stocks. Let me ask questions around your daily routines from the time you wake up till you go to bed :). Do you check the futures market when you wake up and before you go to bed, listen to BNN or CNBC during the day, go thru Bloomberg see commodity prices, check out stocktwits, read broker research reports, etc..Just want to find out what you daily routines are with regard to stock markets. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Iskandar on December 05, 2014
Q: Hi Peter & 5i Research Team,

This might be of interest to other members also. I just happened to log into my TD Waterhouse account at 11.30 pm on Dec 4 and was surprised to see that my stop loss and buy orders for Amaya were "pending cancellation" and no longer active. I immediately telephoned TDW and was initially told that I must have cancelled them myself! When I said I did not, they put me on hold and then came back to inform me that TDW cancelled these orders because Amaya Gaming has changed its name to Amaya Inc. On my request they then reinstated the orders over the telephone. They also said that if I had not called them these cancelled orders would not have automatically been reinstated! Do you know if other brokers do the same? Because if I had not noticed this by chance I could potentially have lost out monetarily when the markets opened tomorrow.
Read Answer Asked by Francis on December 05, 2014
Q: tax loss selling question.

TAX LOSS QUESTION ; can I claim a loss by selling for example COS in my personal account and have my wife buy it back in her personal account in less that 30 days ?

can I claim a loss by selling for example COS in my personal account and buying it back in my CORPORATE / BUSINESS ACCOUNT in less than 30 days ?

Ernie
Read Answer Asked by Ernest on December 04, 2014
Q: Hello Peter:

I see on some bullboards for stocks that investors ask someone to post the house positions for a certain stock. What info can be derived from this? Is this how much the various brokerages have traded a stock for their clients or is it how much these brokerages actually own themselves and move around. I am with Scotia iTrade and my trades are personal decisions, do they end up in these house position totals?

Thanks in advance

Brendan
Read Answer Asked by Brendan on December 04, 2014
Q: Hi folks: Looking for a website to see daily charts on how the 4 or 5 main "sectors" in Canada are doing. Not sure of the difference between a sector and an index, so maybe index charts would be better. Also, what is a "capped index"?
Read Answer Asked by Charles on December 04, 2014
Q: Hi Peter & Ryan,
I know that I can not re-purchase the loosing stock during the 30 days after selling it, but am I allowed to purchase the profitable stock 30 days before or after the tax-loss sale?
Thanks,
Morris
Read Answer Asked by Morris on December 04, 2014
Q: I am learning a great deal from your question and answer pages but for the life of me I cannot understand why a company like Loyalist keeps loosing share price. Over the past week or so there have been several positives including record earnings, new acquisitions, insider buying and the share price goes down or stayS even. This is DRIVING ME CRAZY! (All caps means I REALLY mean it!) Can you tell me why the price isn't going up?

THANKS!!
Read Answer Asked by Bryan on December 02, 2014
Q: Hi Peter and team,

In the past you have mentioned how when a company reaches a certain market cap threshold (e.g. one billion dollars) it starts to attract more interest from investors.

When the reverse happens (i.e. when a company's market cap falls below these thresholds), do these investors start unloading, helping to increase the negative stock momentum?

The case in point is Surge (SGY). As of close on Monday it's market cap is now 970 million (below the magic billion dollar threshold). A week ago Monday its market cap was over 1.3 billion dollars.

In addition to OPEC, US production increases, tax-loss selling, and year-end portfolio positioning, can this also be a contributing factor for the accelerating downturn in some stocks like SGY.

Paul J
Read Answer Asked by Paul on December 02, 2014
Q: Wife and I are both in RRIF and depends on withdrawal roughly in line with gov. age minimum. For investment purposes, is it wise to consider our CPP and OAS as fixed income? and therefore can increase our dividend equities. Right now we are both roughly 50/50 in RRIF not considering CCP and OAS. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Karl on December 01, 2014
Q: You often make reference to diversification being the best defence against ups and downs in the market and that timing the market is a mugs game. I have seen the benefits of diversification in my own accounts but I am confused by what exactly defines "market timing".

I have two examples. One, many analysts talk about "going defensive" and buying defensive stocks, (whatever they are). Secondly, you talk about certain sectors being cyclical (oil, automotive to name a couple) and you even recently suggested, when referring to XTC "When inflation hits and interest rates rise for a sustained period of time to slow things down in the economy, it will be time to leave the ballpark.". Having made that remark, you still do suggest we stay in energy.

My question is, when is leaving a sector or "going defensive" considered market timing and when is it just good investment sense (if ever)? Or should we never really think in these terms and simply buy good companies, maintain a diversified portfolio and always ignore the ups and downs?

Looking forward to your valuable insight.

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on December 01, 2014