skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

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

Q: Hi 5i team,

I am working on getting a more diversified portfolio in my non-registered accounts when I add new money. According to RBC Direct Investing I have 0% utilities, 0% industrials, and 45.1% in energy.

It seems that you consider ENB, IPL, and PPL as utilities. Is that correct? If that is the case then utilities make up 22.9% of my portfolio, and energy is 22.2%. Still too high I suppose.

I would like to add some dividend paying industrial stocks that would make up around 5% of my portfolio. What industrial stocks do you recommend at this time? [I guess STN and BAD] Is there a seasonally good time to buy industrial stocks? I can wait if there is.

Note: If I recall you classify BAD as an industrial stock, yet TMX lists it in the energy sector. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out sector allocation when some stocks get classified differently depending on the site you use.

Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on July 17, 2014
Q: What is the advantage of in kind transfers from a non registered account to a TFSA if one is charged capital gains anyway, and can't claim capital loss--which presumably you COULD claim if you sold the stock and transferred the $? Is it that the transfer is done without a transaction fee?
Read Answer Asked by M.S. on July 17, 2014
Q: Are you aware of any website that publishes a listing of companies that are starting to pay their first ever dividend?
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Alan on July 17, 2014
Q: If I wanted to start building my own portfolio, what is your recommended mix in regards to sector and industry? What is the mix of your model portfolio?
Read Answer Asked by Rob on July 17, 2014
Q: Hi Peter,

Could you provide a Stock Screening web site or program that you would recommend for a retail investor ?

Thank you Peter...
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on July 17, 2014
Q: BIP.UN/TFSA

Hello,
We hold BIP.UN in a (joint) non-registered account and currently have no contribution room in our TFSA's. Come January I would like to transfer BIP.UN "in kind" into one or both of our TFSA's (the value will likely exceed the limit for any one account). From reading previous posts, I understand this can be done with certain caveats or conditions. I could not find any details on the Service Canada TFSA webpage. Would you be able to elaborate on how and "in-kind" transfer is done and what conditions need to be satisfied? Should it make any difference, we use RBC Action Direct - with whom I have not yet spoken about this issue.
If there is a "standard" procedure or set of guidelines to this process, perhaps a post or blog or something would benefit others who may not be familiar with such a process - I know I am completely unfamiliar with it....
Thanks!!
Cheers,
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on July 16, 2014
Q: This question was too long to publish, but related to the fact that investors, according to some, should own NO bonds due to higher risk levels due to potentially rising rates.
Read Answer Asked by joseph on July 16, 2014
Q: Hi guys,

I am a small business owner and the incorporation has access to a little bit of cash (100k). I have been selecting stock for a portfolio but I am wary of pulling the trigger because of talk of the infamous correction. Would you suggest to wait for a market pullback to start buying the positions or go ahead in this highly valuated market? I am in no hurry and comfortable waiting up to 6 months with cash on hand.

Here is the stock in the portefolio:

US: MCD, GOOG, WFC, XOM, BRK, Qualcom, Deere, WMT, Air Lease, Cognizant

CA: THI, BCE, T, BEP.Un, Superior plus, Power Corp, Linamar, Surge, Sylogist, DHX Media

Thanks for the awesome service,

Richard
Read Answer Asked by Richard on July 16, 2014
Q: Hi 5i: Just a comment relating to your recent mention of Bankers Petroleum (BNK) as maybe riskier than oil producers with primarily Canadian operations. Your point makes sense from a political perspective but I've been thinking about whether having some diversification away from the North American (WTI) commodity market may help to smooth things out for people with oil production exposure. It seems like some pundits are forecasting periods of much lower WTI pricing as the NA oil glut develops over the next few years. I think Brent oil pricing has some history of maintaining higher levels while WTI has dipped. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Lance on July 16, 2014
Q: How do you figure out if a company is earning enough to pay its dividend? Is the earnings per share value after the dividend is paid out? I am not talking about a oil/gas stock but just a regular equity. STB specifically.
Read Answer Asked by Ning on July 16, 2014
Q: When one speaks of a stock being 10% of a portfolio, should one be considering just the "equity" portion of the portfolio or should one consider one's overall investment portfolio that includes bonds and cash? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Aileen on July 15, 2014
Q: Blog. On July 14 question from Cam - you mentioned posted a blog on corrections in the blog section. Where is the blog section?

Dennis
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on July 15, 2014
Q: Hello Peter and Team,

At the end of this year, I'll have to convert my RRSP to a RRIF. Since my spouse is younger than me, I understand that I can use her age to determine the withdrawal rate, which I hope is correct. Since I won't need all of this extra cash, I read that one can make an in-kind transfer to an unregistered account, while paying taxes on the amount transferred, of course (!) Our TFSA's are maxed out, so these surplus funds can't go there. Is this a good strategy? If so, how can I determine which stocks (mainly from your model portfolios (thank you, thank you, thank you!) to transfer to an unregistered account? Alternatively, if there's an article describing this strategy in the Canadian Money Saver, I'd appreciate learning the issue(s) to look at. I attempted a search on the CMS website, but couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for.

As usual, I really appreciate your truly valuable service and timely advice.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on July 15, 2014
Q: Hello Peter

You said "Our IT guys have indicated MS Office has an option when you are saving to save in the older Excel format. This is all they have offered so far. We are unsure if you have tried this yet."

This morning I downloaded the latest version of Apache Open Office 4.1.0 and your .xlsx files open perfectly.

Many thanks....... Paul K


Read Answer Asked by Paul on July 14, 2014
Q: Hi Peter. I have been hearing rumors of a severe correction or even a crash of the markets. Last year in May, a friend of mine panicked and cashed in all his stocks and funds because of the same rumors at that time. It was obviously a huge mistake, given what the market has done in the past year. I know that no one can time the market with any real accuracy. However, I am getting a little nervous. Is it a good time to have more cash in my portfolio. In other words would you recommend selling stocks that have done really well in the last year in order to have the security of cash? Thanks for your great insight. Cam
Read Answer Asked by Cam on July 14, 2014
Q: Hello to all ... in your most recent survey you asked some questions regarding paying a side bar fee to have you or Ryan comment on personnel portfolios. I am retiring in September and am relying on the 5i portfolios to generate a healthy income. RIF, LIF, TFSA and Cash accounts will comprise of my overall direction. Although my questions are basic, should I be asking my questions via Investment and Company Q's or should I send Q's off camera for you 2 to comment on? As always TY.
Read Answer Asked by Alan on July 11, 2014
Q: Good afternoon...I have $100,000 that I keep in cash and will not need to touch for 1 to 1.5 years...ideally would like make some interest/income....I would not want risk but will to take conservative risk....what options would you recommend...I have other investments full invested in the market...

Thanks

Matt
Read Answer Asked by Matthew on July 11, 2014
Q: Hi there, I was wondering if a product like "TD Inv Sav Acct TDB8150" would be considered a "deposit" in the event of a bank bail in? Is it covered under the $100,000 bank deposit insurance provision? If it would be taken in a bail in, where else can one hide cash?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by John on July 11, 2014
Q: re: diversification, O& G and trending in general

I have consistently heard you loud and clear over and over again your sound advice to focus on long term rather than short term "market predicting" for lack of a better phrase.

Having said that there are at times when certain world wide situations effect a sector - such has the lessening of conflicts in the Ukraine & the middle east resulting in oil prices coming back down to earth.

The "majority" of recent commentary on BNN has suggested we may see a slight correction over the next few months - especially in O&G - after a very strong move. As such I have taken a small portion off the table from my O&G holdings and am now sitting on some cash.

What would you suggest would be a good sector to look at today and what names might you suggest in that sector that have good value based on their EBITDA and affordability with minimal debt?

OR... would you suggest sitting on 5% cash?

Thanks for all you do for all of us

Gord
Read Answer Asked by Gord on July 10, 2014
Q: General question.Please provide your implications when comparing the closing price of stock on the day that the bought deal equity financing is completed.For example, on 7/9,POU closed @ $58.22 vs financing @ $60 plus $74.4 for flow through shares; & 2)INP @ $2.29 vs $2.30 financing price.On 6/18 EFN closed @ $12.81 vs $12.75 financing price.Thanks a lot
Read Answer Asked by Peter on July 10, 2014