Q: Stocks move after earnings based on what the revenue and earnings are relative to the consensus of what the analysts thought they were going to be. How do we find out before the facts what that consensus is?
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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: Peter what happen4ed to the TSX at the close Down 268 at 4:00?
Stan
Stan
Q: I followed Danielle Park's blog " Juggling Dynamite " for the last 5 years. On April 17 she posted: " so Q 1 earnings and revenue numbers are ugly with 1/3 of S&P companies missing earnings targets and 51% have so far missed their sales forecasts."
Are you familiar with Danielle? For the past 2 years I have been 50% in cash in my investment account waiting for the big correction that she professes must come to end the cyclical bear market. I regret missing the gains of the past 2 years, but at the same time I am fearful of the pending correction < if I only knew when >. What does one do in this situation? Please comment, thank you.
Are you familiar with Danielle? For the past 2 years I have been 50% in cash in my investment account waiting for the big correction that she professes must come to end the cyclical bear market. I regret missing the gains of the past 2 years, but at the same time I am fearful of the pending correction < if I only knew when >. What does one do in this situation? Please comment, thank you.
Q: should i have stoploss's on my stocks and what percentage. thanku
Q: Hi! I have a question on how to purchase low volume stocks. They often exhibit substantial differences between the Bid and Ask price. For eg, buying 1500 shares of DSG today at the market price would have given me an immediate "loss" of $210 v. the Bid price. Is there a way of avoiding this, perhaps by entering a Limit price? I'm not sure what that price should be in relation to the Bid/Ask. Comments please!
Q: This is in response to Ronald's question re: an earnings calendar source. Both Scotia iTrade and TD Waterhouse (I'm sure others offer them as well) have a research/quotes tab within the account. Click the tab and a calendar with expected earnings releases, dividend issues, stock splits etc. will come up.
Q: I am unable in finding a website that provides earnings calendar for TSE stocks, can you help? Thank you for your response.
Q: I need some advice. I maximize a company managed RRSP program because the co matches my contributions however the manager (Mutual Life in this case) only offers expensive mutual funds. I also invest in RESP's however I've been told the RESP won't allow equities, ETF, etc so I am stuck with expensive mutual funds again. Do I just leave the company plan and take my cash tot he open market? Do I quit the RESP think and do the same? What advice do you have??
Q: Hi Peter.
Came across this great essay you recently penned that I found on the Vitess web site. Thought other members would enjoy!
http://www.vitess.com/2014/03/cash-drugs-etc-not-appropriate/
Keep up the great work and good luck with your training this summer!
Cheers,
Scott
Came across this great essay you recently penned that I found on the Vitess web site. Thought other members would enjoy!
http://www.vitess.com/2014/03/cash-drugs-etc-not-appropriate/
Keep up the great work and good luck with your training this summer!
Cheers,
Scott
Q: Regarding portfolio weightings: The Globe and Mail portfolio will tell you what % of your portfolio any given stock is. Entering all stocks with your buys and sells into one portfolio will give you the %s across all accounts, but sector weighting is not available. Still, not bad for a free service.
Q: Peter
I sent question earlier with a URL to access a "Free" look pdf of quantitative Analysis on how Investor behavior timing the market & selecting advisors whose primary aim is not their client, gives poor results.
The URL got hashed up pretty bad.
To find this PDF put "QAIB.COM/public" into google. The second item you get has a tag headline Freelook pdf. If you click on it
you will immediately get a popup banner at the bottom of your screen asking if you want to open or save. Either way you can save it.
Sorry for the miscue, but it is worth a read. They analyzed a ton of data on mutual fund in & outflows to assess how investors & their advisors performed.
Regards
Ernie
I sent question earlier with a URL to access a "Free" look pdf of quantitative Analysis on how Investor behavior timing the market & selecting advisors whose primary aim is not their client, gives poor results.
The URL got hashed up pretty bad.
To find this PDF put "QAIB.COM/public" into google. The second item you get has a tag headline Freelook pdf. If you click on it
you will immediately get a popup banner at the bottom of your screen asking if you want to open or save. Either way you can save it.
Sorry for the miscue, but it is worth a read. They analyzed a ton of data on mutual fund in & outflows to assess how investors & their advisors performed.
Regards
Ernie
Q: Regardng Mike's question concening monitoring holdings, RBC Direct Investing has a tab which will give you the dollar amont and the percentage of portfolio for stocks held in all accounts. I find this quite useful. It doesn't, however, have the stocks categoized in sectors. But, for no cost it is a pretty useful tool.
Q: Re: Mike's question regarding portfolio consolidation – Publish if you think it will be both useful and comprehensible !
I have found a couple of things helpful to monitor our 8 portfolios (TFSA's, Rif's, RSP's, Unregistered accts).
1. We use TD's Webroker and in addition to the formal individual account information it reports and updates daily, it provides a Portfolio Management feature that allows you to manually set up your own portfolios. Other brokerages may provide the same. This is useful, not only because you can set up a consolidated detailed portfolio (not provided by TD in their formal reporting) but also because you then have access to additional reporting analysis that is not available on the formal individual account detail provided by TD. Once these portfolios are set up, providing you are not a frequent trader, they are easy to maintain – just have to enter in buys and sells as they occur. I have set up one portfolio that is a consolidation of several individual ones, to see the overall picture of all accounts. I also set up individual portfolios which mimic the individual formal TD accounts in order to take advantage of the additional analysis info available through the reporting features.
2. Unhappily, however, the reporting does not (in my opinion) provide a good analysis feature for sector weightings . After (finally !) paying attention to Peter's repeated insistence that sector weightings were critical to successful investing, (Thank you, Peter !), I searched for software to provide this but with no luck. So, I had to bite the bullet and set up a custom spreadsheet to give me this information . I download each account direct from TD Webroker (they provide this capability – I assume other brokerages do, too) . I then determine which sector the stock belongs to (I use a total of 11 sectors and give each sector a number). I have a column in the spreadsheet where I put my assigned numerical value for each stock as well as a column that shows the name of the sector. Using the sector identifier, I have programmed the spreadsheet to then calculate for each account what the total weightings are for each sector. Weightings could also be calculated for the total of all accounts but I don't bother since as long as each account is weighted appropriately (I do some variations, depending on what goals I have for that account), then that's enough for me. This was something of a pain in the neck as it has been a good number of years since I have worked with spreadsheet software, however, now that it is done, it only takes about 15-20 minutes to download and to adjust, if new stock buys/sells have to be sector categorized. I do it on a weekly basis to keep up-to-date . It has made a BIG difference in my ability to keep on top of things in a time efficient manner.
I have found a couple of things helpful to monitor our 8 portfolios (TFSA's, Rif's, RSP's, Unregistered accts).
1. We use TD's Webroker and in addition to the formal individual account information it reports and updates daily, it provides a Portfolio Management feature that allows you to manually set up your own portfolios. Other brokerages may provide the same. This is useful, not only because you can set up a consolidated detailed portfolio (not provided by TD in their formal reporting) but also because you then have access to additional reporting analysis that is not available on the formal individual account detail provided by TD. Once these portfolios are set up, providing you are not a frequent trader, they are easy to maintain – just have to enter in buys and sells as they occur. I have set up one portfolio that is a consolidation of several individual ones, to see the overall picture of all accounts. I also set up individual portfolios which mimic the individual formal TD accounts in order to take advantage of the additional analysis info available through the reporting features.
2. Unhappily, however, the reporting does not (in my opinion) provide a good analysis feature for sector weightings . After (finally !) paying attention to Peter's repeated insistence that sector weightings were critical to successful investing, (Thank you, Peter !), I searched for software to provide this but with no luck. So, I had to bite the bullet and set up a custom spreadsheet to give me this information . I download each account direct from TD Webroker (they provide this capability – I assume other brokerages do, too) . I then determine which sector the stock belongs to (I use a total of 11 sectors and give each sector a number). I have a column in the spreadsheet where I put my assigned numerical value for each stock as well as a column that shows the name of the sector. Using the sector identifier, I have programmed the spreadsheet to then calculate for each account what the total weightings are for each sector. Weightings could also be calculated for the total of all accounts but I don't bother since as long as each account is weighted appropriately (I do some variations, depending on what goals I have for that account), then that's enough for me. This was something of a pain in the neck as it has been a good number of years since I have worked with spreadsheet software, however, now that it is done, it only takes about 15-20 minutes to download and to adjust, if new stock buys/sells have to be sector categorized. I do it on a weekly basis to keep up-to-date . It has made a BIG difference in my ability to keep on top of things in a time efficient manner.
Q: Hi Peter & Ryan
You may have seen a quantitative analysis of Investor Behaviour's contribution to results, along withAdvisor contributions. A sample pdf here:
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qaib.com%2Fpublic%2Fdownloadfile.aspx%3FfilePath%3Dfreelook%26fileName%3Dadvisoreditionfreelook.pdf&ei=mSJNU6SKEKep2gXCoIHwAg&usg=AFQjCNFwWBetw8xOGdROK8RQS4BwUts0Hg&sig2=-lpwYJX6Bs3EFHAV-aUgvA&bvm=bv.64764171,d.b2I
It is a long read but makes many good points which appear often in your Qs&As with quant backup. It has a soothing tone.
Post to view at your discretion
Regards
Ernie
You may have seen a quantitative analysis of Investor Behaviour's contribution to results, along withAdvisor contributions. A sample pdf here:
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qaib.com%2Fpublic%2Fdownloadfile.aspx%3FfilePath%3Dfreelook%26fileName%3Dadvisoreditionfreelook.pdf&ei=mSJNU6SKEKep2gXCoIHwAg&usg=AFQjCNFwWBetw8xOGdROK8RQS4BwUts0Hg&sig2=-lpwYJX6Bs3EFHAV-aUgvA&bvm=bv.64764171,d.b2I
It is a long read but makes many good points which appear often in your Qs&As with quant backup. It has a soothing tone.
Post to view at your discretion
Regards
Ernie
Q: Hi Peter and team - can you please comment on using stop-losses to lock in dividends on etf's such as CDZ, XEI or even stocks such RY (RBC). My thoughts are that I would be happy to continue collecting the ~4% dividend on $100k invested and lock-in breaking even if the stop-loss was ever triggered. Pro's, cons and risks of this strategy? thanks for a great service... Al.
Q: A response to Mike's April 15 2014 question about monitoring several portfolios. I suggest that he look at Quicken Home and Business – the Canadian edition. The Canadian edition will only operate on the Windows platform.
Once accounts are set up, Quicken easily updates prices and provide several ways to evaluate portfolios.You can view any number of portfolios in any combination or altogether. By adapting Quickens “Investing Goal” feature you can also review portfolios by sector weightings.
Quicken can be quirky and if you are not going to enter transactions regularly it's probably not worth the cost or effort to learn it. I would give Quicken a B+ with a C+ for customer service. Other than using Quicken I have no relationship with the company.
Once accounts are set up, Quicken easily updates prices and provide several ways to evaluate portfolios.You can view any number of portfolios in any combination or altogether. By adapting Quickens “Investing Goal” feature you can also review portfolios by sector weightings.
Quicken can be quirky and if you are not going to enter transactions regularly it's probably not worth the cost or effort to learn it. I would give Quicken a B+ with a C+ for customer service. Other than using Quicken I have no relationship with the company.
Q: A follow up to Paul's. I find it difficult to monitor overall weightings is there a software to automatically update and consolidate multiple portfolios. I am trying to load my families 7 portfolios with some common shares.
mike
mike
Q: Regarding your report card in new reports. If this is still under development, could you please use different colours for us old folks, perhaps black on white or white on black
Q: Questrade
Dear Gentlemen,
Not a question, only information, to follow Mr Jeff
"A reason to NOT use ....Questrade"
As Jeff, I have almost same problem with Questrade, tax slips (T5,T3) are all mixed, some revised or modified (?) 2 times, some 3 times, I was lost with all these changes, even the Kind Questrade agent who try to help was mixed up too. we spend 46 minutes on phone together to try to setup Questrade mix up.
I am still waiting for another to be corrected T5
Also the tax receipt for MY Resp contribution to wife account was on her name !
Except agent Mr MB, the customer service is terrible.
After the tax season I will transfer all accounts to another broker.
Best Regards
Dear Gentlemen,
Not a question, only information, to follow Mr Jeff
"A reason to NOT use ....Questrade"
As Jeff, I have almost same problem with Questrade, tax slips (T5,T3) are all mixed, some revised or modified (?) 2 times, some 3 times, I was lost with all these changes, even the Kind Questrade agent who try to help was mixed up too. we spend 46 minutes on phone together to try to setup Questrade mix up.
I am still waiting for another to be corrected T5
Also the tax receipt for MY Resp contribution to wife account was on her name !
Except agent Mr MB, the customer service is terrible.
After the tax season I will transfer all accounts to another broker.
Best Regards
Q: A reason to NOT use Virtual Brokers: When I complained that they had posted 18 T5 slips for my account as opposed to the one T5 in prior years, I got this response-
"Virtual Brokers has changed its carrying broker and, as a result, has become responsible for all administrative tasks including the issuance of tax statements. For this reason you may have noticed a difference in the presentation of tax statements this year as compared to prior periods.
We have posted a T5 for each individual holding which produced income throughout the 2013 tax year per the regulations imposed by CRA."
And to finally imply that it's all CRA's fault and out of their hands! TD and Scotia had no trouble summarizing all dividends into one T5 for me. So easy to blame CRA these days!
Publish only if you feel this is instructive. J.
"Virtual Brokers has changed its carrying broker and, as a result, has become responsible for all administrative tasks including the issuance of tax statements. For this reason you may have noticed a difference in the presentation of tax statements this year as compared to prior periods.
We have posted a T5 for each individual holding which produced income throughout the 2013 tax year per the regulations imposed by CRA."
And to finally imply that it's all CRA's fault and out of their hands! TD and Scotia had no trouble summarizing all dividends into one T5 for me. So easy to blame CRA these days!
Publish only if you feel this is instructive. J.