Investment Q&A

Q: Hi Peter,
I have approximately $14000 to reinvest in a non-registered account. I'm looking for "safer" capital gains, dividend optional, to be held for 1-3 years. What are your top recommendations?
Also, since it's almost the end of RRSP season, do you suggest I wait a month or so before I make the purchase? (I realize you don't advocate trying to time the market but....)

Q: Hello 5i
can I have your opinion on a starter self-directed RRSP portfolio consisting of equal parts each VSC, XIU, SPY, and VXUS.
Thank you
Les

Q: Peter's BNN appearance: The clip is available at bnn.ca in the Video section. Look for the 10:40am segment of Business Day. You packed so much good information into your short time with Frances. The other thing I noticed is how very bright and smart the set is there.

Q: This is just a comment and I hope you actually post it because I am offended more than once by some language I see every now and then in our Member Questions section.

May I ask the members NOT to refer to Peter and the team at 5i as "gang," for example. Language Matters! Big time! Even when you want to show your casual or friendly attitude. So please address Peter and the rest of the team by names that show your respect for who they are and what they do for you and I everyday. They are "Gentlemen" as far I am concerned.

Thank you for your consideration.

Q: Regarding the dividend history. I use longrundata.com
It provides information on the last 8 dividend payments and then a 30 year history. It's a US site so you will need to add .tsx as a suffix. A disadvantage is that it doesn't seem to work where there is a dot in the address as in TCK.A or D.UN

Q: Re: David's question on dividend history. I use www.dividendhistory.org They show all dividend payments dating back to 1995 on Canadian symbols and a few years prior to that on U.S. ones.

Q: I just saw that you had a BNN appearance today. I'm sorry I missed it! Is there somewhere I can see the video????
Please!!! (and thank you!)

Q: There seems to strong bid of late into resource-related issues

Isn't this typical of late cycle moves into equities with rotation from other stocks into resources

If so, are we likely to see a more severe correction to equoty matkets in 3-6 months?

Q: Re: David's question concerning a source for a historical listing of dividends for a particular company.

I use the stockwatch.com basic service which costs approx. $5/month as my main source for company information including news releases for the past year and stock charts. Clicking on the trading symbol pulls up the trading activity for the past few sessions as well as dividend history. For instance, I just checked the history for CNR and it lists the dividends back to December, 1996.

Q: Hi 5i,
Do you know of a good source for quickly finding and comparing dividend growth rates of different stocks, i.e. a list of the dividend payouts over several quarters or years for different companies? I want to see if dividends are rising, stagnant or falling over time. Any thoughts on dividend growth rate as an investment criteria?
thanks,
David

Q: Hi Team: I am interested in your thoughts on fee based advisors- i am talking with one who charges a fee of 1%, doesnt invest in mutuals, new issues or any structured products. There is no performance fee and no conflicts that I can see? Thanks

Q: Hello Peter! Could you let me know how or base on what site do you allocate name of sector for Canadian stocks.
I'm trying to use sectors from TSE and they do not match your descriptive names for example: TELUS, ROGERS by your description is "TELECOM" but TSE shows it as "COMMUNICATION SERVICES" ,
ENGHOUSE, AMAYA your inscription "INFO TECH" but TSE shows "CONSUMER CYCLICAL", ALTAGAS, IPL yours is "UTILITIES ,TSE "ENERGY".
I want to use the same names of description of sectors as you are using, where and how do I find them.
Thanks Andrew B.

Q: Hello,
The model portfolio is soon turning one. Will a new portfolio be introduced for people just beginning to invest?

Q: Peter,

First, I like the video!

I am hoping you a can address the role that analysts play in the movement of stock prices. On the one hand, I understand and accept that they can have a vested interest in a stock and therefore their predictions as to stock price and the interest they may show in a stock can be biased.

However, when it comes to projecting sales and earnings, their comments seem to be given a lot of weight, as in the company missed on this or that or the company exceeded expectations and the stock price almost always acts accordingly. If they have a vested interest as noted above, wouldn't they tend to underestimate these things so the stock will look good? they seem to be wrong most of the time anyway.

In a nutshell, then, why believe analysts on the one hand but not on the other hand?


Thanks,

Paul F.

Q: It seems that every time I buy a stock everybody else should short it because it drops 12-18% within the next couple of weeks. Here are 5 that have already had this drop recently: Y, AVO, AD, MMW, HNL. Would be a buyer of any of these? I appreciate this type of service that you supply.

Q: Hi 5i,

My question is regarding the model portfolio.

I am thinking to follow the model portfolio with about 200k starting next week I plan to substitute TCN for FSV (since I hold that one already) and a ~ 5% allocation in each of the 20 stocks.

What are your thoughts on this approach, would you substitute any others at this time?
Are you expecting a major rebalance of some of the names in a few weeks?
Would you change the allocation to the current allocation of the portfolio or is the 5% target reasonable.

Thanks

Q: additional comments on lifs and rifs, you have to be 65 on jan.1 before you can split income, all lifs rif and company pensions can be split, but not old age security or Canada or quebec pension. dave

Q: Am I wrong or have the number of questions asked recently been growing substantially? If so would you ascribe this increase to a greater number of small investors getting into the market or simply to more investors using your service?

Q: Dear Peter,

Don Vialoux has spoken a few times, most recently on BNN, about the behaviour of the market in mid-term election years. He suggests an interesting pattern for these years: that the market takes a dive in January and then rallies between February and April. From April until October, the market takes another dive, and then begins a huge rally from October to the end of the year. His data goes back approximately 60 years. I realize that 5I believes in long term value investing, and not technical analysis so much, but I was wanting your opinion nonetheless on Mr. Vialoux's thesis.

With all your experience in the market, have you noted such similar co-relations, and if so, how would you play the position with the higher risk stocks in your portfolio? (My view would be that it would be a good time to add to higher risk companies which are essentially solid otherwise, but are experiencing volatility, and to hold down the tent on the conservative parts of the portfolio.)

Your opinion is much appreciated. Thank you.

Q: New video feature - what a great idea. Bravo.