Investment Q&A

Q: Hi guys. There is alot of news regarding emerging market economies raising their interest rates in order to boost their plunging currency. is there any possibility of Canada doing the same any time soon?

Thanks.

Q: Picking-up on a previous comment from a subscriber
about "RBCdirectinvesting" honouring DRIP discounts within their accounts, I called them to confirm this and they DO in fact provide this service, but only for selected equity's based on the holdings of their Client's and subject to review periodicaly.
My question to 5iResearch is:
Is there a web-site that lists companies that provide a discount (in a DRIP) to share purchases?
To my knowledge RBC is the only Discount Brokerage that honours this (albiet on a selected basis). Any comments from 5i Subscriber's is welcome.

Thanks in advance!

Q: I have followed Ross Healy for many years and have a lot of respect for him despite getting into some of his loosing recommendations that cost me dearly. I have come to conclude that he is a master at identifying overvalued companies, but on the opposite end many of his picks turn out to be value traps. Mr. Healy constantly harps on the “price to book” ratio of a company and I have heard him state that every other metric is just fluff. My question relates to how you believe “price to book” factors as a metric for evaluating stock picks. How (if at all) does the price to book ratio factor into 5i’s recommendations, and how important do you feel this metric is when evaluating a company’s stock price?

Q: A suggestion to other members. I use canadianinsider.com to see if management has faith in their own company. After the AD and EIF problems, I looked at HNL & insiders have been selling since November.

I give these managements an "F" and either sell or avoid buying them.

Q: What would you recommend as the best Canadian stocks and ETFs to hold to help offset a continued deterioration of the Canadian dollar?

Thanks

Q: Peter and Team,

Just a general question --- what are your thoughts on this "emerging markets crisis".

Q: ERF Enerplus has done really well in the past year. I still expect quite a bit more due to their significant growth in production in the US. Question is the Ex-dividend date is Feb 3, the record date is Feb 5. What is the purpose of the ex-dividend date being different than the record date. Is it the record date that counts as to whom gets the dividend.
Al

Q: Peter - It looks like this downturn in the markets may go on for sometime. I never knew that the chinese shadow banking system was worth $7 trillion dollars and now analysts are actively saying that it is only a matter of time before one of these banks goes under. That should be a real treat to the market. With Argentina etc. things look like it could be very nasty for awhile. I know you would say that we should hold tight but there must be a hedging system that we can use either with US or Canadian money to protect ourselves. What do you recommend as a strategy to protect ourselves.

Q: In response to Larry's fx question, I call CIBC when I buy and sell u.s. Stocks on the same day and request the same exchange rate (ask for fx netting). Never had a problem they will easily oblige and save you the enormous bid ask spread they charge on fx. Hope this helps.

Q: I feel this is a dumb unintelligent question but have wanted to ask it several times in my life to someone who might be able to explain - On days like the past few where markets drop for no apparent reason, across the board, where does the money that is pulled typically get parked or allocated? I mean I look at my otherwise balanced portfolio and see maybe a 3-4% down in almost everything. Is it the big institutional investors that that get "sell" signals and then start the downward trend and then rebuy, placing money in cash short term? I mean I wish I had done that last Friday, but just curious. - Cheers.

Q: I am trying to decipher rules at various brokerages re: forex charges. I have a $C RSP at CIBC and recently made two $US trades on the same day. I was charged for the full value of the trades both buying and selling rather than on the net amount. Is that the normal practice? Seems like somewhat of a ripoff.
Thanks for your reply.
Larry

Q: This morning in a response to Paul, you recommended corporate bond ETFs for the bond portion of a portfolio. It seems to me corporate bonds are very closely correlated to equities so I'm wondering about the rationale. True that the bonds are less volatile but when equities tumble, so do the corporates.

Q: A comment for people setting up a new account:
If you have a small amount of money, Qtrade and Scotia Itrade each have 60 commission free ETFs. Qtrade 's include more US and more Vanguard funds than Itrade.

John

Q: This isn't a question but to point out to members who invest in mutual funds that they can buy some class F mutual funds or get rebated most of the trailer fees from Questrade. I cannot understand why discount brokers collect trailer fees when they are providing no advice? Questrade also charges commission on ETFs only when you sell them but not when you buy them, this allows investors to buy ETFs on smaller increments as they built their portfolio of ETFs.

Q: Hi,

I recently heard about some investment products which offer two times the upside potential but only one times the downside. One such product I heard has BAC as the underlying security. Do you know of any such product, where can we invest in such a product and are they a good product? Thanks

Q: Of the stocks covered, which ones would stand to benefit the most from a weak CDN $?
Thank you

Q: hey Peter,

I am throwing 31K into my TFSA. Should i buy a etf/mfund mix until it grows bigger and I can diversify it better?

Q: My reading of articles regarding the market activity over the last couple of days suggests a quantum shift in expectations: currency concerns, earnings lower than expected, potential deflation, more anxiety over China, etc. etc.
Can you tie the story lines together and share your views on what has really happened, why and where we are likely to go from here - flat, down or maybe another upward bounce. And how to manage one's portfolio in the days or weeks ahead

As usual, a grateful 5i customer.

Q: We started a family RESP for our grandkids in 2007 with 3 TD e-funds on an equal PAC basis (MER's are 0.33% to 0.51%). The account now shows Canadian Index Fund (TDB900) value at 30%, Dow Jones Index (TDB903) at 38%, and International Index (TDB911) at 32%; I sometimes think about rebalancing but think perhaps doing nothing is the best approach as the laggards may catch up in time. Would 5i have any different thoughts about the way these funds are invested? Funds won't be withdrawn till 2021 at the earliest. Thanks, J.

Q: I am considering investing $30K split evenly across the 20 model portfolio stocks. I have some questions regarding the portfolio. 1) Do you re-balance the portfolio to get it back to the 5% weighting and if so is there a particular date that you do so? 2) How often do the stocks held in the portfolio change? 3) Do you do a revision of the stock list on March 1st of each year? 4) Do you remove stocks from the portfolio when they become to expensive (dividend yield to low, P/E to high or some other criteria 5) Should I wait until March 1st/2nd to invest in the stocks listed in the model portfolio? 6) Are there any other considerations I should make in investing in the model portfolio? I have about $475K of other RRSP investments (diversified).