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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: Hi! If you were looking at your 5i Model Portfolio for the first time, which 4 stocks would pick to take a position in today? Thank you!!!
Read Answer Asked by Bruce on January 06, 2014
Q: Cam asked, on a post yesterday, about a symbol "PSN". I can find no "PSN" listed anywhere - there are two Poseidons listed in the US but none with "PSN". Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if there was any technical indication of a big one day drop. Can you tell me where to find it?
Read Answer Asked by Fred on January 06, 2014
Q: I am 68 years old and retired. I would like to start building positions in your model portfolio. Considering which sectors you believe will do the best in 2014, would you name those sectors and suggest 2 of the stocks in your model portfolio that you would buy now in each chosen sector.

As always, thanks for your guidance.
Read Answer Asked by Les on January 06, 2014
Q: Peter and 5iResearch Team,
Can you please provide advice regarding the # of stocks to hold in a portfolio, assuming one would have a cash, RRSP and TFSA and that we are referring to the equity allocation of the portfolio. I have understood that 20-25 names would provide good diversification, yet one of your members recently confirmed he added 15 names to a $35K TFSA portfolio and you suggested he might want to add one more name? You have 20 names in your model portfolio of $135K. Can you clarify??
Read Answer Asked by Linda on January 06, 2014
Q: Are you still planning on developing two model portfolios, one with a growth focus and one with an income focus? If so, when do you think you will be posting it? Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Linda on January 06, 2014
Q: Hi Peter and Crew, I have set up a 15 stock portfolio with a 5% weighting and a $31400 investment in my TFSA. Could you please tell me if I am diversified enough and if there is anything you would change for something better.My picks are:- ACQ,AVO,BEP.UN,BAD,CVL,ESL,FSV,G,GC,GIL,STN,SYZ,SLF,WPK & BNS Thanks, I do appreciate your input.
Read Answer Asked by Ivan on January 06, 2014
Q: Happy New Year Peter,
Some of the recent questions about making new investments to match your model portfolio, have raised my interest regarding this portfolio and whether it would represent the best investments for new money. Many of the holdings have done very well last year, and you may still like them (per your ratings), but there may some that could be holds because of the recent run ups, and other stocks which you have rated, that currently would be of better value for new money. Would it make sense to add a column to your MP, indicating whether any of the positions would be more of a "hold" versus "continue to buy"? Or would it be possible to periodically get a “new money top 10” list"? As an illustration of this, your answer to Rory earlier , you suggested CGX, ACQ, VET, STN, KBL, and T for a $35K TFSA initial allocation; interestingly neither ACQ or VET are in your model portfolio; curious why you chose VET over IPL (which is in your MP) for example? Your service is awesome!! Thx!
Read Answer Asked by Vern on January 06, 2014
Q: Hello,

I have a portion of my savings sitting in savings accounts at Ing direct, would you suggest leaving it there or are there better alternatives which give better returns. Is it always better to have some cash liquidity or can I use my line of credit to replace that? Thanks very much. Shyam
Read Answer Asked by Shyam on January 06, 2014
Q: You recommend if allocating a large amount to the 5i model portfolio to do it over time, if its 4 separate purchases of all 20 stock the trading fee would be $800.00 over time at $9.99 per trade instead of $200 one time only. Do you consider this larger amount worth it for dollar cost averaging and is it really worth it over only 4 weeks. Maybe you have another rationale.
Would you suggest parking cash until March when the portfolio is reviewed or if jumping in now is acceptable?
Read Answer Asked by Peter on January 06, 2014
Q: In one of the FAQs today (asked by Cam) he mentioned "I posted this on comments, but then realized you likely don't comment on comments." What are these comments? Where are they on the site? Thank You.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on January 06, 2014
Q: Hi Peter!

If you we're putting together the Model Portfolio today what changes would you consider making to the list? I am looking to use the portfolio myself for a portion of my portfolio however several stocks have had significant gains.

Ian Johnson
Read Answer Asked by Ian on January 06, 2014
Q: Hi Peter: Could you let me know what percentage of a portfolio should be allocated to each market sector - I am using the 10 TSX sectors. Many thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Roland on January 06, 2014
Q: Is there more risk with low volume stocks? SYZ
Read Answer Asked by ralph on January 06, 2014
Q: Hi Peter. I posted this on comments, but then realized you likely don't comment on comments. I lost 15K almost over night with Poseidon. Were there signs of this coming that I missed, or was it unavoidable?
Thanks.
Cam
Read Answer Asked by Cam on January 05, 2014
Q: Gentlemen.
The I5R Summary, I like it very much.
Thank You very much
Best Regards
Read Answer Asked by Djamel on January 04, 2014
Q: Happy new year and best wishes to the entire team of 5i.

For the benefit of all the members, Virtual Brokers now offers penny commissions for all US and CDN shares. So if you buy one share your commission is going to be one penny. The minimum commission is 1 penny and the max is 9.99 (Disclosure: I am not being paid by them and only have a small account with them right now)

In the light of this, I have a question. If I want to build a portfolio by accumulating smaller quantities of good companies/ETF's like buying say 1 share of IWO or similar companies every month, would this be a good strategy. Also, what if in this approach I end up buying many more companies than the prudent 20 like say 50 or 60. Would it be too many to manage?


Read Answer Asked by Imtiaz on January 03, 2014
Q: Hello team,
I just recently subscribed to 5i and have been very impressed with your service. I am new to selecting stocks and a couple questions have arisen. I have about $35,000 in my TFSA that I would like to dedicate to growth stocks. My two questions are:
1) Given the small balance (and limited to adding only $5500 new money each year), what would you suggest to be an appropriate number of stocks to purchase? I would like to have some diversification but also think the fees of buying and re-balancing 20 stocks like in your model portfolio would be too costly.
2) Based on the number of stocks you think appropriate for my situation, do you have specific stock recommendations I should consider for purchase in 2014?
Thanks in advance,
Read Answer Asked by Rory on January 03, 2014
Q: Hi Team
I am in the process of trying to replicate you model portfolio this week. I am in the fortunate position of having about 200,000. dollars to allocate. Would you recommend simply increasing the % to 10 for each stock or diversifying more or increasing the weight in certain stocks.

Thanks
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Michael on January 03, 2014
Q: I will retire in 2014 and am looking to structure my RRSP and non registered investment account to generate monthly income. I'm looking to achieve approximately 6 percent return. Would you provide some suggestions as to dividend stocks and also a 25 to 30 percent of the portfolio in growth stocks with a moderate amount of risk

Thank you for this great service and I wish the team a very successful 2014
Read Answer Asked by Deborah on January 03, 2014