Investment Q&A

Q: Good Morning,

I am wondering is there a single location I can find out which Canadian Companies offer DRIP plans and what is the percentage discount offer. Also is there any other key facts I should be looking at when considering a drip plan also could you discuss the merits of a drip in or out of a tax free accounts. The TD securities rep did know where to look. Thank you again for the excellent service.
mike

Q: Hi, could you please indicate your criteria for your Park & Hold List selections? Thx, Gary

Q: I got a question regarding my LIRA. I have 26 stocks in the account and I am just curious if I have too many or now enough. Also if I am diversified enough or to heavy in a certain sector. MY one rule I have for this account is the company must pay a dividend.

The securities that I own are as follows:

ALA, AGNC, ARX, T(AT&T), BTE, ZWB, BNP, CNK, CPG
DCI, DFN, DD, FTS, FRU, HR.UN, IDX.UN, JNJ, LIQ
MRT.UN, PPL, PKO, POW, REI.UN, SBUX, SPH, WJX

I am above on almost all stocks and have held most of this since April 2011. My lowest holding is 1.15% of portfolio and my largest holding is 10.81 % of portfolio. My general rule is no one stock should be over 5% of portfolio. (SBUX and JNJ have gone up and now break this rule)

What are your thoughts on this portfolio and if you recommend selling anything what would I replace it with long term (15 plus years)

Thanks.

Q: Re: comment posted by William Dec5/13 on Corby class B shares:
Excuse my ignorance but what is meant by the term "coat tail provision"?
Thanks

Q: I have had good success following 5i's advise on stock picking, so much so that my wife has decided to let me invest her rsp savings.(oh oh)I plan on following 5i's model portfolio with a few stock exeptions. My question is I understand that December is a turbulant month because of large investor sell offs for year end results. if you were me, would you wait for January or go for it now.

Q: Hi Peter and Team: Would it be a good time to sell Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, ~75% profit) and reinvest the proceeds in Canadian growth companies. I have sufficient US exposure and the portfolio is balanced.

Q: What is your "park and hold" list?

Would you consider instituting a members' forum (monitored) so members could exchange information as a two-way street?

Thanks for your marvelous service. Especially appreciate that you cover companies not assessed by many analysts.

Q: Would you include BNS, HCG and BAD in your park and hold list? Thanks.

Q: Hi,
In a recent question/answer exchange you cautioned about short term growth for BEP.UN but considered it one of your favorites for a park and hold investment. Could you provide a list of perhaps 10 of your favorite park and hold investments? Thanks

Q: Hi team:
On Berman's call, he mentioned a BMO EFT called the tactical dividend ETF, relatively low risks in terms of dividends portfolio and is well diversified

The BMO tactical dividend ETF is fairly small in size (of assets under management); just started in Oct
I am looking for abit of diversification outside Canadian Banks
and Life co, for dividends and yield and some safety
Please let me know what you think, no hurry

Also, is it true that starting in Jan, each member is only allowed to ask so many questions a year ? I always keep my questions to one or 2 stocks per time, it would be frustrating to stack the questions, thanks!

Q: Hi Peter and 5iResearch Team,
What is your opinion of Horizon S&P/TSX60? Or, do you prefer another ETF for Cdn. large caps.
Thank you.
Linda

Q: Dear 5i team,
What are you thoughts on the Canadian dollar, short term and long term?

Q: Would you consider splitting the income and dividend category into two or more categories to distinguish between mainly slow growth income only stocks vs. higher growth dividend stocks. Thanks, Gary

Q: Good morning Peter and Team,

Is there a "rule of thumb" regarding re-balancing a portfolio? With the great performance of stocks like STN and BAD, as an example, are their weightings perhaps getting too high? OTOH, as another example, I'm reluctant at this time to add to Goldcorp,which is down substantially. Your advice, as always, is greatly valued.

Q: Potentially weird question - Do institutional investors participate in tax loss selling differently than individuals approach it? Maybe the same question could be posed for realizing profits too. I mean in the last few weeks I have observed some pretty big swings and odd volumes on stocks that have been typically stable throughout the year. Do institutional portfolio managers use now as a major time to rearrange their funds in anticipation of their big 2 month sell period to future investors (RRSP season)? Just trying to understand if there is an opportunity as an individual investor I should be looking to potentially capitalize on. - Cheers.

Q: A trading question: G/ Goldcorp as an example and in the context of your model portfolio, would you buy more, sell or hold, and why?

A suggestion: I am having a difficult time properly identifying the correct sector for many stocks in my portfolio in order to be properly diversified. Is there room on the form you use for individual stock reports to indicate the sector you would assign to each stock? Or have I missed this somewhere else?

Feedback: I recently renewed and added Moneysense as well - and would happily subscribe for an additional 2 years now. 5i has done an amazing and superb job of satisfying a large and obviously diverse market. Thank you.
Hopefully you are not being overwhelmed with suggestions for changes, and dont tinker too much - "if it aint broke don't fix it".

A grateful and very happy 5i member ! :)

Q: I found your answer to Andrew's question yesterday re selling to be most interesting. As I took quite a bath in '08 and '09, I have educated myself on technical analysis but my results in market timing have been somewhat less than satisfactory. But I am afraid of another loss like that of '08 and '09.

My question is, do you ever foresee the day when you might consider going to 100% cash in your model portfolio?

Q: Regarding your price increase notice in the Dec 2nd issue
I joined in April 5, 2013. I think I read in your notice that I do not have to do anything about renewal at the old price until April 2014.
Is that correct ???

Keep up the good work

Q: Hi Peter & 5i: Just a comment regarding Andrew’s question (12/3/13) about switching between VUS and VUN and the possibility of not triggering a capital gain. I agree with you that his contemplated switch would crystallize a taxable gain, if executed, but I think he may have had something else in mind when mentioning what he had heard about. I think in some cases mutual fund companies are able to allow investor’s holdings to be switched between their various funds “in house,” without creating a taxable transaction for the investor. That may have been the idea. As you point out though, it doesn’t work with ETFs, even if the ETFs are both products of the same investment company.

Q: Comment on the acr.un questions. The reason for them today might be BNN

JF Tardiff was on headline last night on Howard Green's show and mentioned that this was the largest position in his fund--sees both growth and safe distribution.

On another unrelated matter.
In Edit Profile section there is no way to change your email address which I can find--how do I do it?