Investment Q&A

Q: This question may have been asked a number of years ago. If I hold my entire stock portfolio through a brokerage - one of the big banks for instance - what risk is there to my holdings should the brokerage go bust ? Are the holdings still intact? Is there a dollar amount limit ?
I have a hard time interpreting this from the OSC site.

Q: Hi Peter, I'm 65 and retired, not by choice and have stocks in a Margin account, an RRSP account and a TFSA account. Originally I opened the Margin account as I was told I needed that type of account to short stocks but chickened out and never did. I've held on to this account but am wondering if it's good to hold on to it or if it's better to move the funds into either one of the other accounts. If it's a good Idea where would it be better to move the shares to the TFSA or RRSP. Thanks as always. Nick

Q: Today you answered a question about whether Apple or Microsoft would be the best choice for future growth. You answered by looking at the forward P/E and average growth prospects. I imagine you got those figures from your Bloomberg terminal. But I was wondering what the average investor could use for this information. I imagine there are numerous projections as well, so how to choose a reliable one?

Q: Is there a rule of thumb that you would suggest domestic investors should consider using for a targeted portfolio size before thinking about wandering into developed international and international equities, either ETFs or single coys?

Q: Regarding a recent question on comparing equities, I have found a resource that I don't see mentioned often called portfolio123.com. You can create watchlists by category - 'my RRSP' or 'utilities' for example, you add in the tickers and it generates summaries of various metrics (technicals, fundamentals, price target, analyst trends and then detailed screens on each company) so you can monitor and compare holdings. To help me manage myself, I create an active watchlist, add notes of my target price and then wait patiently. Base access is free.

Q: Responding to another question that you opened up for comment. Not sure how i'm supposed to respond but anyway my recommendation for the user is Simply Wall Street. It will show all the relevant metrics and then show you comparable companies in the same sector. If you want to view two side by side just open a second window.

Q: I’m struggling a bit with the balance of income (dividends) and growth in a portfolio. I just looked up the 5 and 10 year CAGR for my core, large cap dividend paying holdings and discovered almost all were less than 10% (and many much lower, BNS, NTR?). I know it all comes down goals/objectives, but trying to assess the risk of mid cap growthier stocks and then attempting to factor in the tax implications of capital gains versus dividends is making my head hurt. It looks to me that as a financial holding TMX (X-T) would have been a better investment than, say, Scotiabank (BNS-T) over the last 10 years, at what would seem not much added risk. If you could put on a income investor hat, is there some level of longer term CAGR that you would balk at, and say “there has to be an acceptable risk equity out there with a better return”?.

Q: Hi 5i,
A question born out of wanting to save both time and paper (or perhaps just out of laziness...):
Do you know of any site where the relevant metrics of companies can be displayed side by side, for convenient comparison purposes. For example, right now I'm interested in comparing ENB and TRP to decide whether to offload some or all of the former in favour of the latter. I can look up each on 5i and print the page(s) for each containing the metrics, but I'd much prefer to bring them - and maybe one or two others like KEY and PPL for example - up all together and review on screen all at once in vertical side by side displays, but I don't know of any site that will let me do that. I wonder if you, or any members who read this, might?
Thanks!
Peter

Q: What would you consider to be a minimum net profit margin I should be targeting for companies? I was interested in Magna on this pullback but noticed their NPM is in the mid/low single digits which seems skinny for a manufacturer. Thanks

Q: What is the best source of information on the percentage of a stock that is being shorted? This figure is often cited in analysis, but I've never seen where it can be found.

Q: Hi all , my question is when should you add more shares to your portfolio holdings if you plan to hold the stocks you have for a few years. Is there a good time during the year when to add , is it after good company results or when a company goes up or down a certain % , or just keep a % weighing and never add to it .
Thanks,

Q: I am trying to understand the tax ramifications of return of capital. In a simple case where a fund had increased in market value by 10% and has a yeild of 10% all of which is return of capital, there would be no taxes payable. However, if I sold the fund, there would be a total of 10% payable as capital gains. As a result I have always assumed that return of capital is the best yield as long as the market price of the fund has not gone down. Am I looking at this too simplistically?

Q: Hello,

I just received a letter stating that PXG and many other Invesco ETF's are being delisted as at April 17, 2023.

Is it more prudent to sell prior to this date or let the delisting date be the selling date? Any advantages or disadvantages?

Thanks for your help.

Q: Good Morning,

Could you please explain how a margin account works for the newer or inexperienced members. A general explanation on costs, taxes, overall thoughts, etc would be appreciated. Thanks again.

Q: Would you please remind us of the criteria going into RATING.
Clearly there's more to it than adding up the GRADES.
GSY & TSU RATINGS compared to SLF are mil;es apart using GRADES only.

Q: Hi 5i Team,
Can you please recommend a web site or an app (free or on a paid subscription basis) for managing stocks.
Cheers,
H

Q: Hi,
This morning Hector had asked you about www.stockcharts.com This is not a question but comments.

1. On Cyber Monday, Stockcharts typically do a "Sale" . One can get up to 3 months extra if one subscribes for 12 months. So, you pay for 12 months but use it for 15 months.
2. The MID level subscription seems to offer a lot more than the Basic version. The Pro level, well, it is for the PROS!!
3. Their educational tools , some of which are freely available on You Tube, are very useful. One may want to look at these clips before they decide if it is for them or not.
Search with StockchartsTV
4. Tradingview, Finviz and even koyfin(the less expensive versions) are probably competitors.

Hope this helps.
Mano

Q: I was planning to join www.Stockcharts.com since they seems to be best in the market or do you have another recommendation.

Do you have any special discount from them for 5imembers.

Thanks for your great service

Q: I watched the utube of Chris an analyst at 5i Research on Shopify. I wasn't aware of him. As a member of 5i Research, I am happy to have his knowledge available. Recently someone was looking for moving averages and Stockscores was mentioned. It doesn't seem to provide the 50 or 200 day moving averages for various stocks - we only saw the example (Facebook) which did not have that option. In the past I have seen the 50 and 200 day moving averages whether it was on Globe Investor or iTrade or Bloomberg or charts on your system. Would you be able to advise easy access to it? Thanks so much.

Q: Hi Team,

Looking for your valued opinion regarding the Empire Life Class plus 3.0 insurance/annuity product. This would be for a retiree, 64 years old.
Any concerns with this strategy or things to look out for.
Thank you