Investment Q&A

Q: One of the toughest lesson I have had to learn in investing is that a good company does not necessarily mean a good stock investment. You appear to grade the company and not the stock price. Would it be possible to grade the stock price as well as the company? The stock grade would change much more frequently than your company grade.

Your comments please.

Q: Sell in May and go away? It seems to me that it makes more sense to buy bargains between May and September, rather than sell dividend payers and forego the dividends and incur capital gains on your winners. Could I have your opinion?

Q: Hi Peter & Staff;
I will try to keep a very complicated question short. The government printing presses are running steady, and the gold
believers are intact. Many guests on BNN,however, claim that the
QE is in no way contributing to inflation because the money is not being lent to consumers. They maintain that the velocity of money is important and now it is very low.

COMMENTS

Thanks,
BEN

Q: The US market has outperformed the TMX in 2011, 2012 and so far in 2013. For the last couple of months, the analysts appearing on BNN have been recommending shifting from Canadian to US investments. I think there are a lot of opportunities in Canada, even if resource stocks continue to falter. Do you think that Canadian investors should look south of the border for a larger portiion of their investments?

Q: Hi I own UUU and knowing it will be bought out at $2.86, it'll be a loss for me when I first bought it a few years ago. Can I claim this as a tax loss once I get the money back even if I don't sell it?

Q: I would like to know how i can get the names of stocks In Canada and the USA that commence paying a dividend for the first time . Thanks. Rick

Would it be possible to colour code these stocks in your listings .

Q: Do you subsribe to the sell in May and go away camp? I have gains in CSU and Stn and wonder if I should take profits?

Q: Hi Peter/team what is your opinion about BIDCOIN.

Q: What are 5i views on restricted voting shares and multiple common share classes .
Some companies use these types of shares to protect the company from predators while others use them to entrench management..
It seems that the US will not allow these types of shares but it doesn't appear to be an issue in Canada except for the latest example: Telus (T-T).

Q: Regarding Richards question on a site that tracks the WCS differential, I think the link/s below do, but perhaps you could clarify for me before posting them.

http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/energy/crude-oil/western-canadian-select-wcs-crude-oil-futures.html

http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=western-canadian-select-crude-oil

Also, the Baytex site has a listing of links of historical and current quarter.

http://www.baytex.ab.ca/operations/marketing/benchmark-heavy-oil-prices.cfm

And while I'm at it,here's a site that's good for commodity futures prices.
http://www.investing.com/commodities/real-time-futures

Q: Which (if any) stocks in your model portfolio would you recommend as a buy right now?

Q: Regarding a stop loss, what % do you recommend?

Q: A comment on David's averaging up on Amaya of April 12: His portfolio of 3 stocks 1 year later is minus 6% because he didn't have a stop on the one that went from 10 to 3. I might still hold the one that went from 10 to 8 but surely one should have an exit strategy to avoid the big portfolio draining losses.

Q: Hi,
Your latest model portfolio has been set up in March. Since then I've noticed that a lot of your selections stock prices have increased. Do you still resommend them or should I wait for a pull back?

Q: just a comment;interesting your comment on amaya i only average up and only buy more of a stock when it has hit 52 week highs.you buy 3 stocks jan.1 at 10.00 each equal amounts, 1 year later one is 17, one is 8 and one is 3, which do you buy more of, 99 per cent of people answer the one that is 3, but correct answer is one that is 17. dave

Q: Good Evening 5I Team,

Could provide some advice on the key indicators to consider when evaluating a stock. Any other advice on stock selection would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.
Terry

Q: Peter; When you see higher than normal volume, and no real price movement on a stock, such as TBE today, is this an indicator to you someone is " bailing" or someone is acquiring a large position.? Is it a buy or sell indicator to a professional? Thanks. Rod

Q: Hi Peter, I'm a new member and very happy that I joined. My question is do you support buying covered calls or naked calls and would you currently buy July in the money calls for CPG, TCK or BB? thanks

Q: Hi Peter & 5i: Good answer to Lionel's question on ROE. It has been a somewhat baffling measure to me. Can you also comment on what exactly is included in "shareholders' equity"? The quoted definition might almost be taken to suggest that it has to do with what shareholders paid for their stock. But it doesn't have anything to do with the current price of shares on the public markets. So for example, Carfinco (CFN) has announced years with an ROE of about 50%, but the E in that calculation would amount to a very small fraction of its recent market cap. Is the amount of E relative the the various value measures (BV, NAV, Mkt Cap) of a company apt to be significantly different in different kinds of businesses or from sector to sector? Thanks.

Q: New member. Very informative site. Enjoying my membership a lot. I would like to add a (non-technology) growth stock to my portfolio. Can you give me two or three names to choose from? (I understand--all too well--that growth always comes with risk.) Thank you