Investment Q&A

Q: hi 5i,
1) do you think the US housing "recovery" will sustain. a lot of the inventory has been bought by private equity and large funds. now they need a buyer, who will that be?
2) do you think gold has turned, or do you see more downside?
3) do you see a significant correction in the US stock markets coming soon?
thx chris

Q: For Ken. Baystreet.ca provides daily changes to analyst rating of Canadian stocks under the ratings/research tab. It's free.

Q: Hi Peter. Great service. If you could please recommend a daily service that gives analysis' upgrades and downgrades on Canadian stocks, preferably mid to large caps, before the market opens. I am willing to pay for this service. Thanks.

Ken

Q: Hi Peter and Crew,

This is mostly a comment.

I am into my second year of membership and am very pleased with the service. My total question count is under 10 as I tend to 1) ask questions that are quite important to me at the time, and I want to word them as well as I can and 2) I don't want to contribute to overwhelming the Q/A process as I find it so valuable. I also read all the other Q/A's as the answers provide a great wealth of information. I also use the rating reports and model portfolio in my decision making process. All good.

I continue to recommend your service to others.

I actually wrote this note to compliment you on "the depth and quality" of the answers provided. The questions are always answered with a generous amount of background information to provide the foundation reasoning for why the answer is the answer. Most appreciated.

Q. Peter, what is behind the electronic door when I push the "submit button". How big is the team ?

Keep up the great work.

Q: The panic over increasing rates, as you say in your newsletter, has subsided. During it, I moved some assets into American insurance companies as a counterbalance. Do you think the panic might happen again at renewed signs of tapering, and if so what other types of equities might serve as a good counterbalance, benefiting from rate increases? Contrarily, if it doesn't look like rates are rising any time soon, do you think insurance companies will fall back again? Ie, should I be careful of putting too much into them?

Q: Thanks for the response, one quick follow up question on Timmys and portfolio balancing in general.

On Timmy’s, I noticed that you have the Sector / Industrial classification as ‘Services / Leisure’ whereas I would have labeled it as ‘Consumer Goods / Food & Beverage’? I’m curious for your rationale?

On portfolio balancing in general, I have typically used a 11 sector system to gauge just how balance my portfolio is, specifically:

Utilities
Consumer Staples
Capital Goods / Industrials
Energy
Financials
Health Care
Consumer Cyclical
Transportation
Information Technology
Materials
Telecommunication Services

I noticed in your portfolio, that you use a 9 sector system, specifically:

Materials
Services
Technology
Industrial Goods
Industrials
Financial Services
Utilities
Consumer Goods
Healthcare

Is there any reason you guys run with a 9 sector system vs. the more common 11? What would you recommend for us amateur retail investors to use as we try to ensure balance within our own respective portfolio? Do you recommend we take this a step further and look at also balancing Industries, and if so, what would be the recommended industry classifications to use? Thanks!

Q: In reply to Geoff, BMO Investorline has a daily high interest savings accounts AAT770 and AAT780 (US$), that may be of interest to him.
Peter

Q: I'm a middle to long term investor (6 months - three years). What charting service do you (and / or your members) like best? It would have to be free or low cost.

John

Q: The draw downs (27M barrels)of oil from Cushing over the past three weeks do not seem possilble unless a large amount of gasoline is being shipped overseas.
Are the respective reporting Agencies playing pin-the-tail on the donkey in their estimates?
Is there any way to track the export of gasoline from the refining hubs?

Q: Hi Peter,
We are under invested in the US and are wondering when and how to get in when so many stocks and charts look so overbought.
Would it be best to wait patiently for a small pull back and then buy the S&P? Everyone seems extremely bullish on US right now. What do you think? Thank-you Jan

Q: Hi All, at what point within your followed stocks would you sell to take profits? Is there a price increase (%) that would trigger selling? Do you ever suggest a sell to subscribers at a particular point or is it strictly buy a name and hold indefinitely? As time goes on subscribers would be buying names at various different entry points and obviously have different sell points...is there a good rule to follow?

Q: Hi Peter,

I have read some questions about "Middlfield offers to exchange ARTIS shares for shares in the MINT INCOME FUND". This reminds me of an investment "mistake" I did 7 or 8 years ago, here is the story: I had shares of Westshore Terminals (WTE), their value were of about $6.50, one morning I received a call from my broker (I do not have a broker anymore) who explained to me that I could exchange my WTE for a Sentry Select fund commission free! I have accepted the offer. As of today, the value of WTE is of almost $29.00, with a yield of 4.3%. I now understand why they wanted so much my WTE shares.

Since I have started to educate myself about investment and finance through Canadian Money Saver magazine and other sources, those kind of mistakes do not happen anymore.

Thank you,

Gervais

Q: I need to learn all about the impact of taxes on my portfolio. I'm a beginner so I need a plain languge approach. I was wondering if you could recommend some material to me. Thank you. I really appreciate your service.

Q: Everyone, especially those that manage LARGE funds seem to lose their grasp/comprehension of the English language when Bernanke speaks. What is your interpretation of Bernanke's intentions relating to QE?

Q: Good morning Peter & team,
I have been considering adding more energy stocks to my dividend-oriented portfolio, namely Arc Resources and Vermilion Energy. I am a bit perplexed on the valuations of these companies. Both pay a decent dividend in the 4.35% to 4.55% range. What confuses me is that the payout ratios for each are well over 100% (though the dividends are covered by cash flow), and the P/E ratios are sky-high. Am I looking at the wrong metrics here? Is there another, more appropriate way to evaluate these companies? My initial thought is that despite the energy sector's struggles, these are very expensive stocks. Your comments would be appreciated. Thanks!

Q: hi , thanks for taking another question of mine. i am trying to remember if there was any great investments back in the early 80s when interest rates ran up so much besides the obvious of really high interest on your cash . I hope your memory is better than mine.

Q: Given the recent spike in bond yields do you think it would be wise to reduce exposure to bonds (held in mutual funds or etfs, either pure bond or as part of a balanced fund) and either increase equity exposure or simply move the fixed income allocation into cash / money market? Are we at a turning point where bonds are higher risk than equities? I think Buffett made some comments to that effect last year.

Q: Hi,

This is another suggestion for Don. If you use excel you can download Excel functions file called RCH_Stock_Market_Functions-2.0k. Once you have downloaded it, you can unzip the files and save them in a folder in your Windows program files by creating a folder called SMF Add-in. Then go to Excel options and select add ins and then browse. Here you can refer to the progam file folder and select the file RCH_Stock_Market_Functions from the folder. This pulls quotes from Yahoo and updates them each time you open the Excel File but only pulls latest price information. Toronto stocks are followed by .TO or .V

Q: Hi Team, In response to Don's question, I use MS Excel, it has a link to get real time quote on the MSN website (Data/Existing connections/MSN MoneyCentral Investor Stock Quotes), a bit complex to setup, but well worth it. I use it all the time.

Q: hello 5i:
this is in response to a question asked by "Don", regarding tracking of a portfolio. I have two suggestions: one is to use TMX Money; free, very good news updates, current market prices on all listed stocks, etc etc.. The other suggestion is Morningstar; not free, but does an amazing amount of things including rating of companies. Very good portfolio tracking. Hope that helps; individuals will have to go to each site and explore them (obviously) to see which works better. I use both, for different reasons, and am VERY happy with the products.