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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: I'm looking at a company that does make large acquisitions, with their last major purchase, they didn't increase their share count of the company it bought. However, this past quarter they have increased their share count of another company by 360%, I would see that as an indicator that they want to buy it, but since they haven't done that in the past, could it mean something else.
Read Answer Asked by Sunita on April 23, 2013
Q: Hi 5i Team,

I subscribed to the service, which I really enjoy by the way, in December. I have started to work on building a "5i" portion in my RRSP and TFSA. My plan was to over the course of the year attribute around $3,000 per month to 5i stocks until I have 20 selections. Unfortunately the stocks I have chosen for the last 4 months have performed pretty badly and I am off around 7% YTD. I picked CFN, PKI, WIN and LIQ. My next investment plan is for May. With that said, should I:
1. Take my licks and sell any of the above?
2. Buy more of any of the above to average down?
3. Buy another stock? If so which would be your selection?
Read Answer Asked by Kim on April 22, 2013
Q: You recently answered a question with this comment: We believe no more than 20 stocks need to be held overall. My question is this: Is it considered OK to hold a particular stock in several accounts, e.g. RRSP, TFSA, RESP, non-registered, or should I limit the one holding to one account? If the second option is chosen, it would be tough to limit the number of stocks to 20 or 25.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on April 22, 2013
Q: Can you clarify the 5i rating system (A+, A, etc.). Does the score measure safety, value, or other.

One of the company reports included the following:

"Nothing wrong here, but we are lowing our rating one notch because of rapid share price gains since we started coverage of the company."

This would imply that the rating is value based. If this is correct, would 5i consider using a safety measurement? (Value is very subjective).
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 21, 2013
Q: Hello,
If you are considering a stock to buy and everything looks good, ratios, growth rate, etc, but the share price has had little movement in the past year, would you still buy it?
Read Answer Asked by Sunita on April 20, 2013
Q: Peter,

Just a general question. For interlisted stocks lets say ANV, if there is very high demand lets say in Canada and low demand in the US, what removes the arbitrage between the two prices. I am always perplexed as the volumes in the US are pretty high and is it US or Canada which determines the prices to be followed.
Read Answer Asked by Imtiaz on April 19, 2013
Q: Hi Peter, some stocks have weathered the current downturn well and have generally held their ground. I'm wondering if these are buy candidates because of their current strength. Perhaps they are just a safe haven for now, and could lose value when the correction is over and the money goes to the beat-up stocks. Some examples are MSI, GEI, FCR, TRI, BNP, MG etc. What do you think? Thanks Tim......
Read Answer Asked by Tim on April 17, 2013
Q: Hi team; An advisor (before I knew about 5I) called very enthusiastically telling me about the IPO
for Eagle Energy Trust. Naively, I believed him and he even agreed to my suggestion of putting it into the TSFA. I paid $11. It now ranges between $6.30 and $7.00. It is paying the very high dividend. Recently I found Peter's article about IPO's. I will never buy another IPO. Do these advisors know what they are selling, or are they assessing the investor's lack of understanding just to make money for themselves or to sell what their company (Scotia McLeod in this case) is promoting?
Thanks so much for all the answers you provide.
Jean
Read Answer Asked by jean on April 16, 2013
Q: The market got hammered yesterday. The commodities, especially gold, took a beating because of slower than expected growth rates in China. I get that. What I don't understand is why EVERYTHING goes down because of that. I mean, my Boston Pizza, or Brookfield Residential or MTY food have noting to do with any of that. But BRP was down 7.22%. MTY down 4.34%, Manulife down 3.14%. Is it all just computers selling everything, so it doesn't matter what you're in? I'm not in oil, commodities or gold at all but I still took a huge pasting.
Read Answer Asked by John on April 16, 2013
Q: Hello, I was wondering if you could clarify something for me, the "Sell in May". I'm assuming this means, to sell stock in May and take your profits, that being said it would follow that prices would go down in May. When I look at historical data, for stocks I'm interested in it seems that the prices actually go down in April, but historical data is limited in scope. I'm looking to buy, across the sectors, I've never bought during this time period, my question is should I wait?
Read Answer Asked by Sunita on April 15, 2013
Q: Hello Peter:

What do you do on a market day like today? Just watch or buy stocks that are on 'Sale"? Are there any good buys today that you may want to nibble on?
Read Answer Asked by Sirish on April 15, 2013
Q: A tax question which might not be your expertise, but anyway here goes.
A Limited Partnership, such as BEP.UN, is this treated as a separate category for capital gains and losses from "normal" equities? Example: if I sold BEP.UN in the future for a loss, could I claim that loss against my other "normal" equities capital gains? Are there any other tax issues regarding holding units in a LP such as BEP.UN? I have yet to receive any tax slips for BEP.UN, T5013 or anything, from my broker. Is this very late receipt of slips for an LP usual? Thanks for your thoughts.
Read Answer Asked by David on April 15, 2013
Q: When buying US stock, is it wise to buy in Can $ or would it be best to open a US account.
Read Answer Asked by diane joan on April 15, 2013
Q: This is a tax question that may be outside your comfort zone, but I do my own taxes and have a query. I know that if you sell a holding , with the objective of creating a tax loss, you cannot re-purchase that holding for 30 days. If you do, the first transaction is deemed not to have occurred for tax purposes. I wonder if the same is true for the reverse situation. I sold shares for a healthy profit (covered call assigned) and quickly re-purchased them after the price dropped below the strike price. Can I not report this as a capital gain, thereby delaying the tax on any eventual gain?

Thanks, Bob.
Read Answer Asked by Lynn on April 15, 2013
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.
Read Answer Asked by John on April 15, 2013
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?
Read Answer Asked by William J on April 14, 2013
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
Read Answer Asked by BEN on April 14, 2013
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?
Read Answer Asked by Hans on April 14, 2013
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?
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 14, 2013
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 .
Read Answer Asked by Richard on April 13, 2013