Investment Q&A

Q: I've held a DRIP (in BNS) for about twenty years. It used to be run by the company itself but now is run by Computershare. I liked it in the days when discount brokers could do dividend reinvestments, but that advantage is gone (except for the fractional shares). Also it used to offer a 10% discount on reinvested dividends but no longer does. I am wondering if it is worth keeping the shares in this account, with the main benefits gone and the drawbacks of only being able to buy/sell at month's end still in place, or if I should have them transfered to my unregistered discount brokerage (assuming I can do an in-kind transfer). What do you think?

Q: Not a question. Just came across this article which really puts things into perspective. https://www.etf.com/sections/index-investor-corner/market-headlines-can-be-hazardous-your-wealth?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklynewsletter

Q: I would like more USD for travelling to the US. I hold all of the above stocks at Questrade, in both registered and unregistered accts. I asked Questrade to please pay the dividend directly in USD (as paid by the companies), but they said "We would have to journal your positions over to the USD equivalent in order to receive the dividends in USD." Should I journal over the CAN shares to the US equivalent; eg AQN.TO to AQN.US? It would involve a very large amount of money, could I expect a better USD exchange rate with greater volume or would they simply use the day's spot rate?

Q: Good morning 5i
In a response concerning selling call options awhile ago you said that you try to avoid stocks with dividends. I can understand how it adds another layer of difficulty, i am wondering if one checks that the ex-dividend date doesn’t fall sometime before the expirary date of the option, that you would likely be ok. For instance, i have call options on jpmorgan expiring on Feb 18. But i checked that the ex- dividend date doesn’t fall beforehand. It is Ex-Div Date
2022-01-05. Should most of the danger be avoided in such a scenario?

Q: I have to start withdrawal from my RRIF this year. Besides TFSA, I would need some strategies to minimize taxes and OAS clawback. I didn’t find anything in the Forums, and no way to search in the Blog (sorry..). Do you know of any book or good web site for canadians? I’m looking for Tax-efficient ETFs (Horizons, others?..), mutual Funds (Are the Class Series still available?). Anything I could use in a non-registered account. I will aim at capital gains, dividends and interest revenues in that order for individual stocks. PS: I’m a subscriber of « Money Saver » (Possible source of info).
Thanks as usual

Q: Is there software that a retail investor can use to manage his retirement plan. I use an excel spreadsheet to track bonds, GICs, Dividends, et cetera, but the spreadsheet is not too handy.

Q: Did I miss an announcement? Are you still going to be compiling the Summary Report?

Q: What resource(s) would you recommend for beginners to learn about stock options, from the ground up? Is there a way to practice strategies and analyze results without using real money?

Q: With the recent down turn in Google I would like to buy now and hopefully benefit from a price increase when the stocks splits 20 for 1 in July. I have 3,000 US, so I can buy one Google share OR 120 Google CDRs. What would i5R recommend, buy 1 US share OR 120 Google CDRs with CDN funds. Thanks … Cal

Q: In reply to Gordon who asked about a good stock screener that includes US stocks, I use StockRover and pay for the Premium Plus (mid-tier) package for 27.99 USD per month. Different subscription packages are able to access different metrics to screen with and I believe they offer a free trial so you can check it out.

A sample screener I created selects for companies that have grown sales and EPS at 10%+ for 1, 5 and 10 years, have a 1, 2 and 3 year return of 10, 20 and 100% respectively and an ROE of 10+. A total of 44 companies were returned from a NA universe of 15430. Included in the returns of this screener were GoEasy, Apple, NVIDIA - names that should be familiar to us all...I think its pretty powerful and have been very happy with my subscription.

Q: Hi. I have several stocks in my RIFF and TFSA which pay dividends in American dollars although I have purchased them in Canadian dollars. (eg, BAM.A; Open Text etc.) The dividend payout is then converted to Canadian dollars. I like to use the DRIP feature when possible. In order to do so with funds that pay out in USD, I would have to move the securities to my USD. Is this a good idea or are there disadvantages to do so? The securities are long term holds in my portfolio. Thanks for your help.

Q: Further to the comments about the annoying super long questions: 5i, please consider using the Twitter format and limit the number of characters we can use in our questions. This will force us members to keep it sweet and short. 280 is plenty. Thanks

Q: Peter,

The G & M normally lists the individual stocks that make up the various indexes of the TSX. They have changed the format of the paper and on Saturday's edition they have removed this information. Where could I find it?

I am looking for the actual stocks in the index, not the makeup of any ETF.

Thank you

Paul

Q: This is not a question but rather a positive comment and thank you on your earlier reference to Koyfin. This tool is so full of information in its free version alone that without guidance it could actually be too much. I just spent an hour going though the various levels within free membership tables and graphs.

Again thank you for the reference.

Q: I would very much value your opinion /comments about Larry Swedroe's October 11, 2013 article in ETF.com entitled "The 'Black Hole Of Investing'" ( https://www.etf.com/sections/index-investor-corner/20092-the-black-hole-of-investing.html ) about why small cap growth stocks are the worst-performing segment of the investment market. And why you recommend them in your Growth portfolio (IWO) instead of small cap value, for example - Thank you.

Q: Really enjoy when you run the stocks screens, especially when you explain the process, and why you pick certain Filters.
I have a subscription to Morningstar, but certain criteria is not available, like forward FCF estimates. I imagine you are using your Bloomberg Terminal to run your screens. Bloomberg is to expensive for me. However i would be willing to spend between 1or 2 thousand a year for a good stock screen that includes U.S. stocks.
What subscription stock screen would you recommend that is user friendly.
Thanks Gord

Q: If you were going to write out of the money puts as an income strategy, what sort of stocks would you look for? Dividend stocks? Low beta?

Any thoughts would be welcome.

Thanks!

Q: just a comment, but the question of where do you think tourmaline will be in the next week- really and you answered it-the patience of job.
.
my point is some of the questions are so off the wall, maybe you should put a stop to it, if anything to keep 5i on a bit of a higher level.

Q: how will the goog stock split affect the google shares on the neo exchange.
thx
judy

Q: Will I avail of the 20 for 1 Split via the CIBC/NEO CDRS? Thanks! Austin