Investment Q&A

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

Q: Hi Guys
I'm interested in buying some ETF. Is there a place where I can compare the different ETF's. I'm looking at buying in different areas Canadian US International etc. Are there any you suggest I should look at. Primarily interested in dividend paying ones but some growth as well

thank you
Steve

Q: Hi,

When reading questions or watching the news, I hear a lot of financial ratios being referenced to. I hear P/S, P/E, etc.. of a stock being high or low, but what is that in comparison to? Is it relative to the historical sector average or vs current peers? There are just so many metrics that it is kind of overwhelming for the average investor. I understand that if you're a professional financial analyst focusing on a certain sector doing this everyday, you know the important valuation metrics to look at within all the companies within a sector. But what about for us general investors that like to look at some of these important data points that hold stocks in various sectors?

At times, I want to compare important metrics of companies in similar sectors when looking at the best investment, say for example in tech semi conductors NVDA vs UCTT vs QCOM. Or if I wanted to compare ATZ vs GOOS VS DOL in a different sector. What are the best data points to compare? For example, div yield, P/E (NTM), P/S (NTM), EV/EBITA (NTM), FCF/Share (FY), PEG, EBITA CAGR (5Y), REV CAGR (5Y), Net Debt (FY), etc...These are just some examples that I see. I'm more a growth investor so I assume Rev CAGR would be an important data point to watch, for example. I would imagine that you compare different data points when comparing companies in the tech sector vs if you are comparing stocks within the energy sector. Such terms like operating cashflow, net cash, EPS/REV growth, debt, I hear lots from your answers so should these data points always be on my screen? Or is it more important to look at the data points in relation to how they are trending vs historical years and quarters of that specific company.

I have a watchlist of my portfolio with stocks in all different sectors that I look at daily and would like to keep track of important data points at a high level. For example, I have EBITDA(FY) as one column and can easily sort it so I can see which of companies are unprofitable, or CFO so I easily sort that to see which companies have negative cash flow from operations. What would be on your screen if you had to pick say 10-15 data columns and what is your financial analysis process like?

Thanks!

Q: In a rising interest rate environment, what fixed income products perform relatively better? Would US TIPS or floating rate loans be an acceptable option?
Thanks

Q: Hello! When examining my portfolio there are definitely areas that are working and areas that clearly are not like emerging markets, gold, and high growth tech. These are a much smaller portion of my portfolio. However, does it make sense to exit these areas if one can get out with no loss/minimal loss and reallocate the money to something like Sunlife, Enbridge, BCE, etc.. if one also needs dividend income. The reason for owning gold, emerging markets/international equity and high growth was for diversification but if primary reason for investing is income/stability I'm just wondering if it makes any sense at all to own these other clearly more risky areas. Thanks and I look forward to your expertise!