Investment Q&A

Q: Can you recommend a resource/book for my young teenager to begin learning about investing. The TV ads seem to focus only on the get-rich-quick trading aspects of making money without mentioning the get-poor-quick consequences of bad trading discipline.

I wanted something they could learn at their level to help evaluate the strength of a company as well as overall macroeconomy and technical analysis.

They may well decide to be traders as they turn into young men but at least having the knowledge of fundamentals, how to understand financial statements and technical would give them a foundation to build upon.
Thanks

Q: I'm thinking of trying writing a call on positions I own (covered calls). I know I would be putting a limit on my upside in exchange for some income. I'm thinking of trying it on one or two large caps thinking that they have a low chance of a big swing or takeover bid, which means low income of course. Any suggestions or things for to watch for on doing this?
Also I'm wondering the best way to handle the situation if on expiry day that it was in the money. Do I let it expire (and then my shares will be auto sold?) or would it be best to buy the same call options to offset the write?

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

I received 2 shares of BAMR:CA due to the recent spin-off. Before I contact my broker (l-o-n-g telephone wait!), will there be a trading fee to do so if I wish to add these 2 shares to my BAM holdings? I understand that the shares are 'exchangeable'.

Thanks in advance.

Q: Dear Peter:

In November/December 2015 issue of CMS, you wrote an excellent article on "Setting up a US Income Portfolio with call options". Even though I was/am not "into" options trading this has stayed with me as an idea for a "later time".

Now that I have retired and looking at enhancing my income, I decided to revisit this topic. Hence reviewed 5i Q&A section plus CMS archives.

It doesn't seem that you have written any follow up articles in CMS or for that matter in 5i. At least my search didn't yield any "hits".

My questions:

1. Do you think your article from 2015 is still valid? If you have written any follow through articles in FP or other magazines, will you be kind enough to share the links.

2. This strategy is good only to generate USD income? Any thoughts on Canadian stocks?

3. What are the optionable ETFs that I can write calls like you have mentioned in your article? My "boring" holds incl. VGRO/VEQT. I hope NOT to sell them for a very long time!

4. Any videos that you can suggest to a beginner who wants only a safe way entering this rather risky area of options? You had suggested two books to a subscriber's question in January 2021. I am looking for something that is visual.

5. Finally, internet groups seem to suggest that with impending correction it is better to employ "Puts" as opposed to "calls". What is your opinion?

Feel free to take as many credits as you see fit.

Many thanks.
Mano

Q: I had asked a question last week about NCU, but it seems to have been missed. Can I get your opinion on the latest NCU press release where they are consolidating shares 10:1? Was this necessary or a good/bad move by NCU? Why does a company consolidate shares?
Thanks

Q: Hello 5i
We have 1.7 million in our invest accounts
500 thousand in rrsp
450 thousand in bonds and cash
The balance in 37 companies and 2 etf in a non register account
In a previous question you answer that
20 companies is about about the right number
Should We be reducing the number of companies we own
Thanks for the help

Q: I am interested in learning about what investments a company may hold (eg. Facebook - where have they invested? Their 10-K for December 2020 says they held 6,234 million in Equity Investments. This is a huge increase over the past two years, based on the Cashflow statements. It appeared to be an investment in Jio Platforms, per Note 5 of the financials. If I wanted to find out what other securities they held, is there somewhere else I can look, or does the 10-K provide all I could hope to find? Thanks.

Q: Any chance that info like the list of Cdn stocks that pay US Dividends could be put out in excel? Excellent bit of information and would like to be able to rearrange it but my skills are too poor to copy it over to excel and get it organized to use.

Thanks

Q: I know that 5i typically recommends 20-25 stocks diversified among various sectors. I’m curious whether the investing approach differs when managing different amounts of money. For example, is the approach the same for someone with a total portfolio of $25k vs $100k vs $1M vs $10M?

Q: How does one go about exchanging these shares for BAM?

Q: Just a comment on having Canadian stocks that pay dividends in U S dollars transferred to a US account. I had done this using RBC Direct with some of the Brookfield companies and found they actually converted the US to Canadian and then back to US (ie two conversions). Needless to say I had to undue the transfer and get the ACB corrected as well as they used the US rate as at the date of transfer to adjust the ACB.

Q: Good Evening
My broker, when recommending a stock, makes the following declaration at the end, in disclosing possible conflict of interest:

"X Broker and/or an affiliated company is a market maker, or is associated with the specialist that makes a market, in the securities of the subject company".

Can you please explain what the term "market maker" means ?

Thanks

Q: Is "communication services" the same as "telecom"?

Q: I've listed three of my "shall meet"-type requirements for my investment portfolio. I was wondering, what else would 5i add into these requirements to make a strong general portfolio.

1. 20-25 equities
2. 60% CAD, 40% USD
3. 60% growth, 40% value
4. Sector weighting limits??

Q: Can you tell me what are the factors I should evaluate before purchasing a company stock. Thank you

Q: Hello 5i and fellow members,
I have posted a new thread on the forums under F/X and Tax Strategies with my thoughts (for what very little they are worth) on the concept of moving holdings from an RRSP to a TFSA.
Cheers,
Mike

Q: Hi, I am interested in measuring the risk of my stocks, what is the industry standard or most widely used measure in the investment community, standard deviation? sharpe ratio? And what would be a good number to indicate low volatility?

Thx

Q: This company is delisting from CNX tomorrow and the stock went up over 6% today. Can you explain what this means to me as a shareholder? Much Appreciated! James

Q: Where can I find out the amount of Canadian and US margin debt?

Q: Hello 5i Team

Further to the questions on preferred shares, another good website for preferred share information is:

https://canadianpreferredshares.ca/

Thanks