Investment Q&A

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

Q: Hi,

Question about managing one's family portfolio. If you had a ranking criteria from top to bottom on what to focus on in terms of priority, what would it look like? Growth investors 10+ yrs timeframe and med-high risk tolerance. For example (would it look like this?)

1. Asset allocation (stocks, bonds, cash)
2. Sector weighting/Geographical weighting and balance for both
3. Individual position weights
4. Growth vs Value balance
5. anything else to consider? etc

Between my spouse and I, we have around 50 stocks and some ETF's to provide international exposure outside North America. I've noticed we have many stocks with weights between 1-2% and some stocks that are below 1% weight so we have to determine to either sell/hold/add to the positions. What are your thoughts on having around 50 stocks for both of us or can we have a more concentrated portfolio of around 30-40 with larger weightings for each position? I know it would be a personal decision on comfort level. Any good articles that I could read more about this?

Thanks!

Q: Re info on Cdn prefs try:

canadianpreferredshares.ca

Hugh

Q: Thank you for your reply regarding my question on what to watch for in terms of a return to paying dividends by these two companies. There does not appear be a "Cash Flow" or "Free Cash Flow" item among the Key Data status provided for these companies. I do see a Price to Cash Flow and Price to Free Cash Flow but I'm not sure how to interpret these data points in terms of continued paying a dividend or, in the case these companies, a return to paying dividends. If Cash Flow is a key to payment of dividends is there any chance Cash Flow can be added to the data to all those dividend paying companies listed?

Q: Peter,

What research source or service would provide a full listing of Cdn pref shares including credit rating, type of preferred, dividend plus any redemption terms? Sedar is too cumbersome for this.

Thanks

Paul