Investment Q&A

Q: How seriously do you take the possibility of a significant near term market downturn in your current market buying / selling decisions?

Q: Your answer to Paul's question on TOI on April 30 included the following: "I've attached a copy of the Bulletin from CDS which shows the cost............."
What or who is CDS?
Thanks, Tim.

Q: Is it possible to do a research in the Blog ? For example, articles on IPOs ?
Thanks.

Q: When selling options, do you suggest picking an expiry date out a couple of weeks, a couple of months, other?

Thanks.

Q: Dear 5i,
I have a question about MAGT and IPO's in general.
I am have no experience participating in an IPO so I had a few questions.
Can the IPO price vary after one commits to purchasing a set number of shares?
Is the broker commission embedded within the stock price?
When do the shares typically start trading on the normal market?
In the case of MAGT it looks like the IPO shares started trading on the open market
within a day. For small investors do you recommend waiting and purchasing on the open market? Thanks

Q: As the Canadian dollar strengthens I am curious about the advantages of journaling some of my Canadian stocks to the US side of my account. As an example, there is an obvious benefit to convert CAD cash to USD cash when CAD is at .85 USD vs. when CAD is at .70 USD BUT Is there any benefit to journal say 1000 shares of BNS from Canada to US when the dollar is at .85 vs. when the dollar is at .70?

Q: Best way to handle dividends for income:
1. Use drips to accumulate & sell shares
2. Take dividends in cash and cash out
3. No difference?

Many Thanks.

Q: Hi, what's the best chart etc. to track the progress of iron ore and LIF? thx. M

Q: Hello 5i,
I have a general question regarding the P/E ratio in Portfolio Analytics. Do you have a "rule of thumb" about when that ratio tips a stock from being a value stock- i.e. relatively low P/E to "normal" or "average" to one which has become "high risk" due to an elevated P/E ratio? Is there a range within a sector or is it complete individual per equity based on other (unknown to me) considerations?
To specify, in terms of the P.A. P/E, my portfolio ranges from <-5.7 & -2.7> for BIPC and BEPC respectively and then proceeds in a range of gradation to EIF at 48.7, WSP at 51.4 and PBH at 55.9.
At what point do I look at these numbers from the perspective of "actionable" information?
I can totally see where this might be far too complex to answer in a question so if you can point out any specific resources that might help, that would be great.
Many thanks!!
Cheers,
Mike

Q: Good morning,

I read somewhere about trading eroding away at fees. I am a very long term investor and I tend to hold positions for a long time. I am currently with BMO Investorline and get charged $9.95 per trade. My question is adding to dividend stocks to increase my payouts in the portfolio.For example obviously you are not going to add to say BNS with a buy of only $100.00, the trade fees would be too much.

What would be the appropriate number be to add to positions? $500, $1000, $1500 or other keeping fees in mind to not take away all your profits? I always find this difficult to see if it is worth while or not.

Also I keep wishing BMO would lower their fees but hasn't happened yet.

Thanks

Q: Would you recommend selling options during a period when a company will be reporting earnings? Or is that not part of the decision?

Q: In non-registered account we had huge gains in solid dividend payers (ENB, SLF,CNR,FTS) and last year against tax-loss selling was able to reduce weight in portfolio to approximately 4% each. Donated some shares to charities and also gifted some to son (still had to pay capital gains but didn't hurt as much because benefit is still in the family). New money has been going to growth securities and thanks to your advise in time we may have huge capital gains again. Are there other strategies for dealing with this happy problem?

Q: When evaluating a business, how much time would you suggest someone spend on their due diligence? For example, after learning that MRS was added to the 5i portfolio, how much time (ballpark) should someone put into it before initiating a 1-2% position . The reason I ask is because as soon as I hear about a good opportunity, I instantly feel like I am under the gun to make a decision to either buy or move on. I understand this is quite subjective, but I'm curious whether it is 2 hrs, 10 hrs, or 50 hours....
Thanks

Q: In Canada, in addition to the banks' investment departments, there are many brokerage houses, investment firms, etc. that issue stock reports, and price targets for Canadian stocks, companies like Raymond James, Cormark, Haywood, ATB Capital, Eight Capital, Acumen, Canaccord, etc.. Do you consider any of these companies' stock recommendations and price targets to have any value or are they all simply promotional, and supporting companies that they do financings with, or hope to do financings with, or have recommended to their clients? Please indicate which, if any, of these companies you feel are worth paying any attention to.

Q: Hi group wondering what your general thoughts are on inflation and what stocks would benefit the most if we get high inflation going fwd . What are your thoughts and recommendations going fwd

Q: Around march or April last year you published a special opportunity report listing 10 companies such as Byd,Csu,Cae,etc.
Would you make any changes today?
Do you plan to do an update?

Q: Am I correct in concluding from my calculations that investors place a lower value on GS shares than they do on firms like MS and JPM? If yes, is GS’ share price discounted because GS carries a higher risk than its peers ? For GS my calculations have ROE at 16%, and PEG at 1.25. I cannot work out ROCI— I come up with a bizarre number. What are your ratios for all these please?

Other than a high debt level, would you have concerns about GS that amateurs would not see? Is GS a reasonably good investment based on both its own projections, its actual history, and projections by the more insightful “Mike Mayo type” analysts? (I don't have access to Mayo’s research) .

I am fully allocated to financials, but that seems to be one of the few sectors that possibly has some value. Correct? I find worrying about “diversification” and “allocations” rather tiresome. Do you find time spent on “proper” allocation worth while on your own PERSONAL accounts ? Really?

Q: Hey Team,

Thoughts on industries or specific companies to target after the federal budget announcement?
Thanks,
Harrison

Q: Thanks to Moez for a nice article/stock screener today. I was surprised to see so many companies from the Metals sector.

IF he were to apply one more criterion to the 22 companies that made the list, i.e. debt load, which companies would come up on the top?
( the companies with the least debt load to the most)
Thanks.

Q: The CAPE ratio (Cyclically adjusted price-to-earnings ratio) of the S&P 500 presently rests over 36X compared to its historical average which is much, much lower. What future influences can you see to affect its measure going forward other than a market pullback?