Investment Q&A

Q: Hi

I'm trying to keep the US and international stocks and ETFs in my RRSP account and my Canadian stocks in my cash or unregistered account for tax reasons. Unfortunately, much of my RRSP account was built up with Canadian stocks. Further, I'm overweight Canadian stocks and am looking to increase my US and international exposure.
To do that, I would need to sell some of my existing Canadian stocks in my RRSP account to free up more cash. I could then re-purchase these same stocks in my unregistered where there are no limits to how much cash I can contribute.
Now, here's my question - and forgive me for the naïve question - if I sell my Cdn RRSP stocks with considerable gains and then re-buy them in my unregistered account at current levels, am I taking on more risk, or does my risk stay the same? In other words, am I really in the same position as before? Or have I assumed more risk because I'm now holding the stocks at a higher cost?

I hope this is clear.

Thanks
Robert

Q: In my observations of your answers to members questions about US stocks, I always note which US stocks the staff has invested in. I'm curious as to how those stocks would be categorized. Would the majority of those stocks be classified as being in a Growth, Equity or Income portfolio, as are the Canadian stocks. Is it safe to assume that several or a majority of the US stocks the staff has invested in would be candidates for inclusion in the i2i Fund?

Q: How do you determine which Exchange to use? In your latest report, you recommended Magellan Aerospace Corporation, it's on the TSX and the NEO. Is one exchange better to use than the other. Also, Stock like Shopify is on the TSX and the NYSE. I use the TSX because it's Canadian, but the Canadian Exchanges don't show pre market numbers, I like referencing the US exchange. Am I correct to assume if the stock is moving up pre market in the NYSE it will do the same when the Canadian Market opens? Thanks,

Q: Where is the best source to find the date of a company's next quarterly/annual report?

Q: Who answers the questions?
How many different people are involved?
What are their qualifications?
I ask because the answers seem to range from very specific to the kind of answer you’d expect from a politician.
When a member asks to have stocks ranked would they get different answers depending on who is answering the question?
Oh yeah and what is the purpose of the little heart next to the question?

Q: Hi
I smile at the moaning and dripping about stocks like XBC and MRS.
Bottom line high risk = high reward or goes lower.
We build our wealth on this type of investing.
Do not bet the farm on one these stocks, buy sell re buy sell. We play the same stock over and over.
Take our profits and buy boring stocks like FTS,
You need torque and this is a great way to do it.
Not every stock is a SHOP.
If we an double a penny stock, try to get that on a GIC.
I would lister to 5i before some random dude on some web site.
Just my 2 cents.
Cheers

Mike

Q: Good morning 5i
A question regarding the tax status when an option is closed out by buying it back before expiration date. I believe that amount would be credited as a capital loss, if the underlying stock was not sold. Am i right on this assumption?
Thanks

Q: Lot of investors with astronomical results pick up good companies way earlier than others. I am following some people on Twitter with results of like 1000% in one year. How do you identify these companies early when they have minimal revenues but something in demand. What would be the top 5 go to stocks in this category in Canada and US which no one really knows much about and with not much analyst following?

Q: Would you gentlemen have a handle on an article about compounding and stats as to the benefits of such?

Q: Hi 5i,
This is a request for ED and anyone else who has an opinion on foreign currency calculations on capital gains to go over to the “TAX FORUM” to get involved with the discussion.

Help out your fellow members and join in on any of the Forum discussions.

Thanks

Q: I currently hold 3% positions in FTT, TCL.A, ARE in the Industrial; as well as MG and NFI in Consumer Discretionary (I realize that these are in a different sectors but are also semi-industrial). I am thinking of adding MAL as a long term recovery play. FTT, & ARE had been added last year for these reasons. I'm quite bullish in NFI and see it as having the most upside in the short term.

Do you see this as being a good addition/strategy?

To fund a 1.5% position MAL is there one company that you see as not having as much "upside" that you would trim by half, or a combination that you would suggest trimming from?

Thanks!
Cory

Q: This is hypothetical.

I have $100K invested in a Canadian corporation which pays a dividend of 4% annually. Today that investment is worth $110K.
Do I take the capital gains which equals 2-1/2 years of dividends and look for other investments or look for this company to pull back and buy it later? Another option is to do nothing. Given the frothy market, taking the gain today looks like a good move.

For a registered account there are no tax implications. For a non-registered account there are tax implications.

How would you view this situation from each perspective?

Thank you

Q: Hello Folks:
It recently appears Tech stocks are moving opposite direction to industrials such as Cummins, Caterpillar, John Deere and others.
I would think the reason these industrials have moved up so much is based on an improving economy. If so why do tech stocks decline when these industrials increase?
Do you feel there perhaps continues to be more upside in these industrial stocks than tech? What are your views on these industrial stocks (including Honeywell) as longer term holds with aggregate an weighting equal to tech?
Thanks for your excellent service
brian

Q: I remember reading a question about old stock certificates and how to find if the company is still active but I couldn't find the reference in the database.

I inherited 500 shares Belmar Resources Inc. (an Ontario company) but have no idea who/what they are? What should I do to find out?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: my wife and I both have rif accounts in the high six figures which I manage. what would you consider to be the maximum number of equities we should have in our combined accounts with no overlaps.

Q: Good morning, i wanted to move slowly from individual stocks to ETF's mainly because of less ibdividual company risk. I want to stay fully invedted in the stock market but more and more concerned about capital appreciation. Does this make sense for someone who still wants to stay in the stock market, thanks?

Q: Publish publicly in whole or part (or none) at your discretion, within the limits of what is appropriate for an investing advice service.
This is in response to Ed's tax/accounting beef of April 1.
I'm a retired tax accountant who served many investors who were plagued by this same situation.
I used to give my investment clients a little mini-editorial about it being the responsibility of the investor to have all that data, either prepared and kept by the investor themselves, or by someone else (which may have been the broker) the investor paid to prepare it for them. I developed a spreadsheet (which I used myself as well as making it available to my clients) to assist them in doing it for themselves if they so wished. Simple spreadsheet, usable in Excel or Google Sheets, which anyone comfortable with spreadsheets could replicate.
I'm happy to post the above, as well as a copy of the spreadsheet if that is possible, in the forums, though I note the most appropriate forum (Tax & FX issues) is now 5 years old. Perhaps a new forum topic, but I don't know how to start one?

Q: Good day. This is more of an informational request on brokerages and processing day orders. I ordered 500 shares of XMH today (Itrade), which at that time had a price of 24.50. I put in a limit order and got a partial fill of 200 shares. But I could see, after a short time, that there were bids for higher than 24.50 and it was near end of day. I raised my limit bid to 24.55, and got another 200 shares. At 3.59 to finish the order I changed it to a market order and got the last 100 at 24.60.
Throughout this the actual price/value of the stock never changed from 24.50. It remained at 24.50 at end of day. I had thought that a stock/etf exchanging hands for a higher price would raise the value of that stock/etf?

Q: This is a tax / accounting beef, but it may apply to a lot of subscribers.

I'm doing my taxes on my own, and it is extremely time-consuming and frustrating when it comes to investments. CRA wants all the US numbers converted to CAD.

I have a US-based margin account to avoid the constant back and forth with losing money on exchange rates. I own relatively small amounts of many US stocks. Almost half of my tax time is related to accounting for stocks, looking up the original purchase date or settlement date, figuring out the US exchange rate (from the Internet) on that particular day, then adding to the cost base another day and a different US exchange rate when I added a few more shares to it, then subtracting that from the sell price with the sell date's foreign exchange rate. If that’s not enough, CRA wants us to include the commission in the cost base, but then the sell price needs to have the commission stripped out (with its US exchange rate calculated). What’s that all about?

I don’t know why the trading platform doesn’t figure all this out for you. Are there any smarter ways of doing this, other than switching brokerage accounts?

Q: I have 2 large purchases this year and I have more than enough money in mine and my wifes TFSA stock accounts. My question is, do I sell the winners or losers for the transactions and could you explain why. Thanks. Gary