Investment Q&A

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. My wife and I are 68 years old. I receive a company pension, along with CPP, OAS and income from an Insured Annuity.

It has been quite a while (years) since I asked about your suggested asset allocation for the equity portion of a typical conservative retired investor. Could you please provide me with your suggested allocations to the 11 TSX sectors that you think is appropriate in our circumstances. I will then adjust as I see fit, if necessary.

I understand that your answer is without the benefit of more knowledge specific to us.

Thanks....much appreciated...Steve

Q: Could you please explain some of the terms that you use. I’m thinking of: you want to see a stock “gain support” at a certain level; you want to see a stick “settle in”; and other such terms. Thanks

Q: Should I wait and see how the US debt ceiling fight goes before investing this year?

Q: 1. Do bear market bottoms typically occur before or after the Fed starts to cut rates? (I see conflicting answers when I google articles on this with some saying "always before" and others saying "always after".)

2. I read that markets bounce hard (like ++20%) in the 6 months after a bear market bottom but we have a less than 10% market return and the 6 mos is almost up, therefore conclude the real bottom is still to come. Thoughts?

Thank you.

Q: How do you think Deutsche Bank? Is it still safe to hold some shares of it now? Will it follow the footsteps of Credit Suisse to fail and break shareholders? Please share your professional view. Thanks.

Q: Do you think it is all clear for megacap tech from here? It would seem that a lot of energy money and now financials money is now flowing into these stocks.

Q: Everyone, interest rates move in a wave pattern. When the Fed wants to reduce inflation they increase the interest rate and when inflation declines to their range of near 2% they reduce the Fed rate. This past year - ish the Fed has significantly increased the rate from near zero and recently they have slowed the rate increases. Soon they will stop the increases, then no increases and then reduce the interest rate. The time frame of the holding pattern and declines is dependent on inflation. What does that mean in general for the economy and more specifically for the technology sector. Clayton

Q: I am looking at reconfiguring my newly established RRIF into the above equities with the 3 etf’s being 25% each with the remaining 5 stocks being the remaining 25%. What is your opinion of these stocks and portfolio composition? Am I being too cute ? Thanks. Derek.

Q: I am 74, retired with a good pension. 20% of my investment holdings are in laddered GICs, 6% in HFR. Remaining portfolio is in equities. If interest rates are expected to level out over the next year or 2, would you consider moving some fixed income funds into longer term fixed income? Keeping the same ration of fixed to equities.

Thanks very much,

Mike

Q: Do you recommend a buy and hold approach or timing the market ? I am currently dollar-cost-averaging once per week into SPY, as I do not have much time to follow stocks. What do you think of this approach for someone of middle age with 20 years until retirement?

Q: Everyone, what do you see is the speed bump to worry about in the next three months and the next six months. Clayton

Q: There seems to be a lot of shifting of sentiment with regard to sectors and portfolio strategy.

My concern and question here my total portfolio; and Energy more specifically because recent news is suggesting a plausible $40 price for oil this year.
I would appreciate your thoughts on that issue

In addition , as a balanced to growth investor ( definitely not aggressive), my
Sector blends are: tech 19%/ financials 17%. / consumer cyclicals 13%/

energy 10%/ Communication services 6%/ industrials 3%/ real estate 3%/ consumer defensive 3%/. Cash 37%.

Knowing that there limits to what you can comfortably provide in terms of guidance I would appreciate your perspective on this sector allocation.

Thanks for all your help.

Q: Hello 5i
I am up $10,000 in the above companies and with 35 others I am up $125,000 in total in a $1,000,000 portfolio. Previously before the downturn I was up $800,000. I am a 77 year old value investor with a good pension.
Question: Should I take the $125,000 off the table, put it in an Oaken savings account at 3.4% and leave the rest invested?
thank you
Stanley

Q: why are these financial markets not a whole lot lower then they are now. there has been nothing but bad news in the last 3 years but we are still like we are in a bull market. are we getting set up for a major downturn? thanks

Q: So, this is quite a mess we find ourselves in. However, we will eventually come out of it. I'm curious, where do you think the best money will be made going forward? Which 3 or 4 sectors do you think might lead us out of the situaltion and what is the absolute best company, on most all metrics, in each of the sectors. I'm open to etiher Canadian or global companies. Thanks for your opinion.

Q: Tony Dwyer of Canacord Genuity talks about holding more cash now, being defensive and being ready to invest in early cycle sectors "when we come out of this later in the first half" of this year. Which sectors historically are early cycle sectors and secondly among those that are how have each performed relative to other such sectors when markets have rebounded in the past?

Q: Hi! Can't help but feel panicked but know wrong thing to do is sell. Your thoughts on this. Can you please provide outlook based on latest Credit Swisse Crisis and explain what is happening. It seems like everyday now we will hear of more failures. From someone with more knowledge can you please advise if we need to just sit tight with portfolios if holding quality dividend paying companies which one relies on for income. At a certain point will the Fed step in and cut interest rates if more systemic issues present? Thank you!!

Q: Good morning, you have mentioned several times that Covered Call ETF's work best in sideways markets. I have the feeling that we will probably see the Markets basically moving sideways for a while. What is your opinion, thanks?

Q: Peter; Do you think Powell would dare to do a 50bp hike in the face of the SVB debacle- could this actually be a silver lining for him ? Thanks
Rod

Q: Dear 5i team.

Here we go again with the annual US debt ceiling shenanigans.
This time seems to be a little different as the level of crazy appears to have ramped up in the US political sphere.

May I ask for your collective professional views on what your crystal ball says the possible initial market reaction (bond/equity) might look like assuming they DO NOT come to agreement in time, this time around?
Is there a preferred position on Bonds you would suggest if such a scenerio materialized?

Look forward to hearing your views on this.