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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: just need assurance not to sell stocks when market drops out and stay long
Read Answer Asked by dale on February 12, 2016
Q: There is an investment(!) strategy whereby the dividend payout dates are used as the basis of buying and selling equities for multiple payouts during a year. Intellectually this sounds interesting. Is a plan such as this practical, feasible, legal, moral etc. On the surface this might generate reasonable returns if mid tier dividend payers are followed closely , with all the usual selection criteria employed. Are there serious tax implications? Your usual pragmatic overview please.
Read Answer Asked by Ryczard on February 12, 2016
Q: Hello 5i team,
I have learned that, with a positively sloping yield curve, lending institutions provide much needed liquidity into the economy; but the current situation seems, to me, to defy all logic. Mind you, compared to the rest of the world with negative yields across the spectrum, the US yield curve seems OK despite the fact that it is dangerously flattening. How does all this affect liquidity? and is this a precursor of an eventual recession?
Given the uncertainty, 20% of my equity RRIF portfolio is in cash.
Thanks,
Antoine
Read Answer Asked by Antoine on February 11, 2016
Q: Would you comment on articles on Bloomberg and CNBC websites, among others, indicating China's potential banking crisis could be 5 times worse than the US subprime crisis? Very daunting article! Thanks.
Steven
Read Answer Asked by Steven on February 11, 2016
Q: What is a derivative in the financial world? I have heard that derivative values issued worldwide are enormous, in gold well over 100 times the value of all physical gold existing. Are we facing a bank problem with these entities that will repeat the subprime mess again?
Mark Stewart
Read Answer Asked by Mark on February 08, 2016
Q: Hi, I have had this stock for a year,and it seems to be on steady downtrend from around $14. I'am alittle overweight at 7%,would you hang in or reduce to 4-5%.Financials look to be weak right now, your thoughts .
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Brad on February 04, 2016
Q: I am 44 years old and I have $100k, thinking of an even split $50k for CPD and $50k for Zdv. I have also considered putting the whole $100k into XIC, and writing the occasional calls. Your thoughts on this. What would give me best returns over 10years with the least amount of work or worry?
Read Answer Asked by Nino on February 02, 2016
Q: I have this hedged ETF, VXC, for foreign exposure. If I expect the Canadian dollar to trend up over the next few years which ETF should I buy instead? I'm aiming for 15% of my portfolio to be foreign. Sound like a good idea?

Thanks.

Read Answer Asked by Robert on February 01, 2016
Q: What is the best way calculate EPS Growth. I have noticed it is very erratic from one analyst to another. Should I use historical or future estimates to get the most accurate growth rate?
Read Answer Asked by Cheryl on January 27, 2016
Q: As part of my portfolio, I own five Canadian smallcal stocks, the five I own now are: ALP; EL; LND; PHM and SPN. I have five, no more and no less, small caps so I can spread out the potential risks if one or two behave badly, ie price drops. I am finding small caps trade differently ( ie. sometimes low volume will move price down or up with no news) since volume has a big impact on my decision.

What should I use as a signal to sell my small caps? Cross below the 200 MVA and sell? as an example.

As always thanks for your response.
Read Answer Asked by Clayton on January 26, 2016
Q: Hi, how do you feel about csw and should I consider a or b shares. Greetings, Peter
Read Answer Asked by peter on January 22, 2016
Q: 3rd submission:

I forwarded an question yesterday regarding this rant and I guess it was missed so I will resubmit. I have reviewed many of the concerns today on your blog, and wish to obtain your views further.
A bear market condition in which the prices of securities, and widespread pessimism causes the negative sentiment to be self-sustaining. As an investor anticipate losses in a bear market and selling continues, pessimisms only grows. Although figures can vary for many, a downturn of 20% or more in a multiple broad market indexes over a month period is considered a bear market. This has occurred since Jan 1-2016
A bear Market should not be confused with a correction, which is short-term trend that has a duration of less than usually two months. While corrections are often a great place for a value investor to find an entry point, bear markets rarely provide great entry points, as timing the bottom is very difficult to do. Fighting back can be extremely dangerous because it is quite difficult for an investor to make stellar gains during a bear market unless he or she is prepared to short the seller.
My gut feeling that is not a simple correction as well I have been kicking around markets for over 60 years, I cannot remember an incident as severe as what we are presently experiencing. I felt in the first few days of this year it was going to be a usual correction, however within the past week I made the decision (right or wrong) and have liquidated over 70% of my portfolio to capital gains on the ones I was above water on.
Coupled with this our government is arranging a major restructuring for Alberta and Saskatchewan as well as major funding to kick start "infra structure" which is going to take some time in put in place. In addition, Canadians have now been labeled as have the highest personal debt levels of all G7 Nations and if we get an much as 1/2 to 3/4 interest rate increase, we have a bubble in real estate and the consumer cannot service debt. We all know what happened in the US when this occurred. Real Estate will be the next thing on sale.
So My Rant is, as we work through this, and we will, what can 5i offer in suggestions and recommendation for us an investors to get through this delima. If this stays with us, will we have to change our investment style to shorting and putting. :)
I would appreciate your usual and frank suggestion and comments as well as Peters take on the present day situation.
Read Answer Asked by Rick on January 21, 2016
Q: Like most people I have a bit of cash to spare but am nervous about catching the proverbial falling knife in this market. Would you recommend easing into a stock I liked slowly by buying part positions? Or better trying to buy based on a technical signal. Such as waiting for the ten day moving average to turn up or a golden cross to develop etc.? In the past I have found technical signals to be pretty useless and I think academic research shows their accuracy to be at best slightly better than a dartboard.
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on January 21, 2016
Q: Peter; What do you think of using this plus XGD in this market environment? I'm thinking of a 5% position in each. Thanks and keep up the hand holding! Rod
Read Answer Asked by Rodney on January 20, 2016
Q: Recently and in very short order, the TSX blew through a correction (10% down), then quickly passed through bear market territory (20% down) and is right now on this very bad day about 26 % off its high. At what point do we start calling this a market crash? At what point would you consider there to be blood in the streets? It certainly feels like the blood is being sucked out of my portfolio!
Read Answer Asked by Steven on January 20, 2016
Q: For income generation for the next 3-5 years, is there one or 2 sectors to overweight on or is it still better to diversify across sectors?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Steve on January 20, 2016
Q: Most analysts seem to agree to CDN dollar is going further down compared to the U.S. Some think to 50%? What do you think and is there an ETF or investment that you think would be a good way to play that belief?
Read Answer Asked by Graeme on January 19, 2016
Q: Hello, do you think the reasoning 15 or 16 times earnings of 90-100$ which implies the spx benchmark adjusting to around 1500 has some merit in the current environment ? Also, with the US economy doing ok and the $can below 0.70, is it a strong stimulus for Canada or are we not exporting to them as much anymore ? Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Pierre on January 19, 2016