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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: This service sounds very interesting, is there somewhere to go and learn more? The big question I have, can you link say your Questrade accounts so things are automatically input, and updated, or do you have to manually input your holdings?
Read Answer Asked by Steven on August 17, 2023
Q: I am looking to balance my portfolio by sector and global geography by recommended asset mix based for my circumstances. Can I scan all 5i reports and answered questions by sector? Is the best method to see geographic allocation for a given selection of stocks within a sector to create a portfolio (of only the selected stocks in a sector) and then run 'Portfolio Tracking and Analytics'? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Glenn on August 14, 2023
Q: I am working with my son (age under 50) to help him put together a stock portfolio. Considering that the US and Canadian markets have significantly different sector weightings what would you recommend for reasonable diversification in a growth weighted portfolio? I thought you had dealt with this type of question a number of times before but haven't found previous responses.
Thanks, Hugh
Read Answer Asked by Hugh on July 31, 2023
Q: As a subscriber for 5i membership how can I get benefit of the above?.
Read Answer Asked by Nizar on February 13, 2023
Q: Today Harry asked
“Can you please recommend a web site or an app (free or on a paid subscription basis) for managing stocks”
I would suggest Harry to consider 5i Portfolio Analytics. I’ve been using this from it’s inception and am very satisfied.
Read Answer Asked by Les on February 09, 2023
Q: Quick question - Is the Sector Mix or the target percentage for each of the 11 sectors more or less based on the S&P 500?.....Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on September 06, 2022
Q: Good morning 5i
Your portfolio tracker tells me that i have too many funds. I hold stocks as well as the funds. Some, like iwc and iwo are in smaller proportions. I guess I became a bit too enthusiastic and i am wondering whether you could make some suggestion as to how best to rationalize these. They are: RSP
VOO
IWO
IWC
ICLN
VEA
VWO
VYMI
thanks for your excellent service
Read Answer Asked by joseph on August 10, 2022
Q: Hi.
What would be the highest percentage of (Suggested portfolio return expectation) in the summary page for a portfolio in your portfolio analytics. For example my is 4.6% if I change to dividend payers that exceed this value would the number go up? If I change to momentum stocks would the number go up? More stocks less fixed income? Just curious.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Jeremy on June 10, 2022
Q: For your "Portfolio $ total yield" in summary statistics, I assume that it includes both the dollar amount of dividends and income that the portfolio throws off?
Read Answer Asked by Steven on May 11, 2022
Q: I have a question re portfolio allocation. My current plan is to retire in 5 years. I've been lucky enough to accumulate enough funds for comfortable retirement assuming they can grow enough to offset inflation. What would be your ideal allocation for a pre-retirement investor trying to preserve his/her portfolio from inflation?

My current allocation is 10% energy, 10% health, 20% finance, 10% industrials, 15% technology, 5% telecom, 5% utilities, 5% materials, 5% consumer staples, 10% consumer discretionary, and 5% real estate. In terms of geo allocation, I am 33% Canada, 60% USA, 5% developed, and 2% emerging. My risk tolerance is about 20% meaning that I'd be seriously concerned if lost over 20% of my investments during a calendar year.
Does my allocation seem reasonable to you? Any changes (geo or sectors) that you'd recommend here?

Also, thanks to Biden's sanctions against Russia, I expect we will have high inflation (as well as high rates and possibly recession) at least until mid-2023. Do you recommend any temporary adjustments to portfolio allocation during this period of time?
Thanks for your great service!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on May 05, 2022
Q: I see that the underlying sectors held in an ETF are taken into account in the portfolio analysis. For individual companies, are regional exposures taken into account in the same way? E.g. if a Canadian company has significant US exposure, would this count as both Canada and US when looking at geographical risk?
Read Answer Asked by . on February 04, 2022
Q: How does 5i develop recommendations on geographical equity allocation. 5i recommends 25% Canada, 40% USA and 35% International for me. Is this the same for everyone or is this based on my risk tolerance?
Read Answer Asked by Sandy on December 20, 2021
Q: My portfolio shows 15.74 in technology. Would this include tech stocks in etfs I hold?
Read Answer Asked by Roy on August 30, 2021
Q: Hello 5i,
5i does not seem to include fair value in the Portfolio Tracking section. Is it that you do not think this is important? I should think one of the basic metrics before buying shares would be to by at at below fair value. Will you include fair value eventually? Also in the tracking section will you be combining the same companies so that a comprehensive readout would be a simple matter to enable our own calculations?
Thank you
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on August 10, 2021
Q: I appreciated your reply to Keith's question related to family portfolio. Going into retirement we will be receiving enough in pension payments to cover our living expenses and then some... We have looked at this as the fixed income portion of our family portfolio and have built that portfolio with this philosophy for the past 40 years.

As we review our portfolio going forward we are considering not changing our 90/10 equity/fixed split. Our aversion to risk has not changed. We like growth and value (dividend) stocks. We are, as Portfolio Analysis and Tracking suggests, internationalizing our positions. But we are tempted not to go to the 75/25 equity/fixed split it is currently suggesting.

Our questions are as follows: What are your thoughts on our above strategy in general. Would we still look, in general terms, at the same percentages allocation suggested by Portfolio Tracking and Analysis but applied to a 90/10 equity/fixed portfolio mix ?

Thank you for your valued input.
Read Answer Asked by Roger on June 23, 2021
Q: I am a new member and am quite impressed with the Q&A section and Model Portfolio. I am thinking about planning to upgrade the subscription to add Portfolio Analytics. I was not able to clearly understand from reading the description under manage subscription about the additional services provided. Is there a demo version / trial version, sample reports or more elaborate information about it?
Read Answer Asked by Nimish on May 31, 2021