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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: Your thoughts on a portfolio in a non registered account consisting simply of these 3 etf's (ZRE,ZPR,ZDV) to hold forever. Dividends received put into VIG.US, I'm 45 years old, I have no mortgage and no debts looking to borrow and bring my accounts to 100k for each of these 3 etf's totalling 300k, in retirement will use only dividends. (This would act as my deferred annuity but I get to keep my money) is my thinking clear?
Read Answer Asked by Nino on September 27, 2016
Q: I have rate reset preferred shares (bought at $25 / share) which are presently 25% in value underwater because of the Banks of Canada’s unexpected prime interest rate decrease. At the time of purchase their interest rate was 4 to 4.5% & they will be subject to a rate increase in 2019 & 2020. I your opinion what is the chance of their value returning to near $25 in the next 3 years? I am wondering if I should sell the preferred now or hope that their value will appreciate sometime before their rate reset date . Thanks … Cal
Read Answer Asked by cal on September 21, 2016
Q: For the past 8 years I have been trying to pick up yield by buying convertible debentures. My objective for the past few years was to get a yield to maturity of at least 5% on these debentures. Today Superior Plus is redeeming one of their convertible debentures (SPF.DB.F). I would like to buy another convertible debenture from the cash that I will be receiving. I am considering JE.DB or JE.DB.B. Both of them have yields to maturity in excess of 6%. What do you think of these two convertible debentures as a fixed income investment? Note that I am not concerned with conversion privilege. This is a proxy for exposure to a fixed income vehicle. I am only concerned about the yield and the company's ability to pay the principal at maturity.

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Robert on September 16, 2016
Q: For the past 8 years I have been trying to pick up yield by buying convertible debentures. My objective for the past few years was to get a yield to maturity of at least 5% on these debentures. Today Superior Plus is redeeming one of their convertible debentures (SPF.DB.F). I would like to buy another convertible debenture from the cash that I will be receiving. I am considering NWH.DB.B or NWH.DB.C. Both of them have yields to maturity in excess of 5%. What do you think of these two convertible debentures as a fixed income investment? Note that I am not concerned with conversion privilege. This is a proxy for exposure to a fixed income vehicle. I am only concerned about the yield and the company's ability to pay the principal at maturity.

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Robert on September 16, 2016
Q: Hi,

I know you like the following: PPL.PR.M and ALA.PR., TransCanada (series 13), Canadian Utilities (series FF) and Brookfield Asset (series 5). With these type of minimum reset preferreds, where would you expect the prices to be in 3 or 4 years under the following scenarios:
1. Current govt of Canada rates 0.5 point lower than today
2. Current govt of Canada rate same as today
3. Current govt of Canda rate 3 or 4 points higher than today

Regards,

Robert
Read Answer Asked by Robert on September 12, 2016
Q: Hi Team, Canaccord's reset preferred has been reset at the following rates: fixed 5 year = 3.8850% the variable rate is at 3.722%. Given that the spread between the 5 year Gov't and the 3 month Tbill is narrow at .163% Is it logic at this point in time to take a chance and convert from the fixed rate preferred to the variable rate preferred? If interest rates do go up will the variable reset out perform the fixed rate preferred?
Cheers David
Read Answer Asked by lori on September 06, 2016
Q: I hold two rate-reset preferred stocks in my diversified portfolio - Pembina Pref and Brookfield Office Pref. When thinking about sector allocation, would you suggest I exclude these two stocks (as essentially fixed income), or should I include Pembina in my Utility sector weighting, and Brookfield Office in my Real Estate sector weighting? Thank you for your input. Edward
Read Answer Asked by Edward on September 02, 2016
Q: I own a portfolio of preferreds...both reset and perpetual. Many of the Perpetual shares have returned to $25 and above. I want to role out of a few of these names and buy some other perpetual shares that have some upside potential. A name I came across is INE.PR.C. The investment currently yields 6.5%. DBRS rates it as PFD 4 high which is about as low a credit quality as you can get. Yet the market...as well as the comments on your service seem to like the common shares. Also the price in reflection to the yield seems very mispriced in the current preferred market. Is there something I'm missing??
Read Answer Asked by nicholas on August 23, 2016
Q: I have no fixed income in my portfolio. I'm 63 and have been retired five years. I'm still a fairly aggressive investor and need some appreciation from my holdings to fund my lifestyle. In this low-rate environment, I have little interest in bonds but would like your opinion on preferreds. The new issues seem to have addressed the reset problem. Is this true and can you provide some names with a nice return, reasonable safety and possibly trading below par. The last criteria is the least important.
Read Answer Asked by Kyle on August 23, 2016
Q: I bought some Zargon debentures as a speculation under $50 and they have had a good run with the news of an asset sale. Assuming the sale closes and net debt is down to $35 million do you think the debentures should be held to redemption next year or does the remaining risk favor cashing in now.
Also, does Toscana's sale of 6% of their production to reduce their debt by about 20% improve the prospects of that company's debentures enough to consider them?
Thanks, Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on August 22, 2016
Q: Saw your suggestion for CPD, XHY, ZRE for dividend income and wondered what would drive each of these securities price performance given that their overall return will be a mixture of price appreciation/depreciation as well as yield and each has a significantly different price history. I'm not planning to blend as I think you should know what drives each investment. I also saw your two notes on CPD so what I think I need is an overview of the relevant price drivers please. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Mike on August 19, 2016
Q: I own the 5.5% Aecon 31 Dec 18 convertible debentures. They are trading at about $109, and I bought them in Dec 2014 at about par. Should I take my profit now? If I wait until maturity, I will lose the current premium. I suppose they are trading at a premium because of the embedded warrant value.
Read Answer Asked by KENNETH on August 18, 2016