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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: I just read this from a respected member of an American investment service and would like to know your thoughts. Do you agree with his reason that the fund industry does their tax loss selling in September? If so, is this the case in Canada also?

"If anyone out there expects to do tax loss selling this year, I have a few words of wisdom for you.
September is the worst month of the year for the market historically. Look it up, you'll see. The reason September is such a poor performing month is that the fund industry does their tax loss selling in September because that's the end of their fiscal year. They don't operate on calendar year.
The reason we usually get a Santa Claus rally is because wash rules have been exhausted, cash has been raised, and cash goes back to work because fund charters stipulate they can't hold over a certain percentage of cash.
So, if you are going to sell something for tax losses, and want to buy the company back a little later and establish a lower cost basis, the time to do your selling is in August, prior to the funds doing their selling. You'll have time for the wash rules to play out so that you can reinvest in time for the Santa Claus rally."
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on July 24, 2017
Q: I find the negative news seems to always carry more weight than the positive. So on the flipside of the TD downgrade this week here is the positive news on CRH.RBC upgrades CRH to outperform today and on Monday Canaccord restated buy ratings stating the correction for the reimbursement change is over done.I'll also mention the analyst from TD that downgraded CRH is ranked as having a 37% success rate and is ranked 4026 out of 4601 analysts.It is crazy to me that a downgrade from an analyst with such a spotty record would impact the stock so much but I know its due to the current negative sentiment with reimbursement changes. This is just an fyi for those bothered by CRH's recent losses.
Read Answer Asked by Adam on July 24, 2017
Q: Good morning.

I'm not a fan of short sellers but, with EIF, they may have a point on the cash flow. Looking back at the last 5 years (Morningstar.ca), it does seem that they are consistently showing negative free cash flow and this seems to be primarily due to investing in PP&E rather than acquisitions. If it was for acquisitions, I would view it more positively but for PP&E, every year, not so much. What is your opinion?
Read Answer Asked by Peter on July 24, 2017
Q: More of a comment than a question.
I sold half of my EIF holdings several years ago when there was a similar short attack which proved to be unfounded and also demonstrated that EIF management is actually very capable. The stock more than doubled after that, but is tumbling again not because it is a badly-run company but because it is small enough to be vulnerable to a short. I've come to the conclusion that these short attacks set up an irresistable negative psychology and a well-funded and clever shorter is probably unstoppable at least in the near to medium term. As a general rule it seems to me better to sell very early in this situation. Appreciate your thoughts
Read Answer Asked by richard on July 24, 2017
Q: Hello , back to the old short debacle. In the previous convo you mentioned DH had been taken over. I would go so far to say that the large hedge funds : drive prices down to take over or a take a large position in otherwise good Canadian companies; or, create unusual volatility so their trading arms can use trading algorithms to profit from this by playing both sides of the trade. Sad, like the Donald. Haha

Read Answer Asked by Alan on July 24, 2017
Q: Hi 5i,
I don’t think you have ever been asked about this one and it isn’t a name that comes up every day in the media but how do you think Markel Corp (MKL) looks right now? Aside from it being beaten down like everything else in the financial crisis, a very long term chart shows it to have been a remarkably good buy & hold stock up to this point. Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Lance on July 24, 2017
Q: Greetings guys.

Question: If you had to split a 5% position among the names above, using strength of balance sheet, dividend growth, eps growth and valuation as determining factors, which name or names would you select and what percentage would you allocate to them.

Do you think the utility / alternative energy sector is a decent place to invest in against the backdrop of a rising rate environment. Theoretically, what weighting in a portfolio would you make this sector.

Thanks.

John
Read Answer Asked by john on July 21, 2017
Q: I am interested in Village Farms to diversify my holdings in the marijuana sector and it seems like a safer play, currently I just hold ICC for a speculative play on South America.
What are the key metrics on VFF, earnings, book value, P/E etc… and would you consider this a good entry point now that it has come off its recent high after the Emerald Health joint venture announcement?
Read Answer Asked by Craig on July 21, 2017
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