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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: Hi,
I am new to investing and am building a diversified long term portfolio. Im looking for strong long term growth to eventually turn into TFSA dividend income. I have some canadian real estate exposure through REITS (using drip programs to help portfolio growth). I have some diversified US exposure through VFV and VGG. I would like to add more Canadian diversified exposure. Would you recommend picking individual stocks (maybe starting with Canadian banks and using their DRIPs as well) and branching out from there? Or would I be better off for total value growth with some low cost Canadian ETF? If you think the ETF, could you recommend a few please? If you think specific stocks could you recommend a few also. Finally, for specifics, which of the Canadian banks do you like the best?

Thanks 5i, Ill understand if this counts as 2 questions instead of 1.

Read Answer Asked by david on May 15, 2016
Q: On the fixed income side of one's portfolio.What would be an appropriate percentage wise split between GIC's and bonds and should that change as your age increases?
Thank You David
Read Answer Asked by DAVID on May 15, 2016
Q: Wanted to add something to Bryan's question about Concordia, relating to Cohodes.

1- Cohodes shorted OpenText during the financial crisis. The stock instead went up and shortly after, he was forced to close his hedge fund. OTC is up 410% since his short.
2- Cohodes is known for liking "a fight". He likes shorting because of the confrontation aspect.
3- Cohodes often has little facts, but succeeds at making retail investors second-guess themselves, at instilling doubt.
4- If you watch his appearances on BNN, you're likely helping his cause, because BNN will see a higher viewership and bring him back on.
5- Best to not comment about Cohodes' points of view, on any social media (stocktwits, stockhouse, twitter). That only makes him more popular.
Read Answer Asked by Matt on May 15, 2016
Q: Glacier has just announced a rights offering. Could you please explain how this works, what the advantages are for the investor and for the company, why would they do this and is this typically a prudent move by the company. Putting Glacier aside, do you recommend investing during a time when a company has made such an offering? Also, how do the backstop agreements work? Thanks for your great work.
Read Answer Asked by Robert on May 15, 2016
Q: Peter and team:
I have an account that is not balanced and is basically a speculation account (a small portion of my overall portfolio).

In this account I am down significantly on BDI and PD as I got in to them when Oil was near it's peak.

I was wondering if it would be best to sit on them both and wait it out or perhaps bail and get in to a junior oil company that stands to "pop" if/when oil rebounds. I was thinking of RRX.

Or perhaps there is an aggressive growth company you might suggest that potentially could help re-coup some of my losses???

Thanks

Phil
Read Answer Asked by Phil on May 15, 2016
Q: if I sell a stock at a loss can I repurchase the stock 30 days later and still take advantage of my tax loss? brenda
Read Answer Asked by brenda on May 15, 2016
Q: We are recently retired with no pension but would like to get the $2,000 each pension credit in this and future years. What are your thoughts (pros and cons) please on purchasing a say $100k annuity, which is roughly 10% of our registered savings. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on May 14, 2016
Q: CenturyLink makes up a fairly high % of my portfolio (7%) and as such I try to keep up with it's financial results and the analysts reports. However, it's share price has had a fair dip in the last while. Your thoughts as to what has caused the drop and will it continue to slide. And the current yield is above 7%, is the dividend secure (or as secure as it can be), going forward? thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Tim on May 14, 2016
Q: Hi 5i Team!

FTG was a top pick on Market Call yesterday and is among the most active on the TSX today. Your lone opinion on FTG on April 12 indicates a positive impression and outlook. Would you please expand on your opinion as follows:

What current metrics matter to 5i when evaluating this company now, and how does this guide you in forming your opinion?

What metrics would you focus on when evaluating FTG a year from now?

What industry do they serve, and who are their main customers To what extent do they depend on domestic and export sales of their technology?

Is FTG a good candidate for a 2-3% patient wealth building portfolio or do you consider more of a cyclical investment?

Is FTG the kind of investment that would possibly considered by 5i in future as a candidate for the Growth Portfolio?

Appreciate your opinion, as always...

SGR
Read Answer Asked by SG on May 14, 2016
Q: I own six reset preferred shares; AIM.PR.C (-48%), AZP.PR.B (-44%), BRO.PR.N (-39%), DC.PR.B (-41%), MFC.PR.H (-13%), and PPL.PR.G (-30%). Would it make any sense to sell all these these reset preferred shares, take my losses to reduce other capital gains, and repurchase them after 30 days? Or am I better off to just sell them or keep them for a potential recovery? I would be grateful for your recommendations. I have no need for income. I used reset preferred shares as a replace for bonds, which was a huge mistake.
Read Answer Asked by George on May 14, 2016