Investment Q&A

Q: I decided in early November to use your service and construct a portfolio mirroring the Balanced Equity portfolio of now 23 stocks. I tried to acquire each of the equities below the October 31 closing prices however the above three have galloped away and are the only ones I haven't yet acquired. Should I continue to be patient and await a pullback or should I take the longer view and buy at this point even though each of the three has moved strongly higher in the last month or so. Alternatively is there another equity(or equities) or ETF to consider in place of the three that you'd recommend. I have bought only one-half of the amount of each of the securities I expect to eventually purchase and have maintained the balance in cash as a matter of caution. All of these funds are held in an rrsp. Would you recommend moving ahead with putting the cash into these equities now and holding only a 7% cash position at current valuations. My time horizon is 3 to 5 years. Many thanks for your advice!!

Q: From the balanced portfolio, which 5 stocks would you purchase at today's price and what size of position, 1/4, 1/2 or more?

Thanks

Q: Mp portfolio closely mirrors you balanced equity portfolio (about 3 exceptions). I have been happy with its performance but note some analysts indicate a that the US economy will out[perform the Canadian economy over the next year. Do you think it is a good idea to pick up some U.S.stocks? What do you think. I favor ETS's at would make up about 20%of my portfolio.

Would you recommend such a move? If so, what ETF's would you prefer?

Raymond

Q: Peter, I am having my RRSP transferred to a self directed account and will be acquiring all the stocks in your Balanced Portfolio. Having read your recent Q&A on this topic, I will start with 23 positions at 4% each. That leaves me with 8% cash. I prefer to be fully invested and think it makes sense to add 4% GUD for the Health sector and I am thinking of SH, TNC or perhaps a S&P 500 ETF for the remainder. I have a long time frame.

Thank you, Stephen

Q: Thanks for your earlier response regarding the balanced portfolio and MX. I did have one other question about dividing up names across different account types. I will be investing a decent sized amount of new money into my registered and non registered accounts which will me to hold all 23 names of the BE portfolio but I would like advice on how the names should be split up for best performance. I will be able to hold 9 TFSA, 8 RRSP, 6 CAD Cash (Non-registered). How would you suggest splitting up the BE Portfolio across the different account types? Thanks again for your help!

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

I am willing to build a portfolio comparable to 5i Balanced Equity Portfolio over the next year / year and a half. Can you please group holding into three or four groups so I will retain diversify throughout? Can you put them in order of which group should be owned first?

CCL and CSU are quite expensive. Can you suggest a substitute with equivalent merits?

Which is it better to have this portfolio in a registered or non-registered account?

Thanks for the great service.

Q: Hello 5i,
I would like to "ease in" your Balanced Portfolio over the next year. Could you suggest me 5 names to start with? Are any of the holdings considered core holdings? Thanks!

Q: Hello Peter and Team,

If one were to top up companies in the balanced portfolio, which 5 would you choose at the moment.

And do you feel now is a good time to buy or to wait for before Christmas.

Thanks,

Wes

Q: I own all the stocks in the Balanced Equity Portfolio and have been very happy with their performance. My weightings differ naturally from your model weights since I purchased at different times. I am considering allocating a relatively large amount of additional funds from elsewhere in my portfolio into the BE Portfolio holdings ($100K+). I am wondering how you would recommend weighting the additional purchases.

Q: Hi 5i Team,

My question is regarding the Balanced Equity and Income Portfolio. In light of the recent US election outcome, are you planning on making any significant changes to these portfolios in the near future? Would the election results cause any shift in company weightings to take advantage of sector strengths?

Thank you.
Francesco

Q: A Donald Trump victory on Tuesday is now no longer a hail mary based on recent polls and commentary (and regardless as to Canadians imploring Americans to not vote for Trump). It is truly scary for so many reasons. How would you hedge the balanced portfolio against what is likely to be a general market meltdown if Trump wins? And just a clarification on the balanced portfolio to end of October - have absolute returns been 19.6% to date (or vs. benchmark) and 125.9% cumulative since December 2014?

Q: Hello 5i Team,
Could suggest an ETF for each Canada, USA and international that would as closely as possble mirror the methodology used to contruct the balanced equity portfolio?
Thanks
Dave

Q: I'm currently 50% in cash (although understandably I shouldn't be). I am contemplating allocating 70% of my entire portfolio to the Balanced equity model to represent Canada and the remainder (30%) to Vanguard's total market US market ETF - VUN.TO. In the past I have tried to stock pick myself using some suggestions from this site and have not come anywhere close to the performance you have achieved with the Balanced Equity model. What is your opinion on the 70% CAD market and 30% US market allocation? Thanks!

Q: Regarding the question about selecting half of your balanced equity portfolio, you mention ‘confidence ‘ ‘over the long term’ for stock like TOY and CXI over much bigger BNS and T ..
I’m not certain to understand ..do you mean confidence in over-performance over a longer period..at the risk of higher volatilty/risk ? Is it much better to buy the complete portfolio ?
thanks for the good work !

Q: I own a little more than half the stocks in your balanced portfolio. Would it be possible to list which of these twenty names you consider better than the others? For example, if you were forced to cut half the names, what would be left based solely on the merits of each individual stock?

Q: Hi there,

I had two questions. The first one would is on Sleep Country - I noticed that has come off it's highs of around $33ish. Do you think today's price would be a good entry point or will it continue a down trend with profit taking etc?

My second question is on the Balanced Equity portfolio. I have been following your updates and stock selections and started out with a 5% weighting or so in each name. What is the best way to deploy any new funds if I wanted to follow the balanced model? A real world example of this would be if I contribute money into my TSFA next year, what would be the best way to deploy this new cash into the BE Portfolio? Should I divide up the contribution amongst several names? Hold it in cash and wait until you have added a new name to the portfolio and then deploy it? Is there a recommended approach to this?

Thanks!

Q: I would like to top up some holdings in Balanced Equity. What are your top 5 stocks to buy right now from the BE portfolio?

Q: Recent additions to the 5i portfolios have entered at about 3% weightings, in spite of healthy cash positions in BE and Growth; is this a change in philosophy from the customary 5% or is it your intention to normalize the weights at a more favourable entry point?

I would use the "My Watchlist" feature more if it had View/Edit/Delete functions as there may be some names I do not want to be alerted on forever, only temporarily.

Q: Peter and Team,

I have some covered calls written on Badger Daylighting, Tourmaline, and Painted Pony that look like will get called away at the end of this week. This will make approximately 10% of the portfolio available. I have essentially replicated the Balanced Equity portfolio otherwise (don't hold Whitecap or Magna, though) and I have approximately 10% of invested assets in short term bonds and approximately 7.5% of invested assets in US stocks (Xylem, Starbucks, and Visa).

My initial plan with the new cash available was to top up a couple Balanced Equity positions (SYZ and SLF, probably) to full positions and then to add a US Stock or two. My first thoughts for US stock were JNJ and GE.

What do you think of this plan and would you suggest any modifications? Should I be adding more to fixed income? I am 34, by the way and feel like I have risk tolerances that matches the BE portfolio quite well in general.

Thanks!

Q: The performance of the 5i Balanced equity YTD is +13l3%. Does that include dividends?