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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 there,

What are your thoughts regarding the recent yield curve inversion and this signalling an upcoming recession? Markets seem sensitive to headline news and I'm wondering if now would be a good time to devote a decent amount of my portfolio to a low volatility ETF until things subside. If so, which ones would you recommend at this time? I believe BMO has a pretty good product line. In addition to this ETF holding I will also hold the Canadian growth equities listed from your Balanced Equity Portfolio.

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on August 16, 2019
Q: Wondering if you can confirm what Benchmarks are used for the 5i Model Portfolios.
I may be wrong but from passed members questions I gather you may use XTR for Income, XCS for Growth. What about Balance Equity portfolio benchmark?
Many Thanks
Frank
Read Answer Asked by Frank on July 08, 2019
Q: Hi there, I like the risk profile of the names that you tend to select in the Balanced Equity Portfolio, however I am looking to build a growthier version that is concentrated in fewer names. Which 7 names would you remove to produce a portfolio with more torque?

Also, I am looking to layer on some US exposure at about a 25% weighting of my portfolio. I was thinking either going all HXQ, 50/50 HXQ/CYBR or 50/50 HXQ/VFV. Which do you think would be the best mix?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 08, 2019
Q: I follow your Balanced Equity portfolio, and have new money to add, probably enough to add to 6-10 positions, which ones should I add to today?

Please do not include the following companies, since I am fully weighted/overweight in them: BNS, CSU, MG, MX, PBH, PKI, SIS, SU, WSP

When do you think you will be making the next BE portfolio change? If you are planning on selling an existing BE position, please do not recommend that I add to it at this time. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on March 14, 2019
Q: Good morning crew.

A general observation that you can feeel free to correct. Having been a member for two plus years I notice that your patience with picks that do not have a dividend, or a small one, seem to have a shorter leash that say a stock that has a healthy dividend.

Would that be accurate or are the prospects for growth what really matters. Like GUD for example.

I know this is a simplistic observation, but my own patience is somewhat relaxed when in receipt of a dividend like an ENB or PBH.

Thanks. Appreciated.

KC
Read Answer Asked by Kelly on February 04, 2019
Q: I’m looking to add a 3 positions to this list. I was thinking about bns or slf. Can you give me some other suggestions from the balanced portfolio? This account is 20% of my total investments, and is for medium to long term savings. The rest is in well diversified funds. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Matthew on January 23, 2019
Q: I just noticed from reading the question of a subscriber that you have sold SPB in your portfolio. I have not received any notification with respect to this although in the past I was receiving regularly updates with respect to your portfolio adjustments.
Can you please add me to your list so that I can receive regular updates?
Can you also provide some rationale as to why you sold SPB?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Terry on January 18, 2019
Q: Can you please identify if any 5i stocks in your 3 portfolios are "zombies" as defined by the following quote from Cresat:

" Crescat calculates that about 80 percent of Canadian non-financial stocks have been cash-flow negative in the past 12 months, which he measures as cash flow from operations minus capital expenditures.

That may be inflated by the the large numbers of “zombie” companies on Canadian stock exchanges, which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development defines as those 10 years and older and whose earnings aren’t high enough to cover interest payments on their debts. In a September study, Deloitte found 16 percent of public companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange and its sister Venture Exchange are considered zombies, compared with 10 percent globally.
Costa said even if he excludes energy and materials stocks, 70 percent of Canadian stocks have still lost money on a free cash-flow basis. If you consider only non-financial stocks with a market value of more than $100 million, the share is still more than 50 percent, he said."
Read Answer Asked by Steve on January 18, 2019
Q: Good morning: If we follow your suggestions to buy and sell in your recent Balance and Income portfolio's, and a lot of members do, the cost of rebalancing is high. In this case nearly a $100 in commissions to sell and buy. Do you account for this when you make your suggestions??
I am also having trouble with your suggestion to buy 1% of this and 2% of that stock. If the goal is to get to 5% over time, that's also a lot of commission fees. There has to be a better way to diversify without paying so much fees.
Read Answer Asked by Jean on January 17, 2019
Q: Hi,
Happy Holidays. Please deduct as many credits as needed. I mainly follow your balanced portfolio, some of your other two portfolios and some US stocks etc. I just transferred my pension to a LIRA and have 30% cash to invest. With this pull back the timing might work out well. Retirement is 12 years away and my husband has pension for the fixed income portion of retirement. I plan gradually start to deploy 20% of the cash (still hold 10% cash for now) and add to all my current half positions and increase my holdings back to full positions that been beaten down such as TCL.A, DOO, NFI etc. I am not sure about adding to the following and wonder if they are a show me story or a good opportunity. Their portfolio weights have dropped to roughly the 1% range all in registered accounts with no tax loss advantage. Would you add to the following or just wait:
FB
Photon
COV
DOL
ENB
BOX
Any other stocks in your Balanced portfolio that that you would not add to at this time? Does this plan sound ok? Any other suggestions/advice
Thanks,
Kerri
Read Answer Asked by KERRI on January 02, 2019