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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'm considering a portfolio review but have concerns regarding your admitted bias towards small/mid size stocks. We are retired and our investing objective is primarily wealth preservation with some growth. I am primarily a large cap dividend investor in my main portfolio although I have initiated a small position in your balanced model portfolio in my TFSA. If I were to request a review, would you be recommending primarily mid to small cap stocks for the portfolio, or would you feel comfortable recommending more larger cap stocks given my preference?
Read Answer Asked by Jim on April 17, 2017
Q: Dear 5i
What can you tell me about the following in terms of quality , MER and yield .
!-Mutual fund BMO Tact GBL EQ ETF SER F-NL
2-Mutual f. fixed income DYN Active core BD PRIV F-NA
3-Mutual F. fixed income BMO Tact GLB BD ETF SER F-NL.
Are these keepers or can i do better elsewhere ?
These 3 represent approximately 68% of my current portfolio with my financial planner . I`m 62 and plan on retiring in 2 years .The rest of the portfolio is in various growth stock .
Thanks
Bill C.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on April 17, 2017
Q: Dear 5i
I am 62 and plan on retiring in 2 years . I am open to positioning myself for 2 more years of some growth but preservation of capital is also important .
I have about 1M in RRSP`s and and close to shifting this amt to my brokerage co. to invest .
I`m thinking the following
1-$300,000 into Income portfolio including 10 good stocks from the Balanced Equity.
2-$300,000 into two different Bond ETF`s (fixed income )
3-$400,000 into 4 different ETF`s.
Does this setup look good to you and if so what ETF`s might you recommend given the current economic climate and my age ?
I don`t need income from the investments currently but think its important to have good dividend growth along with some capital gains .
I`m like most and prefer not to pay high MER`s as well.
Please deduct more than one question for this .
Thanks and looking forward to your response .
Bill C.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on April 17, 2017
Q: Hi 5i team,

I want to sell into the market now to raise the level of cash in my portfolio. I need advice as to what stocks to sell first, given the current market conditions. Should I sell growth stocks first? Or income stocks first? Should I sell certain sectors first? Should I first sell stocks that are in a loss? Or stocks that have the highest % of gain over book value (ignoring tax)? Should I sell stocks that are close to 52 weeks high first? Please explain your strategies if you were to reduce the equity holdings to raise cash for your portfolio. Thanks for your guidance.
Read Answer Asked by Willie on April 17, 2017
Q: Hello 5i
I plan on shifting a large sum of RRSP monies from my financial planner over to Questrade so i can manage it myself with the guidance of 5i Research of course .
Should i be concerned with the safety of these investments with Questrade in terms of account hacking etc via computer . Do brokerage companies generally have insurances for this type of thing ? I really don't want to be putting myself in a position of high risk unknowingly .
Thanks
Bill
Read Answer Asked by Bill on April 17, 2017
Q: Hi, I want to Invest some of my cash outside of Canadian and US markets. I would appreciate if you can suggest a few markets with good valuations and potential. I do not want to pick individual stocks, but instead would buy an ETF.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Harpinder on April 17, 2017
Q: Would it be possible to include whether the dividend of companies that you cover qualify for the dividend tax credit or contain foreign income or return of capital? This information is a lot harder to find on company websites than I thought it would be since I think is quite important information. I appreciate it might be hard to include provide this info for every question asked (thought it would be nice when the question does pertain specifically to the dividend) but the Reports should include it, I think. It may also help to cut down on the number of questions as to which account stocks should be held.

Thank you.

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on April 16, 2017
Q: Recently a member suggested The Cerbat Gem as a free investment news and recommendations site. May I advise caution as concerns this site.

Yes, they aggregate press releases, broker reports, and trading monitors in an impersonal (robotic?) style, and perhaps this provides a useful service. But there is little to distinguish The Cerbat Gem from (for example) The Stock Rover, Buckeye Business Review, Chaffey Breeze, Rockville Register, The Markets Daily, Community Financial News, Key Gazette, etc., etc., etc. - all of whom print variations on essentially the same information.

Still not put-off? Consider, then, that the site's Omaha, Nebraska street address can't be located via Google maps, and that it shares a Florida phone number with Sports Perspectives (another address-unfindable investment-news site.) Indeed, we might wonder whether its real purpose were to generate webpages which, subsequently, show-up on news-based search results, thereby creating click-bait for the site's endless pop-up ads.
Read Answer Asked by John on April 16, 2017
Q: Your readers may be interested in a couple of free investment sites that I use.
The first is Globe Investor/My Watchlist which publishes daily
(before the market opens)-Analyst upgrades & downgrades and Small cap stocks to watch.Then the next day some of the selections are reported in the Globe & Mail. For instance Cirius Trust was an upgrade yesterday and was covered today in Eye on equities in the Globe & Mail. This morning before the market opened Shopify was upgraded .
The 2nd is The Cerbat Gem ,a U.S. site that covers investment news and recommendations from numerous investment houses in Canada & U.S.
Recently they had reports on Crh,Sis and Zcl.
Read Answer Asked by Terry on April 13, 2017
Q: I don't usually like market timing and don't really believe in this "sell in may..." stuff, but this year is a little different. What are your thoughts if the Trump administration is unable to come up with a concrete tax reform plan by may/june? Would they have time given congress goes into break shortly after? I would expect there would be volatility ahead, but have you experienced similar events like this in the past where there's been bets on policy changes that don't materialize?

Read Answer Asked by dan on April 13, 2017
Q: April 11/17 ? asked by Terry re large block
trading:
'Dark pools' are private networks which do not have to report trades to the consolidated volume till after completion. In the US, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Citibank and others have them and apparently account for as much as 40% of the volume. What is the situation re 'dark pools' in Canada? Also, what is the situation with TSE trades reported as 'anonymous' broker?
Read Answer Asked by Russ on April 13, 2017
Q: Hi,

I contribute monthly to my family's RESP, but as the value of the family plan grew I've started to question what happens with the money if they don't go to school.

Turns out both myself and the gov't get our capital back (no taxes) plus the earnings on the investment (taxable), plus 20% tax (the gov'ts share, I suppose).

My concern is that I'm prioritizing my RESP contribution over my TFSA contribution (thus not maxing out my TFSA). In your opinion, should I be prioritizing TFSA contribution over RESP?
Read Answer Asked by Cameron on April 13, 2017
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