Investment Q&A

Q: What was the high for vix during Covid and what was the date?

Q: One of the more well known stock investors today on CNBC said he still would not invest in this market because company earnings are going to be down in the next quarter and that is not a time to invest. YOUR OPINION?
Thanks Again

Q: Hello 5i Team
Today we went from one extreme to another in the market.Do you think today’s market reversal is a signal to start buying some depressed stocks or should we take a wait and see approach?
Thanks

Q: Don’t you think Trump is forcing investors to move from stocks to bonds in order to reduce interest costs on the federal debt as a result that would leave room for tax cuts.

Q: Hi Chris, With today's blood bath, please advise if you think of screaming buy high conviction stocks for growth and dividend. If possible price range too. Thanks

Q: I am sure you have a lot of members like myself who would like to invest outside of North Americano due to Trump and our tiny Canadian market.
On top of our annual membership fees I would be willing to pay more for example a monthly letter ion investment ideas in U.K. and Europe.
What do you think of the idea?

Q: Everyone, I don’t trade very much, I am a buy and hold person. Keep the best of the best stocks. But I regularly look at charts to see were the stocks is at certain times. The 50, 100 and 200 MVA. Also RSI. I know you use financial metrics but do the charts have a benefit to individual investors? Or should they be used in combination with finial metrics? Which is more important? Clayton

Q: Hi 5i Team - Price per Earnings and forward P/E is often used as a measure of valuation for a stock. Also I am assuming that when someone talks of a company trading at 20 times earnings they are referring to this ratio. However I have never been completely sure about what this means. Does earnings mean EBITA. Could you elaborate on the exact meaning of earnings.

Secondly is this the best measure of a company's success, at least for investment purposes, or is there another metric (or more) that gives a better insight into the valuation of a company.

I've never seen a price per profit ratio so here's the third part of this question. Does something like this exist or is there a similar ratio that would help in evaluating a company's performance.

Thank you.

Q: I was overthinking diversification all night long and got to wondering about purchasing foreign stocks. There are 4 solid Australian stocks that are their "aristocrats".

It seems strange that US/CDN markets are interchangeable yet I can't find how to even buy something listed on the .ASX ( not so simple for Wealthsimple)

Given diversification is so important, do you purchase foreign stocks directly? How so?

I understand that tax treaties and commissions may make the issue pointless. But money is money. Even if it's EUROS or Aussie dollars. Curious about your experiences.

Thanks for all you do

Q: Dear Peter et al:

Market is going through the long awaited correction, Not pancking...yet! I review my own portfolio once in a few weeks and see if I can tweek it. I contructed an asymmetrical barbell with mainly Vanguard's ETFs (SAFE) and small/mid sized allocation for growthy stocks. I also have a basket for non-corelated stock. I had posed questions here at 5i Rearch in September 2023 and slowly constructed these "baskets"!

My quesion is this: How come VPU Vanguard's utilities ETF and almost all of my Private equity stocks including your all time favourite BN plus BLK/BX and most notably KKR are all down?!! They are supposed to act as a buffer, no? Because I have been buying them slowly, I am still in the positive territory, except VPU. But the fact that the non-correlation isn't taking place, makes me wonder if I have to tweek my percentage of allocation. I know it is personal. But this is more a conceptual question.

Would you add to Utilites and Private equity here or keep this framework and stay the course?

BTW my Canadian Utilities like EMA/H/FTS have withstood this correction and indeed have shown the anticipated non-correlation!

Sorry for this longish question.

Look forward to your answer.

Q: Would you be able to provide some insight to why the tariffs are having such a dramatic impact on the Oil & Gas industry.
President is pushing for "drill-baby-drill" but the US and CDN segments are being negatively impacted?
Your great service is much appreciated. Ted.

Q: Is there a free site where we can see the amount of shorting in each stock, and perhaps how that has changed over time, that you know about? Thanks.

Q: I’ve been reading a lot about the decline of the American empire. If on the horizon how does one prepare for this?

Going forward what would you recommend for a Canada, US, International investment ratio in a portfolio?


Thanks

Q: Hi All at 5i!
Every dark cloud has a silver lining. So, considering Trump‘s insane tariffs and their effects, there will be people making money. What investments, stocks or otherwise, might see a growth in business??
Cheers,
Tamara

Q: Where can we find the last investing & economic report card and when could we expect the next one?
It would help if they were published as of the end of each month so that we could align them with the performance of our portfolios.
Thank You

Q: Is it concerning that NVDA had really good results (but not good enough) and the market is selling off? When all the good news is baked into prices and there's nothing stock earnings can do to impress the markets, is it time to get defensive? Is it more tariff and recession related? The 10 yr is down to 4.3% so you would think it's good for equities that rates are coming down, but if the reason for the decline is because we are expecting a recession, it's not good. I'm not really panicking but portfolio is mainly growth oriented and there are signs that the market is rolling over due to excessive valuation and a whole lot of other worries. Any advice on how we should be positioning or getting more defensive? Thanks!

Q: Hello 5i, given the uncertainties and volatility of the TSX and SP 500, would consider selling some US/ CND equities and buy gold and or GIC to weather the possible tariffs? If so what % of the portfolios would you sell? I am retired and have holdings in TFSA, RIF and individual accounts. Thank you in advance!

Q: 5i core principles

Can you clarify what you mean with this statement?
Avoid Concentrated Risks
"Don’t make a portfolio reliant on a single stock."
This is staight forward. But how many do you recommend?
"no matter how well you know a company or how confident you are in it, it can still go down."
How do you mitigate risk? It would seem that having a method of getting out of non or under performing stocks would be prudent.
"Having too many eggs in one basket can cause a lot of problems that are hard to bounce back from."
Are you suggesting having many baskets or having one basket with a few eggs that you carefully monitor?
I will post this under Avoid Concentrated Risks in the forums section if anyone wants to comment.

Q: A suggestion in response to Ahmed's Feb 20th question about resources on how to manage a portfolio approaching / during retirement: "Secure Retirement" by Jacques Lussier. A bit academic but I hope you find the concepts useful.
https://rpc.cfainstitute.org/research/foundation/2019/secure-retirement

Q: How do you handle your portfolio if your concern is cash preservation for yourself rather than for any heirs and the time to recover from market falls is no longer there?