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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 5i: Just a suggestion in relation to Elaine’s question about dealing with large embedded capital gains in a taxable account. If you are someone who makes charitable donations anyway, consider giving some of your highest percentage capital gains away by donating the shares instead of cash. For your own tax deduction purposes you get a tax receipt for the full value of the donated shares (capital gain included) but you don’t have to pay the tax on the gain to do it. An organization called CanadaHelps is worth checking out online as a facilitator. Before the New Year I was able to transfer a bunch of my PUR shares to them (after the takeout bid!), specify that I wanted the donation split in 12 different directions, and select the 12 different charities to receive individual donations equivalent to specific numbers of the shares. It was relatively easy for me given all the administrative work they looked after. And I got a bigger tax receipt than I would have if I had sold the shares, paid the tax, and donated the leftovers.
Read Answer Asked by Lance on February 21, 2018
Q: Hi,
I am wondering what would be a good template to go by in terms of how much of an overall portfolio should be Canadian ,how much in US,international and emerging markets.
For example would you Suggest 60 % be in Canadian equity or bonds, 20 % US, 10% international and 10 % emerging markets .
I look forward to reading your suggestion on this.
Thanks so much,
Susan
Read Answer Asked by Susan on February 20, 2018
Q: Hello
I have a 17 months and a 6 yrs old. I did very well on my 6 yrs old RESP and now wondering if I should get a separate RESP for my 17 months or switch to a joint account. Any recommendations? Any benefits having a joint account assuming only one of the 2 would reach University for example? If all things equal I would prefer to manage a single but bigger portfolio.
Thank you!

Read Answer Asked by Etienne on February 20, 2018
Q: Hello, I'm curious about the ex dividend date provided by my investment company. Is that the date - if you own stock on that date - that you earn the dividend dollars? Could i for instance a company with a dividend day of Feb 20, buy 100,000.00 of it on Feb 18, get the dividend and then sell on Feb 22? Not really a strategy I have in mind but I'd love clarification on how it works. I have some stocks I want to sell, some for tax loss purposes and some because they've gotten so high and am looking at this ex dividend date as something to consider.
Many thanks.
Dave
Read Answer Asked by David on February 20, 2018
Q: In general, do you think it is a good time to convert REITS & Energy mid-stream players to something like XTR or perhaps CPD? I hold HR.UN, AX.UN, RUF.UN, GEI, CHE.UN and KEY as candidates for the switch. I consider these as all fixed income proxy plays and am down in all instances roughly 15-20%. My bigger question would be: Do I have a better chance of capital recovery just holding them or making the switch knowing that XTR or CPD are certainly not big cap growth opportunities. Thanks in advance for your response.
Read Answer Asked by Carl on February 15, 2018
Q: Hello, with the Dow down more than 4% twice this week, can you comment based on your observations (volume, block size, leverage or other) and experience if the automated trading could explain this volatility and trigger this panic. Also, would you know if the level of leverage and use of derivatives has increased over the last few years or vs 2008 ? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Pierre on February 12, 2018
Q: I use an advisor and pay 1% annually on my assets under management. My mandate is for income and they have me in about 35 equities, a corporate bond ladder and a Govt. bond ladder.

A friend says I should use a basket of mutual funds and self manage. I'm considering switching to your income portfolio along with a few other holdings, but my question pertains to my current situation. What's better, a diversified basket of equities or a basket of mutual funds? I think I know you'll say a diversified basket of equities, but where do I see these statistics for myself? I would really like to be able to tell my friend (respectfully) that they are wrong...historically, a basket of mutual funds doesn't outperform a basket of stocks.
Read Answer Asked by Gregory on February 09, 2018
Q: If I may be permitted a comment on Dave's question when he asks "...how to create an investment portfolio that gains from where the capital is going instead of holding investments seeing capital retreating," I have had spectacular results (in my mind) by emulating the Balanced Equity 5i portfolio, gaining over 16% in 2017 (my weighting was different and I hold several international ETFs for diversification outside Canada). Trying to go where the capital is going comes awfully close to timing the market, a losing strategy for most investors. As a contrarian by nature, where most of the market is going is a pretty good indication of turnaround soon.

I re-balanced my entire portfolio in mid-January to very closely align the weightings with the 5i Balanced Equity portfolio.

Read Answer Asked by Fred on February 08, 2018
Q: Hi 5i, I do know you guys are focusing on Canadian Equity. However, I would like to get your opinions on short-vol ETFs like XIV and SVXY since this topic is so popular right now. We all know after today's trade, these products lost most of their values due to the spike of volatility. But in the past 2 year, short-vol has been a money-printing trade that is crazily profitable. I think since the market fundamentals did not change and the volatility will go low eventually, these products are insanely cheap now and looks like they will go up like before? One thing I am worrying is that Credit Suisse announce to liquidate their XIV soon. Will you say this will happen to similar products like SVXY or HVI.TO? Will you recommend to but this "super dip" now? Sorry this question is long, but I bet a lot of people are looking forward to hear your thoughts about this issue right now.
Read Answer Asked by Tao on February 08, 2018
Q: Just as the financial crisis has resulted in identification of banks which are "too big to fail", what, in your opinion would be the consequences if a computer trading program were to be identified as one that is either "market moving or trend prolongation". Would the average retail investor not be on a more equal trading position if those computer were made to make public those events which trigger their buy and sell? If we all decided to jump on the exact same trade, there would be no winners and losers . If AI computer trading accounts for more and more of the trades then, short of the individual investor pulling completely out of the stock market, how does one have any confidence in their own investment thesis?
Read Answer Asked by Phil on February 08, 2018
Q: Good Morning 5i Team,
I am trying to switch from the following managed funds to 5i recommended investments:
TDB2760 TD RETIREMENT BALANCED PORTFOL
TDB331 TD MANAGED INCOME & MODERATE G
TDB622 TD MONTHLY INCOME FUND - INV
IGI467 IG FRK BIS C/E-A /D'FRAC
IGI348 IG FI CDNEQTF A /D'FRAC
RBF461 Select Conservative Portfolio fund NL
Please evaluate and advise. I am targeting to allocate 65% for conservative and 45% equity investments). I have already small 5i portfolios with most of companies from 5i recommended Balanced and Income models (started in October - Dec 2017). Please advise. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Hali on February 08, 2018
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