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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: Hello 5i Team,
I have a mixed basket of ETFs across assets types (equity, bond, preferred, etc...) in my TFSA for income.

I was looking at the dividend growth over the past 5 years and noticed that many of the ETFs have had a negative growth. Namely, bond indexes (VAB,XHY, HYI, and ZEF) have trended downward as well as prefs, REITs and europe/emerging equities (CPD, XRE, and ZWE).

I was wondering why that is? Is it because of low interest rates over the years or rising debt levels(or something worse)?

Thank You,
Andrew
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on January 09, 2022
Q: I currently own CLF,CPD,ZAG and HLY in a LIRA account. The weight of these 4 ETFs are all 2 %. each. I would like to sell 2 and then use the cash to increase the weight of the other 2 that I will keep. Which 2 ETFs would you sell?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked on January 09, 2022
Q: Thanks for your comprehensive answer to my question on fixed income. Just a further clarification. I have often wondered about the usefulness of preferred shares. It seems to me that they are just as vulnerable as stocks, so why have them rather than stocks? I know that you get paid first if the company goes under. But I am not sure that is a big consideration in most cases.

Secondly, i wonder if you might suggest some symbols that correspond to such an arrangement for fixed income.
Thanks for the excellent service
Read Answer Asked by joseph on December 15, 2021
Q: Hello,

I am concerned in a rising interest rate environment CBO (5.0%), CPD (1.92%), XHY (7.4%), VAB (4.13%) are positions that need to change in my portfolio. Portfolio Analytics recommends holding 35% in fixed income. I currently hold about 18%.

Should I be selling some or all of these positions and then re-investing in other fixed income vehicles given the rising interest rates?

I would appreciate your feedback/suggestions on current position. Thanks again for all your great service.
Read Answer Asked by Mauro on November 08, 2021
Q: Hello Peter,

The ETF's above are in the income portfolio. All have different yields that are paid out monthly. My question is, do any of these "dividends" increase over time? Not the yield but the actual payout per share?

Thanks,

Kelly
Read Answer Asked by Kelly on October 22, 2021
Q: Hi Team,
Could you suggest Canadian ETFs of the following sectors for Senior incomes :
1 /Reit 2/ Utility 3/Prefer 4/Bank/Financial 5/Energy.
Please deduct as many question credit as needed.
Thanks as always,
Tak
Read Answer Asked by Tak on October 12, 2021
Q: Hi! I have an ETF portfolio and a portfolio of Canadian and U.S. stocks. I have 10% of my ETF portfolio in Fixed Income given the historically low interest rates. This accounts for about 5% of my overall portfolio which is pretty low. Difficult to add here. I have some XHY and CBO which offset the risks of rising rates somewhat. Should I add to my fixed income portfolio or wait for rates to rise a bit. If I do add, rate reset preferred might be another option or continue adding to CBO and XHY?

Thank you,
Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on September 09, 2021
Q: Hi 5i,
What is your opinion of perpetual preferred shares at this time (some utilities and financial companies)? I invested in them last year and have made a modest profit. The profit is nice but the dividend based on my cost base is nice also. I know the growth is limited but do they remain good investments for the next few years considering the economic climate?
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on September 09, 2021
Q: I read your article about the correlation between stocks and bonds and it made me wonder whether this was a good or not so good time to purchase them? I read a little more in another article and it said that in the same historical instances, bonds have tended to do well after. Would you agree with this?
I only have room in my margin account so would CVD, CPD, and HAB be giving me interest as apposed to Dividends so there are tax implications?
Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Pat on August 26, 2021
Q: Would like to create a 10-15 stock portfolio out the securities listed above, to meet my retirement income and growth needs, for a long term hold.
CPD is my current, imperfect proxy for the fixed income portion of my portfolio.
CVE, CNQ, SU would be the only opportunistic (and highly correlated) purchases, to take advantage of the current low valuations for the petroleum industry. These would be sold if the oil & gas market's prospects change.
Please rank all the securities on the basis of return potential over 2-3 years as the primary criteria,
Please eliminate any stock which does not have adequate balance sheet strength, from the lineup.
Please add to the lineup all securites that would facilitate the creation of a defensible, well-diversified, long term portfolio - especially if it is in a sector that I have overlooked.

Thank you for your expertise, and willingness to help me sleep a bit more soundly.
Read Answer Asked by Pradeep on August 13, 2021
Q: Hi I have this etf in my account . Should i sell some and buy stocks or add some i am looking for dividend income.

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Francis on July 12, 2021
Q: Hello,
I am nearing retirement. I have CBO, CPD, VAB and XHY at 20% of my fixed income portfolio. All these ETF's exist in my unregistered account. I wanted to add XBB in my RRSP account. Any concerns about too much overlap by adding this position? This will add 7% to my fixed income position. Portfolio analytics recommends a 30% position.

Thanks for all your help.
Read Answer Asked by Mauro on June 02, 2021
Q: I am looking for some insight to help me understand how the market is currently pricing preferred shares. I had a position in CPD from 2015 to 2020 when I dumped it out of frustration. During that period it seemed that when interest rates were forecast to go up the preferreds would go down because investors would focus on the lower relative yields. If rates were forecast to drop the preferreds would still go down because then investors would focus on the reset aspect. It was an investment that provided the worst of both worlds!

I still hold a couple of preferreds including some fixed perpetuals such as POW.PR.D and RY.PR.P which despite everyone’s expectation of rising interest rates are both hitting new all-time highs now. It’s all just too perplexing for me. Any explanation?
Read Answer Asked by Steven on June 02, 2021