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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: Many of your subscribers discuss their weightings on individual investments.
If I have 5 accounts and a total invested capital of 2,000,000 and if I want to have a minimum of 5% weighting on each stock,ETF or mutual fund would you suggest that 20 holdings averaging 100,000 each would be appropriate?
Or, in the case of some of your smaller capitalized companies like sis and aar.un, would a smaller percentage allocation be more appropriate?
I am 71 and have been in the market for over 40years.
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 24, 2017
Q: 5i Team - Altagas (ALA) is has a scheduled ex-dividend date of of 10/24/2017 for a sweet payout of $0.175 per unit, payable on 11/15/2017.

Is is safe to assume that on the ex-dividend date, the ALA stock price will decline by the percentage associated to the dividend payment? If not, is this the best time to buy this stock and take advantage of the payout?

Secondly, If I purchased the stock on 10/24/2017 and sold it the next day 10/25/2017, will I still be paid the monthly dividend on 11/15/2017? Is it a good strategy to purchase all dividend stocks on the ex-dividend date so as to maximize dividend returns?

Thank You - LG
Read Answer Asked by Luigi on October 24, 2017
Q: Can you please provide 5 us stocks that you consider as good candidates for shorting? I would like to short them with options for hedging purposes. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Ron on October 24, 2017
Q: I just read the Dividend article you sent to subscribers. Thank you. I'm one of those investors that doesn't want to spend a lot of time researching companies....which is why I'm a subscriber! But I'm also an investor that loves dividends. The question.... Have you thought about keeping a list of 'Top Canadian Dividend Stocks' that subscribers can refer to at any time if they want to add to their portfolio?? I know you have the 'Income porfolio' that may be close. 5i gets a lot of questions asking you for top dividend stocks....this could be an ongoing list that may change slightly from month and?? Just a thought.
Read Answer Asked by Graham on October 23, 2017
Q: Regarding Grant's question earlier today on tracking gains and losses, I also use TD WebBroker. While there is no field in the Order Entry screen, the data is there. In Account Detail, there is a Tab for Performance, which shows your ROR Yr to date (and other intervals) and a Tab for Gain & Loss which shows the total $ Gain and Loss for the year and individual $ Gain and Loss by security. TD cautions that it should not be relied upon for tax purposes.
dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 23, 2017
Q: TD WebBroker: Click Accounts > Gain & Loss.

Paul

October 23, 2017 - Asked by Grant

Q: How do people track their overall performance as traders? I use TD Web Broker and after I make a trade there doesn't seem to be a filed that tracks the loss or gain on the trade. Do people track this in an Excel Spread Sheet or is there a program/app for this?

Thank you for another great year of smart stock picks!

5i Research Answer:
From what we have seen, most automated programs don't do a great job of tracking this as withdrawals and deposits tend to skew results. Excel is likely the most reliable way to do this albeit can be a bit more time consuming.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 23, 2017
Q: Further to the previous question regarding withholding tax on foreign stocks inside a TFSA...

Is this tax on foreign dividends paid before receiving the dividend payment (what is deposited to my account is the after-tax amount) and is there any witholding tax on gains when a foreign investment is sold?

Thanks again!
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on October 23, 2017
Q: The future of Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) remains unclear to me even after I worked my way through financials, analysts’ comments, analytics and commentaries in the more serious financial journals. CVS and ESRX appear to have been hit hard this year by the mere possibility being whispered ---- that Amazon might enter the pharmacy markets. Amazon might well do that just as they might start their own delivery service to compete with FedEx and UPS.

But surely even mighty Amazon cannot drink ALL the water in ALL the oceans.... or can they? The latter might well be confirmation bias in my reptilian brain.

I had largish positions in CVS and in ESRX. Whereas I had previously decided to ride things out, I have now trimmed at largish losses. I have reviewed past questions here on both CVS and ESRX, including my own past questions.
1. Do you care to update your answers in view of the seemingly unstoppable powerhouse that is Amazon?
2. What would you suggest a risk-tolerant (but not completely imprudent) investor do on each of CVS and ESRX?
3. Sell all and hide under the bed? Buy AMZN with the proceeds? Just PRAY?
4. I spent many hours ploughing through detailed reports on each of CVS and ESRX. Yet I am just as undecided after these reviews as I was before. Almost all analyses that I read say that both CVS and ESRX are under valued; that each is either a buy or a strong buy. I grant that the latter could have been confirmation bias in my reptilian brain.
5. What are YOUR insightful thoughts on the PBM business model in view of (a) possible Amazon threat (with reasons if you would please)
6. Since US Gov policy changes would make significant impact on all PBMs, although you might prefer not to incorporate the current instability in US politics into your own equations, I think in this case, please if you can make an exception and incorporate the political landscape into your comments, that would be very helpful.
7. I would be thankful for your substantive response on each of CVS and ESRX separately as their businesses have significant differences.


Read Answer Asked by Adam on October 23, 2017
Q: Hi
Industrial usage of graphite seems to be gathering momentum. more products are released with graphite (anecdotally, I just bought a hammer at canadian tire with a graphite handle.
Furthermore, ''exotic'' metals (high tech) are gathering also momentum with investors, the likes of Cobalt, Kaolin, rhodium, REE, and many others as pure plays or transformed for new applications titanium with Pyrogenesis for example.
Graphene seems also to be of interest.
Mason graphite has made some headline lately,-Lac gueret has been recognised-I think in part because of the expertise of his CEO.
I was very early some years ago and started to come back.
Your opinion will be appreciated on
NGC
ZEN
LLG
GPH
CSP
CCB
FMS
GLK
NEXT
SGH
Thanks
CDJ
Read Answer Asked by claude on October 23, 2017
Q: I am for the most part a conservative investor. The captioned equities form part of my high risk and in this case, high loss casino money portion of my portfolio.

Individually, none are material holdings and being in my TFSA provides no tax selling benefits. I periodically check similar high risk positions I sold and in some cases, more patience would have yielded high returns! Benj Gallander is a rather unique investor; his patience is what catches my attention and his results are not shabby!

Assuming I am willing to be very patient with no time horizon, is there any reason to believe any of these stocks are worth keeping for high returns? It is not a question of getting my capital back, rather should I hold them or move on to other high spec ideas? If time to move on, any bottom fishing ideas especially as we move into tax loss trolling in this segment of the market?

I appreciate the insight you provide to the more macro aspects that often are the prime focus of my questions. Your responses to all questions are very educational and informative. They make us all far better investors.

Thank you

Mike
Read Answer Asked by Michael on October 23, 2017
Q: Hi 5i Team.
Apple has grown to be twenty percent of my portfolio.
What percentage would you suggest to hold, and which fast growing US stocks to add for diversity.
I currently own half positions in:
NFLX, AMZN, GOOG, STMP, NVDA, BRK.B, CGNX.
Full positions in:
FB, DIS, MCD, WMT, V.

Thanks for the service I am always learning something new.
Read Answer Asked by David on October 23, 2017
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