skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: What are your 2 best choice ETF's in Healthcare; Technology and Utiliites in US or Canada?
Read Answer Asked by Terry on July 24, 2020
Q: Hello 5i team,
Could you give a few ETFs and/or Mutual Funds about Science and Technology and one that tracks the Nasdaq in CAD$ or US$
Thanks,
Antoine
Read Answer Asked by Antoine on July 14, 2020
Q: For RESP investments for my 3 grandchildren (ages 7, 9 and 11), I am pretty sure I'd like to choose XIT, partly because it's Canadian and I recognize the names of the top 10 holdings. I would like to be fairly aggressive. But I also would. like to complement XIT with another ETF without being overweight in (any?) energy or financials. In fact, probably no energy and underweight financials. Something fairly balanced without technology, but still growth tilted. I'd like it to be TSX traded in Canadian dollars, but it does not have to hold all Canadian stocks. Another option would be to complement XIT with one or two individual companies but not sure I could get the diversification that way. Would like to keep it simple, if possible. Is there a Canadian equivalent to IWO or an equivalent that trades in Canada in Canadian dollars? Or would that type of ETF already be overweight technology, minimizing diversification? In short, diversified with a growth tilt and in Canadian dollars but not too much technology overlap with XIT. Thanks for your help on this. Much appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on July 13, 2020
Q: Hey 5i team!

RESP 10-15 yr hold.
Current HXQ, ZSP, XIT, XIC. ZRE.
BAM.A, CAE, BPY.UN.
ETF's are core holdings in that order been riding the recovery. BAM looking longterm. BPY.UN AND CAE are recovery plays. Bonds not needed until later on. Intl and emerging is looking to be terrible for a year or so. Possibly adding IWO.

What would be your major changes and or additions to this grouping? What would you recommend? With a shorter timeframe then some we need some solid and secure growth plays.

Thank you. Looking forward to your reply.

Read Answer Asked by John on June 25, 2020
Q: I have been following your advice of slow buying. For recovery plays with a one to 3 year timeframe (US election and possible normalcy returning post-COVID) is Canada or US better positioned? If all things are equal I favour Canada to avoid the nuisance of Norbert's Gambit etc. But if there is a compelling difference I'd like to use that to my advantage. I have some XIT, AC, SU and LNF and I am finding it hard to wait for the slow buying due to FOMO. How slow is slow enough? Thoughts appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Marilou on June 19, 2020
Q: Good morning 5i guys!

Thanks for everything as usual solid advice.

Divurging from ETF's for the canadian market. I am fairly well diversified. But lacking in tech.
Which individual tech stocks would comprise your home built canadian tech portfolio 'today'? Rough weights even though they are personal of course.

Thank you and looking forward to it.

Read Answer Asked by Adam on June 11, 2020
Q: I'm looking to convert a RESP invested in mutual fund (chorus II agressive growth) to lower fees and menage it more actively. Kids are 5 and 2 years old.

I was thinking to diversify with 3 or 4 ETF for 70% of this portfolio. What are your thoughts about a combinaison of VFV, XIC, XIT, ZQQ and DXG for long term? Do you have better suggestions?

Althought, is investing in XIT and ZQQ and DXG a good idea on short term since tech valuation is already high at this moment compared to other sectors?

For the rest of portfolio (30%), i would go with stocks. What would be your top 4 on short term (next 6-12 months) and on long term?
Read Answer Asked by Francois on June 02, 2020
Q: Hi group I believe that Tech + health + gold will be the leaders when we come out of recession. Can you give me a list of 2 ETFs for each sector along with 2 individual stocks you like for Canada + USA. Am also interested you take on my sectors that will lead the recovery and should I start picking away or wait ??? (I believe the market are vastly overbought and does not factor in the economic reality that the virus is going to do to the market. Please deduct credits at your discretion.
Read Answer Asked by Terence on May 21, 2020
Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team

In our combined accounts, and looking at the Technology sector, I find that we have too much OTEX. Our other holdings in this sector are CSU, ENGH, KXS, and XIT. Please rank, in order of preference, where some OTEX can be sold, and one or more of the listed holdings could be purchased with the proceeds. I always value your timely advice.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on May 20, 2020
Q: Hi Peter: When I sit back and take a look at the big picture and review how my portfolio performed during COVID-19 (so far), I try to see what lessons I can learn, then turn to how to apply those lessons to make my portfolio stronger.

I am a retired, dividend-income investor. I am a huge believer in asset allocation and have designed a portfolio, in my opinion, to be reasonably well diversified, although heavy to Canada. It WAS roughly 70% equities (including 32% foreign content) and 30% fixed income (roughly 15% insured annuities, 15% Fisgard Capital...both averaging in the 5-6% pre-tax range and minor cash). My equities are mostly blue chip, dividend payers, as you can see above. The 3 mutual funds are a very minor part of my portfolio, especially Eric's Energy Fund (<2%). I also receive a company pension and CPP-OAS which, when included, drops my equities to roughly 32%.

I use various metrics to monitor my portfolio, such as P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S, Beta, ROE, Div growth, Payout%, technical indicators like 200 mda. I am normally a buy-and-hold investor who trims/adds around a core position.

Periodically I measure how "at risk" my portfolio is relative to the overall market. I do this by prorating my portfolio using Beta. Based on equities only, I averaged 0.68 and for my entire portfolio I averaged 0.44. So, one would think that if the overall market (TSX) was to drop 30%, then I would have thought my portfolio would drop 44% to 68% of that, being in the range of 13% (overall) to 20% (equities only).

In actual fact, my entire portfolio dropped 27% from peak to trough vs the expected 13%...over double! I understand that EVERYTHING was sold off...almost no exceptions. So what do we learn from this and what changes should we consider? Do we accept that "sxxt happens" once in a while...you can't predict every event, accept it and move on? Should we consider increasing the cash component as a buffer? Or...is there something else to be learned here?

Thanks for you help...much appreciated...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on May 04, 2020
Looking for more? Sign up for a FREE 14 day trial! No credit card required

We invite you to sign up for a 14 day free trial of 5i Research!
Experience all the benefits and tools we have to offer; stock research, model portfolios, Q&A with our experts, and so much more. Join a community of like-minded investors today!