Investment Q&A

Q: I have owned this preferred for 3+ years and am getting impatient with it. I purchased it for income, but have lost more in value. I am thinking about selling it and taking my loss and just buy BCE and collect their dividend, and hope for a little growth.
Is this a good idea, what are your thoughts. Any other suggestion would be appreciated.
5i has been very informative, I really enjoy it.
Shirley

Q: I would be grateful for an update on this Co as recent comment appears to anticipate a brighter future. Thanks

Q: Hi,

I have a small (100% in oil and gas) portfolio and am 34 years of age. My investment strategy involves riding the oil and gas recovery in the short term (until early 2017). From this point I would like to reconfigure into a diversified portfolio. My question is, when does a middle/not aggressive/not cautious/average person implement your different types of portfolios? I gather that duration until you require the investment is of most importance with risk tolerance playing an equal part of the equation. But what if neither risk adversity or time are an issue? Should I be 100% positioned towards the growth portfolio?

What are some general rules of thumbs and what are some 'ballpark' milestones for someone who is investing for retirement? I'm after a generic answer that looks something like until:
age 40 100% growth,
until age 50 100% balanced,
then by age 60 100% income.

Q: Peter and His Wonder Team
I realize you do not cover USA stocks but I thought this would be an easy question for you. Relm Wireless Inc has requested to put 7 members on Iteris board of directors.
Iteris stock has spiked forward. Does this mean that a take over or merger is possible. If so would Iteris benefit. Therefore better to wait awhile before selling?
Thanks for your assistance...great as usual!
Dr.Ernest Rivait

Q: I appreciate your comment in regard to this ETF which has done well during the last year,.ebrahim

Q: between these two companies, which one would you prefer in terms of safety and return potential? Saveria has had a great run recently. would you still recommend buying in?

Q: Our favorite cruise line is Oceania and now that Frank Del Rio who did such great things for them is the CEO of Norwegian I wonder if it is a stock worth investing in. Your thoughts?

Thanks!

Q: Apologies in advance for a long-ish question. A good friend's $800K portfolio is wildly out of whack diversity-wise courtesy of a recently deposed financial advisor who had him 60% in banks. The friend has entrusted me to right the ship. My philosophy, very successful for me, is to be fully invested and widely diversified, almost 100% in Canada (not impossible to do contrary to prevailing wisdom), with an emphasis on dividends and growth at a reasonable price.

I have set the following personalized sector percentages:

Banks - 20%
Other financial - 5%
Telcos - 8%
Utilities/Pipes - 15%
Energy - 14%
REITs - 12%
Healthcare - 6%
Tech - 6%
Consumer Discretionary - 10%
Industrials - 4%

I am trimming his banks from 60% to 20% which frees up funds to purchase. About 1/3 of what he has is worth keeping. For the other 2/3 would love your input on the overall approach, the following choices and the weights:

Telcos: BCE and T, 4% each
Utilities/Pipes: IPL, PPL, BEP, FTS,NPI, 3% each
Financial: FC and MSI, 2.5% each
Healthcare: DR and CRH 2% each
Tech: KXS, NVDA and SYZ 2% each
Consumer (my definition): PBH, RPI.UN, BYD.UN,CGX, ADW.A, 2% each
Industrials: EIF, CHR, NFI, 1.3% each

REITS still need to be worked on and I'm keeping his current energy holdings which are well down, hoping/waiting for a continued bounceback.

Thank you very much

Q: Could you tell me if the distributions of FSV are in US or CAN dollars?

Q: Hello Peter, I am looking for safe investment with dividends, I have ZEF in my portfolio, I would appreciate your help to rate the above, perhaps suggesting a couple better ones. Also, how would future interest rate increases effect their prises.
Many thanks, J.A.P. Burlington

Q: Hi Guys. Can you provide info on the purchase of TRI that was announced this morning? I believe ONE is involved and others.

Q: Based upon your previous comments and my comfort level I maintain a maximum 10% weighting in REITS while participating in their respective DRIPs. At this point I hold CSH.UN. (with a 200% gain), REI.UN (20% gain) and SRU.UN (400% gain). I am contemplating adding CAR.UN and HR.UN. Please comment on whether this particular REIT selection is acceptable and sufficiently diversified or overly concentrated.

Many thanks.

Q: Hi 5i team,

Could you please tell me whether this ETF pays dividends or interest income? Until now, I have been assuming that CBO pays dividends for tax purposes, but I read an article in the Globe&Mail which states that bond ETFs pay mainly interest income.

Many thanks for the great service.

Q: Bond ETF: Of all the questions about bond ETFs, XCB is hardly ever mentioned. XCB is one of my core holdings in the fixed income portion of my portfolio. I now have additional cash for corporate bonds, would you buy XCB as a long term (10 years +) holding? I do not need the income, this is simply a portfolio stabilizer. Would you choose a different bond ETF?

Q: I have 15% of my well diversified portfolio in Tech stocks. I am thinking of consolidating my 7 stocks into a smaller number of stocks - perhaps down to 5. I have 2%-3% in all the mentioned companies except SYZ at 1%. Any suggestions as to which companies to sell and which ones to "top up" would be appreciated, or maybe just leave as is.

Q: Sorry for resubmitting the same question again. It seems that I am doing something wrong. Just realized that the name of the Company didn't appear on my last submission, so I am putting the company name and the symbol in the text, (Capstone Mining CSE.PR.A). My original question was sent two days ago, and probably did the same mistake.

I am in dilemma in choosing between the offer to convert series A to a fixed reset for five years at 3.271%, to convert to the floating rate preferred, initial quarterly rate 3.204% or to just take my losses and sell. What would you suggest, how safe is the dividends on this prefered now it is in the hands of the new company that bought Capstone and considering that the rate of return of over 6% based on current price? What would be a good replacement if income requirement isn't important and would rather have some growth and less dividend?

Thanks.

Q: Covered call ETFs are gaining popularity. Does the technique have risk that isn't being talked about (yet)? It seems too good to be true. You can buy ZWA which owns 30 awesome mega-caps and has a 5.2% yield. Or, you can buy ZRE which contains companies that max their payout to get you that same yield of 5.2%. The first, ZWA, is not exposed to rising interest rates, or, to the housing mania. In that sense, ZWA seems to be a clear winner for income. But something tells me that as more firms make similar ETFs, something will happen. Won't the increase in put/call writing become crowded and a problem? Maybe fees will increase? Have you come across some writing on the subject? I'd like to investigate before putting 3 years of savings on ZWA. Thanks team.

Q: Hi Peter;
I am looking at purchasing a gold stock and am considering RIC Richmond or TXG Torex Gold. Which would you recommend and which stock has the better balance sheet?
Cheers Ron

Q: I have a small position in Mitel and I am looking to hold for 1 to 2 years. They recently backed out of their purchase/merger with Polycom and the market spoke with a significant increase in share price.What are your thoughts and analysis of this company? Could you provide financial metrics,inside ownership, and forward guidance. Thank you.

Q: Peter and team do you have any news with this company ??

Jim.