Investment Q&A

Q: I liked this question from Todd in November:
"I’m only interested in Canadian compounders. Compounding companies that are mid to large cap that I am invested in are CSU, TOI, LMN, TFII, and ATD. Can you recommend 5-10 possibilities for 5-10 year compounders in the Canadian small cap space?"

Can you change "Canadian" to "American" and answer the same way for small/mid cap American companies?

Q: Greetings 5i team,
Any thoughts on allowing members to use question credits to purchase other services you provide? I ask few questions but thoroughly enjoy the Q&A aspect of my subscription nonetheless. For instance, a member might opt to increase the # of companies on their watchlist using Q credits since this number is restricted to five for non portfolio analytics subscribers. Or they might use credits to use portfolio analytics for longer than the 30 day trial period. This might be cumbersome to manage but just a thought.
Thank you again for the great service you provide.
SP

Q: You responded to my question on XMHQ in June 2025, and I’d like to know whether your views have changed since then. The ETF has essentially gone sideways over the past year notwithstanding strong markets. Its Morningstar assessment has not seemed consistent with either its performance or its underlying composition. XMHQ’s better performance before 2024-25 but that’s not reason for confidence.
I’d welcome your updated insight — particularly on whether the current constituent mix looks more compelling in an environment where investors may again be concentrating less in mega-caps and technology businesses.
Do you see XMHQ’s prospects improving from here? I am not entirely clear on what key drivers influence its valuation. The prospect of lower interest rates does not seem to have much impact.
Thank you in advance for your deeper perspective.

Q: Hello,
I have owned stpl for years as a sector based diversification strategy but feel it has had disappointing returns, even for that sector noting that there are some great breakout picks in the staples sector.
Could you please advise if you think it is a reasonable choice for the staples sector versus specific picks?
I realize that you typically recommend dol as well as wmt, cost and pg. just wondering what you think are good long term picks at this time given significant movement in these in the last couple of years.

Q: Everyone, i never understand what will make a multi bagger until one has already happened. What would you consider the characteristics of a multi bagger and what stocks do think will make that list in 10 or 20 years from now? Clayton

Q: I have been holding KSI for months, and it has been trading sideways to down since my initial purchase. I have read through summaries of its last several quarterly reports, going back to Q1 2024, and it seems that the high-profile metrics (revenue, gross profit, EBITDA) are all consistently improving and trending in the right direction. Operating expenses increased in the most recent quarter, but it is my understanding that they did so because the company increased investments in R&D, along with sales and marketing.

In short, it seems to me that the company is making progress where it counts, and making moves to position it for further improvement. The market seems to be unhappy with the company. I am looking to increase my exposure to KSI, but I can't decide if my interpretation of results is accurate or wishful thinking. I only have about a 1% exposure to KSI, so doubling it (roughly what I would be putting into the investment) is not going to be a game-changer for me. Any thoughts here on whether I should add now, wait until further consolidation in price, or simply move onto another idea? As always, I appreciate what 5i provides, and I have referred many people to your service. It is worth the investment.

Q: Hi Peter and team,

My Enbridge weighing is approaching 10 per cent of my portfolio and I am looking to reduce it to 5 percent. I am light on industrials. Can you recommend one or two industrial stocks that would be a good replacement?

Thanks.

Q: Canadian Banks have been star performers, this year, with returns 30-40%, and still offering a decent 3% yield. Latest results/guidance suggest a high single digit EPS growth for next 2-3 years and improving operating leverage.

What are the major factoring contributing to this stellar return and do you see this continue ?

Is it be reasonable to expect a 15-20% total annual return, from the sector, in the medium term ( 3-5 years ) ?

Would you consider 15-20% weight fine for a portfolio similar to 5i Balanced, but with a slight bias to Growth ?

Thank You

Q: What are the technical charts telling about Gold and Precious Metals?

Do you think, the Gold prices and sector pull back/consolidation has run its course and Gold miners are showing signs of support for its way higher ?

If one had a 3.5% weight, would you add at current levels to bring it up to a 5% position in AEM/XGD ?

Thank You

Q: I would like to add BN Brookfield Corp and Power Corp to my TFSA
Please comment on this strategy
Thank you

Q: I'm interested in this fund for it's VERY high yield. Wondering if it's sustainable?

Q: You last commented on DBO a year and a half ago. What are your thoughts now as the company seems to have some momentum?

Q: BSX has been rather flat this year. Down 4% today (Monday). Would it be a good time to add to a small existing position, bought at a very low price in 2020 in my TFSA ? Why or why not ? Better outlook somewhere else? Analysts seem positive. Thx.

Q: Assume that these shares were reset today , what would be the

effective dividend on a percentage basis. Thanks BRIAN

Q: I was just reviewing the Balanced Equity Model Portfolio for investment ideas. You show Loblaws with a YTD return of 15.18% as of Nov 30. I believe it is closer to 32%. Metro has a return of about 14%. Why has Metro lagged Loblaws so much for so many years ?

Q: At age of 85 is it worth for me to consider converting my present holdings of 20 diversified ETF's to All-in-One ETf's?
If yes can you give me an idea as to the negative or positive reasons behind this decision and which ones from your blog list that should be considered! All the present holdings are in RRIF and TFSA.
Thank you for taking the time for your reply & Merry Xmas!

Q: Hi, I noticed that the market model still says the last update was for Oct 2025. Is there a schedule for updates?

Thanks,
Andrew.

Q: Can you please advise which CYBER securities ETF would yor recommend to hold. Please share in CDN & USA ETF. Is there any equal weight ETF.

Thanks for your excellent service

Q: Hi 5i team,

I would like to hear your take on these three points:

1. AI is a low margin business like energy/manufacturing

The idea is that, unlike software, AI has high marginal costs per query. Serving 100M queries costs roughly 2x as much as 50M. So as models get more complex, computing costs (electricity and water)scale up linearly. Doesn't this trap AI companies in a CAPEX-heavy, OPEX-intensive, and low-margin game instead of the high-margin SaaS story everyone's betting on?

2. Anthropic has a better business model than OpenAI

OpenAI relies heavily on consumer subscriptions (ChatGPT Plus), which are volatile. Anthropic gets 80+% revenue from enterprise/API deals much stickier. So Anthropic's actually in a stronger position long term?

3. $1 trillion OpenAI IPO doesn't make sense

Above reasons plus they're burning $14B+ annually by 2027, mostly going to Microsoft for cloud credits. Plus, the circular logic of their investors funding startups that buy OpenAI credits. Sounds like WeWork all over again?

Best,
Matt

Q: Are dividends paid by Canadian limited partnerships to Canadian shareholders eligible for the Canadian dividend tax credit?