Investment Q&A

Q: Re: Owning Rental property vs. REIT's
Hi 5i,
If you feel that this holds no value for the members, don't worry about posting it. My preference is for holding REIT's and this is as a direct result of having been a landlord. We bought a rental property that had long-term tenants. For the first year or two, things went very well, but then the bread-winner in the family developed a mental health issue and things went very poorly. Even though (or perhaps because) the house was only a block away from our house, the issues piled up and the stress in dealing with the tenants (whom we thought of as friends by this point)became overwhelming. Then, unexpected job insecurity at my workplace. Long story short: we sold. While we did not lose money, we didn't make a bundle either, but the stress (for us, anyway) of being landlords was more than we were comfortable with. REIT's, on the other hand, offer far more peace of mind and stability. I appreciate that for every negative story about direct ownership there will one or more positives - but I thought I would share this story and point out that with ownership comes a greater vulnerability to the unexpected. In our case, both "macro" and "micro" issues. You have to know yourself very well to be able to manage these challenges. Best of luck to Andrew either way!
Cheers,
Mike

Q: Hi Peter. I've held Lakeshore Gold for a considerable time. It went to over $4 (I should have sold)and then dropped dramatically and now is slowly recovering. I bought it at $2.50 Its production has beaten forecasts. DO you see it recovering? Thanks for the great work.

Q: If possible could you comment on LUN Lundin Mining. It has the high short position on the TSX at 62 MM shares short and quite flat trading for past year. It is trading below book value at .743 and a PE of 20 What considerations does 5i give PB and PE when looking at mining stocks?

New subscriber and I am totally impressed :)

Thanks for your time and insight

Q: Do you believe there is a sell-off in Canadian tech stocks right now with a rotation into resource or metals shares? Many of them seem to be declining in synchronous fashion lately. thanks!

Q: I know that you 'like' Transforce TFI as do I. My purchase price was $17.03 so I am up roughly 35.5% plus the dividends. I hold 500 shares.
My question whether you think that it is worth adding to my position sort of averaging up rather than down.
Thanks for the input!

Q: Hi Peter and team.
In response to Franks earlier question about DHX's weakness today. I feel it is due to James Hodgins on BNN market call. His opinion is that it no longer has the growth profile since it became a content and distribution play. But that is the opinion of one analyst that I don't share.

Q: What are your short & long views for CIX?
Thanks

Q: Dear Peter and team,

On your advice, I combined (on paper) my unregistered and registered accounts to check for weightings, and was appalled at my energy weighting which was much greater than you recommend and than I thought. I need advice about what to cut to reduce it. My holdings, with percents, are as follows: CNQ 3.2; FRU 4.7; IPL 7.8; NPI 3.5 (TFSA down 13%); PKI 5.1; BEP.UN 3.9. Can I count IPL as a utility? What about FRU? Both have great dividends.

Many thanks for your truly splendid service. I look forward to my daily 5i research "hit."

Q: voting vrs non voting shares.

Even with lower volume and a premium to non voting shares, if the non voting do not have a coattail provision, would you buy the voting.
Years ago I lost huge upside when a premium was offered to voting shares only.
thanks

Q: PETER. JAPANESE STARTING TO RESTART THEIR NUKES . YOU THINK U - T WOULD BE A GOOD WAY TO PLAY INCREASED URANIUM USE?

Q: Hello Peter & Company,
I have opened a TFSA account ($20k) as a quasi savings account, which means that I may need some of the money in short notice.
I invested $5k into BA at $25.50 a share (it has a yield of 6% and fluctuates between $25 and $28); I plan to sell at around $27-$28 and buy back at around $25. Does this make sense?
If it does, are there other securities with similar characteristics? If it does not, what alternatives would you suggest?
Thanks,
Tony

Q: Have seen your comments re DHX but it continues to fall.
Have you heard anything negative?

Q: in my growth portfolio which one should I keep - SLF/TRI/PWF - or another suggestion (3 years)

Q: Could you recommend a canadian ETF with US small cap exposure?

Thank

Q: I would appreciate your opinion on XHD for U.S. exposure. I already hold CUD. Are there other ETF's covering the U.S. market you would recommend, especially those holding U.S. companies with global exposure. Thanks!

Q: hello 5i, my question today has to do with research information. if a person wanted to open a trading account within any of the Canadian banks which one would you recommend. i would like the one that is most accurate and tilting slightly to resource sector and small caps .also any perks that should be considered. should anything else outside the banks be a possibility ? thanx norm

Q: Hi Peter & 5i Team,

I have seen several questions on the lines of "Do you still like so and so stock that you cover..." In the event you come to know of some major negative news on one of your top rated stocks (A+ to B-) which would cause you to immediately change your rating of that stock to say an F, how would you warn 5i members to immediately sell/not buy that stock. For eg. would you post a banner announcement on the home page regarding that stock downgrade by you ?

If so, absent such a warning, can we assume that your current rating for all covered stocks are still valid, atleast uptil the previous trading session ?

Thanks in advance.

Francis

Q: Thanks for answering my question about IOC but I was actually referring to Inter Oil Corporation IOC on the US not Iron Ore Company. Can you revise the comment on that instead. There was a news that Teck was bidding for them. Why would they bid for an oil and gas company?

Q: More of a comment than a Question.
In answering a question on Teck you referred to the substitution of natural gas and coal. Teck actually supplies met coal which is a higher quality coal used for steel making (as opposed to thermal coal which is used in power plants), Teck's future in coal is more tied to overall demand for steel which is driven by global infrastructure building, primarily in china where they have very strong ties. Teck has been snooping around various iron ore assets for years now as iron ore is the other big commodity (beyond met coal) required for steel making. Teck would have significant economies of scale if they could provide both the iron ore and met coal to their existing customer base. That being said Teck is wary of paying too much especially after the issues they had when they acquired their coal assets.

Q: Peter and Team,

Is it weird that, after the downgrade on CSU by RBC, RBC seems to be on the buy side of many of the transactions on CSU? I guess it would be easy for a big outfit like RBC to talk down a quality company like CSU in order to add to a position at a lower cost.

I know this sounds like conspiracy theories but, anecdotally, I noticed RBC being on the buy side of many transactions since the downgrade.

Thanks!