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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: Iron ore is a mined and concentrated product. Steel is a manufactured product. While it may be possible to move a steel mill from one country to another or move steel production, you can't move an orebody.
I've only heard Trump's threats to put tarrifs on steel and aluminum. Is there anything in that regarding iron ore? Even if he succeeded in moving steel production to the US, they would still need iron ore, presumably from the Labrador trough, to feed those mills. Any thoughts on this?
Read Answer Asked by Larry on March 07, 2018
Q: Given the recent volatility in the US I am wondering about portfolio insurance in the short term. While holding cash is one way to mitigate a drop, I don't really want to hold much more than I currently do so I'm wondering if HIU would be a good way or if there is some other strategy you might suggest. I hear many comments about more significant declines, with the trade issues that are currently occupying a lot of political talk, raising rates, and, if the Dow gets back up to the 26,000 level that could be a double top, all of which make me nervous.

So, since I am a long term investor, rather that take profits and raise more cash, what would you do for some short term downside portfolio insurance? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by ralph on March 07, 2018
Q: Good Morning 5i team,
I have been looking into cleaning up my portfolio. On the US side i was thinking of taking Buffet's advice and just buy VOO. When I look at the top ten holdings of that fund, though, I note that I already hold three of the top ten in the portfolio in at a pretty good percentage: Goog, jnj, jpmorgan. I also own as well another large selection: 3M, mdt, pepsi, and proctor and gamble.

The question arises whether I should just buy two or three of the top ten and run a ETF myself?

Another question; the concentration of teck names in VOO/s top ten is quite low, Apple at 3.5% and Amazon a little less. It seem like these are the main stocks I am missing and the question then becomes, "Should I go for QQQ, which has apple at 11 % and Amazon at 9%? Although all the rest is technology as well, which I don<t want that much of. The problem is that I would like to have more teck but probably not as much as QQQ. Any other choices?
thanks

Read Answer Asked by joseph on March 06, 2018
Q: Given that AAR.UN has been purchased for a reported price of 8.10 per unit and there appear little reason why this deal will fail can you suggest a reason why the units trade somewhat below 8.10. The fact that a substantial distribution continues to be paid would leave me to expect the trading price should be above 8.10 by the value of the distribution. Actually I wish this deal would fail, it is a tremendous company.
Read Answer Asked by Terry on March 06, 2018
Q: Further to Peter’s question this morning about passive income earned within a corporation, given the new punitive tax rules that are being implemented, limiting fair taxation to the first $50,000 of income, what stocks should he be switching out of to limit his annual income? He was asking for stocks that did not pay a dividend.

A note to fellow member Peter, which is that you still have to be very careful when realizing capital gains, because they too will be treated as income, just at the 50% inclusion rate. So if you have some dividend income still, and you realize capital gains of $100k in a single year, you’ll still go over the $50,000 threshold. I personally don’t know of a way around it, but the stocks you mentioned already have a preferential tax treatment, so short of removing funds from the corporation and investing outside of it, I don’t see a way around it. I’d be very curious to know how other members are handling this new tax. Any chance of writing an article about this, as I’m sure in your wide membership base, there must be a good number of people affected by this.
Read Answer Asked by Warren on March 06, 2018
Q: A number of times my questions/answers have come up as private, yet I do not "click" on the Private Question.
Just curious.
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on March 06, 2018
Q: Hi Peter
RE: reducing weight in Financials and adjusting to non dividend companies.
I am very overweight in Financials and well balanced otherwise in other sectors except Gold and Energy. I would like to trim the former into opportunities for growth.
Can you suggest 3 companies that have been had some "correction" but remain good picks for future growth ? (prefer non-dividend)
Thanks,
Peter
Read Answer Asked by Linda on March 06, 2018
Q: While beyond your normal scope, I wonder whether you have a view upon IBN as a play upon the Indian market?
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on March 06, 2018
Q: I have 3 big losers in my US account, MITT, IPCI and IVR. MITT and IVR pay good dividends and the stock price loss over the last few years has been mitigated by the great dividend. I would like to sell each of these stocks and buy a good US growth ETF. These are the only stocks I have in the US account. Can you suggest a good ETF? I am retired so any one with a dividend would be nice but not essential.
Thanks for your great service
Kevin
Read Answer Asked by Kevin on March 06, 2018
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