Investment Q&A

Q: In your analysis of C-COM (CMI)you mention that 17% of revenue is sourced in the Russian Federation.With the issues in the Ukraine I am wondering how you weigh that in your investment decision. The company looks very interesting as an investment and the share price looks reasonable especially with all that cash to deploy. But how does one allow for the geo-politics in an investment decision?
Thanks
Mike

Q: VXS... VIXS Systems

Earnings release 5:00 EST today. any hints as to what we might hear?

Thank You

Gord

Q: Please comment on CMI's Q1.

thanks,
Sandy

Q: Hi Peter and Team:
My self-direct RSP account still has the following mutual funds:
AIM925/924
MFC838/837
I am able to sell the mutual funds this year without penalty. It was recommended by our previous financial planner (bought in 2007)
My question is should we keep it or sell it now? if we sell it, what is your suggestion to replace mutual fund at this moment?
thank you so much.
adriana

Q: STX, Seagate on nasdaaq. I am nicely over 60% on this one. Should I sell and move on or hold for long term. I bought at $32. with 5% div. Thanks. Helen

Q: Regardng Mike's question concening monitoring holdings, RBC Direct Investing has a tab which will give you the dollar amont and the percentage of portfolio for stocks held in all accounts. I find this quite useful. It doesn't, however, have the stocks categoized in sectors. But, for no cost it is a pretty useful tool.

Q: I have a small holding in EGL-UN and am thinking of adding. Would like your opinion.

Q: Hello Peter
I have read the comments on FLY and would like your opinion of SNA as a possible speculative play.
Thanks for all your work.

Q: Re: Mike's question regarding portfolio consolidation – Publish if you think it will be both useful and comprehensible !

I have found a couple of things helpful to monitor our 8 portfolios (TFSA's, Rif's, RSP's, Unregistered accts).

1. We use TD's Webroker and in addition to the formal individual account information it reports and updates daily, it provides a Portfolio Management feature that allows you to manually set up your own portfolios. Other brokerages may provide the same. This is useful, not only because you can set up a consolidated detailed portfolio (not provided by TD in their formal reporting) but also because you then have access to additional reporting analysis that is not available on the formal individual account detail provided by TD. Once these portfolios are set up, providing you are not a frequent trader, they are easy to maintain – just have to enter in buys and sells as they occur. I have set up one portfolio that is a consolidation of several individual ones, to see the overall picture of all accounts. I also set up individual portfolios which mimic the individual formal TD accounts in order to take advantage of the additional analysis info available through the reporting features.

2. Unhappily, however, the reporting does not (in my opinion) provide a good analysis feature for sector weightings . After (finally !) paying attention to Peter's repeated insistence that sector weightings were critical to successful investing, (Thank you, Peter !), I searched for software to provide this but with no luck. So, I had to bite the bullet and set up a custom spreadsheet to give me this information . I download each account direct from TD Webroker (they provide this capability – I assume other brokerages do, too) . I then determine which sector the stock belongs to (I use a total of 11 sectors and give each sector a number). I have a column in the spreadsheet where I put my assigned numerical value for each stock as well as a column that shows the name of the sector. Using the sector identifier, I have programmed the spreadsheet to then calculate for each account what the total weightings are for each sector. Weightings could also be calculated for the total of all accounts but I don't bother since as long as each account is weighted appropriately (I do some variations, depending on what goals I have for that account), then that's enough for me. This was something of a pain in the neck as it has been a good number of years since I have worked with spreadsheet software, however, now that it is done, it only takes about 15-20 minutes to download and to adjust, if new stock buys/sells have to be sector categorized. I do it on a weekly basis to keep up-to-date . It has made a BIG difference in my ability to keep on top of things in a time efficient manner.

Q: Hi Peter & Ryan
You may have seen a quantitative analysis of Investor Behaviour's contribution to results, along withAdvisor contributions. A sample pdf here:
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEMQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qaib.com%2Fpublic%2Fdownloadfile.aspx%3FfilePath%3Dfreelook%26fileName%3Dadvisoreditionfreelook.pdf&ei=mSJNU6SKEKep2gXCoIHwAg&usg=AFQjCNFwWBetw8xOGdROK8RQS4BwUts0Hg&sig2=-lpwYJX6Bs3EFHAV-aUgvA&bvm=bv.64764171,d.b2I

It is a long read but makes many good points which appear often in your Qs&As with quant backup. It has a soothing tone.

Post to view at your discretion

Regards
Ernie

Q: Hi Peter and team - can you please comment on using stop-losses to lock in dividends on etf's such as CDZ, XEI or even stocks such RY (RBC). My thoughts are that I would be happy to continue collecting the ~4% dividend on $100k invested and lock-in breaking even if the stop-loss was ever triggered. Pro's, cons and risks of this strategy? thanks for a great service... Al.

Q: The Japanese stock market has had a pullback. Do you have a view on its prospects now? If so, any comments on EWJ vs CJP? Thanks

Q: SYZ - significant insider selling by CEO and others just before and after recent secondary issue. Cause for concern?

Q: Is there any news out on Element Financial EFN, it seems to have a lot of downward movement in the last couple of days. Any info would be appreciated.

Darcy

Q: Hi,

Thinking about IAG and MFC. MFC has outperformed IAG is the past 12 months. The foreseeable slowdown of Chinese growth and other problems likely affect MFC's Asian business. Additionally, I am still not very comfortable about MFC's financial status.

For risk control, is it wise for me to swap my holding from MFC to IAG and maintain a similar percentage in my portfolio?

Thank you.

Q: Hi Peter
I am looking at starting a portfolio for my daughter who is interested in growth stocks or ETFs with some protection to preserve capital. What 4 stocks and ETFs would you recommend.
Thank you for your comments on Surge which I have bought recently and is it still a buy?

Q: Hello 5i - As always thank you for your help.
I would like to add to my pipeline holdings.
Which pipeline do you see as having the biggest growth potential in the next 5 years.

Craig

Q: Migao's most-recent quarter reported improved revenue but a much-worse net loss. Potash prices are up slightly since the beginning of the year, but surely not to such a degree as changes the company's prospects. Yet shares show a pronounced uptrend since October 2013, and, at this time, a 'put' bid (200000 shares) at 1.45/share. With these divergent signals, is it even possible to form an opinion on Migao?

Q: A response to Mike's April 15 2014 question about monitoring several portfolios. I suggest that he look at Quicken Home and Business – the Canadian edition. The Canadian edition will only operate on the Windows platform.
Once accounts are set up, Quicken easily updates prices and provide several ways to evaluate portfolios.You can view any number of portfolios in any combination or altogether. By adapting Quickens “Investing Goal” feature you can also review portfolios by sector weightings.
Quicken can be quirky and if you are not going to enter transactions regularly it's probably not worth the cost or effort to learn it. I would give Quicken a B+ with a C+ for customer service. Other than using Quicken I have no relationship with the company.

Q: Hi 5i

My question is regarding Interfor IFP.A . I sold my position in the $17's and has pulled back to ~$15.25 . With respect to the US housing market, the issues of moving lumber and the weather, would now a good time to buy? Interfor reports May 6.

Thank you