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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: I am looking to "trim the fat" from my TFSA, which currently holds 20 stocks: ATD, BCE, BMO, BNS, CCO, CM, ENB, FFH, PDYPF, INO.UN, LAS, NXE, NWC, NA, NTR, PEY, PZA, MJJ, TRP, WELL. Are there any positions that raise red flags with you? In addition, could you suggest 3 or 4 value picks suitable for a long-term hold (20 years plus)?
Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Sarah on January 14, 2021
Q: Good morning
my daughter age 30 has $100,000 US to invest hopefully in the next market correction
Her thoughts are to buy about 10 global stocks (including Canada and us) for longer term 10 years or more
I know you do not follow global stocks but can you suggest 10 stocks that may give good returns over this time frame
Happy New Year to the 5i team

Read Answer Asked by Indra on December 31, 2020
Q: Feel free not to publish if I’m mistaken, but I would want to caution Keith (Dec 29) who said he might contribute his Nutrien shares to his registered account and would realize a capital loss in doing so. I do not believe that one can claim any capital loss when the disposition results from a contribution to one’s RRSP or TFSA. He would need to sell the shares in his non-reg’d account (and realize the loss) and then contribute the money if he chose, but should not then repurchase the NTR shares until 30 days has passed.
Read Answer Asked by James on December 31, 2020
Q: Hi, I'm currently holding NTR, WSP and GSY in my margin account. I've held NTR for a long time since Potash days and currently still down. I've done really with WSP and GSY but my loss on NTR almost equally offsets those gains. I would like to move some of these into my reg. accounts, what would be the best thing to do? I understand transferring any of these in kind would trigger a deemed disposition and trigger a capital gain/loss. What's your long term view of these positions and what do you think is the best way to proceed? Thanks!

Also, is there any website where you can plug in what you bought a stock at on a certain date and it would track what the market value would be worth now if it went through any splits or mergers?
Read Answer Asked by Keith on December 29, 2020
Q: 5i staff and readers might be interested to hear (and comment on) the outcome of my recent (Oct-Nov 2020) Nutrien tax loss sale/repurchase in a taxable account. When I sold my 2500 Nutrien shares for ~$137,000 (realizing ~$18,000 loss), I purchased (per 5i suggestion) an offsetting position in Mosaic (MOS.US, another fertilizer company). Over the next 30 days, Nutrien stock price rose significantly, and so when it came time to repurchase the Nutrien shares (after 30 day waiting period), they now cost $153,000, i.e., an increase in price for the 2500 shares almost as much as the realized loss (~$16,000 versus ~$18,000)! Fortunately, the Mosaic position rose in the meantime by ~$21,000, rescuing what otherwise would have been a disastrous tax-loss sale. In the end, I am now back in Nutrien (a long-term hold in my portfolio), but the whole round trip experience ended up with no tax savings (in fact, my net capital gain position increased by ~$3000 (i.e., ~$21,000 Mosaic share gain minus ~$18,000 Nutrien realized loss), making the whole effort unhelpful re: saving taxes. This tale illustrates well the potential peril of tax-loss selling. But thank you to 5i for the suggestion to hold Mosaic during the 30-day period, preventing a really bad outcome.
Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on December 23, 2020
Q: I am overweight in the Utilities sector and underweight in Materials. I am considering selling some BEPC and using that cash to add to Materials. Is NTR recognized as belonging to Materials in the Portfolio Analytics ? What other suggestions would you have for Materials stocks at this time?
By the way I have found the Portfolio Analytics a great tool for following and planning my investments -Thank you for your great services .
Read Answer Asked by Elizabeth on December 20, 2020
Q: I own 2500 shares (~CA$136,000) of Nutrien (non-registered account) with an unrealized capital loss of approximately $19,000. To realize this loss, I am planning to sell my position in Nutrien with aim to re-buy after 30 days. In the interim, to maintain weighting in that sector, what suggestions do you have for an economically similar security (or securities)? (My holding is currently in a US$ brokerage account, so would be easiest to switch to another US$ security, although I could journal-entry my shares into the corresponding CA$ account, and sell my NTR shares in CA$, if you suggest a CA$ security[ies].)

Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on October 26, 2020
Q: I would like to increase my portfolio exposure to materials and industrials. When it comes to materials, I own NTR and was thing of adding a position in SJ. I am not entirely comfortable with this buy (concerns about slow growth), but I can't simply find a better alternative. What are buyable (quality + reasonable valuation) companies in the materials sector that you think are better than SJ? When it comes to industrials, I was think of starting long-term positions in EIF and CAE because of their recovery potential due to low valuation. Is there anything that you find concerning in these two?
Read Answer Asked by Steve on September 02, 2020
Q: Hello Peter, I am intrigued after reading that a Canadian can earn about $50,000 per year of dividend income without paying any income tax. I know about your income portfolio of course, but with a view to maximizing just Canadian eligible dividend income, what would you think of the following portfolio of 14 stocks. Equal weighted, the stocks would yield 5.3%. (Disregard lack of market diversification; this can be achieved in one’s registered accounts.) Also, if one wanted to pare down the list to 10, which 4 would you delete?
BCE, CM, ENB, FTS, CNQ, AQN, CPD, FSZ, MG, KBL, POW, ALA, BIPC and NTR. Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by James on August 27, 2020
Q: I'm 2 years from retirement. I will have a company pension. Within my dividend growth stock portfolio, I've already reached my dividend income goal.

With all the money printing and worldwide government debt, I am looking to increase my gold exposure in attempt to diversify one step further, and (hopefully) provide some investment protection. It may not be the '70's all over again, but hard assets seem to becoming more attractive.

I would like to increase my gold exposure to 20%.
I know weighting is a personal choice, and I know you tend to moreless limit weighting in a given stock to about 5%.
Currently I am at about 5% with CEF, and only about 1% with GDXJ - to potentially provide a bit of torque. I would like increase those weightings to 17% and 3% respectively. Is this reasonable? I don't know if there is really any benefit in splitting the bullion exposure to CEF / PHYS, do you?

How do my NTR (5%), CMP (1%), DBC (1%) commodity investments fit into this picture? Should they be part of the 20% or would you consider those as a separate sector, and thereby figured separately from the overall weighting?

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by James on August 18, 2020
Q: I would like to add two companies to my portfolio to increase my US dividends. What would you pick from these 5? Currently NTR and QSR have a higher yield. Does this indicate a higher risk and should I look at a lesser Yield in order to preserve capital?
Read Answer Asked by Kelly on July 03, 2020