Investment Q&A

Q: HI Peter,
I own Bank of Nova scotia, Royal and TD. All of these represent a total of 20% weighting in my portfolio. I basically plan to keep these for over 5 years and are part of the DRIP plan which allows me to buy whole number of shares. It appears that he short sellers have been successful at bringing down share prices of some Canadian Companies (ie. VRX, etc). Under what conditions would banks be hit by short sellers given the banks are fairly conservative? There is a big talk of the housing crisis, but I would think the banks are smart enough to withstand short term fluctuations in a correction. If there is a big short on the banks, i was simply going to add to my holdings or let it ride with more shares from the drip plan. I am assuming the Canadian banks will continue to do well in the long run. Thanks again for your input.

Q: Need some serious hand holding please

Q: I always had bonds equally spread over a 5- year period. However, it is getting very difficult to buy bonds. Since i want liquidity, i am considering an etf like xsb or xbb.
I read that if interest rates go up, there will be a loss of capital equal to the average duration for each 1percent increase. For ex. The average duration for xbb is 8 years, thus if interest rate go up by 1% the unit price will drop 8%. If over the years interest rates go up 3% the unit price will loose 24%. Thus, i fail to see how i could ever recuperate the capital loss even if the distribution is reinvested.

Since many people are using bond etf, i must be missing something. Could you please tell me if my description of the risks associated with bonds etf is correct.
Thank you

Q: When does the tax loss selling start (usual date)and when does it finish?
Thanks

Q: This is making my gold bug tendencies look rational....are all our stocks now going to fall to shortsellers, is this the new normal.
Or is there something wrong with the company that I should have been able to figure out for myself?

Q: Hi Peter I hold 22 stocks in my portfolio from time to time I call a company about the company or results I have never not been able to talk to a rep sometime it may take a day or two but I have always been able to contact a rep .Not so with DH a month ago I called about their plans on debt offerings as my equity was getting high I never received a call back.NOT A GOOD SIGN
Stan

Q: Is ATD too expensive at this point? Would you have an entry point if so?
Thank you.

Q: Hi team:

I currently own WEF and is underwater. I like to switch WEF to SPB (at heir current prices) for better yield and growth. I think with SPB buying Canexus it should have a much better long term prospect than WEF and it already provides a better yield as is. Am I right in this thinking?

Please help me out here, especially on which company is in a better position to maintain that dividend yield.

Thanks.

Q: Kindermorgan has been very weak as compared to ENB. KMI now yields a;most 7%. Is the market telling something else here about pipelines.

Thx

Q: Hi,

Wondering if you have any thoughts on Imperus technologies? I have some warrants from two years ago that expire this November and wondering if it's a good move to exercise. Appears that the price has dropped significantly.

Q: Peter, I have owned CSU for quite a while and it is time to rebalance. I would like to keep my IT sector at 20% and I am thinking of selling CSU down to 5% and adding to my other IT stocks namely DSG, ESL and DH. Would you suggest I keep these four stocks or should I add another stock to this sector?

Thanks, Stephen

Q: On a fundamental basis, what do you think of CI Financial's purchase of First Asset? For a five year hold in the financial category of a portfolio, would you rate it as a buy or would you rate BNS or another one of the banks more favorably?

Q: Hi - My 21 year old daughter has put $11,000 into a TFSA trading account, and has allowed me to manage it while she travels. What stocks would you advise at this time? Thanks

Q: This isn't a question, just another interesting tidbit regarding the VRX/Citron drama. Feel free to post if you like...

From Reuters: "Short interest in U.S.-traded Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc shares stood at its highest in nearly a year in the first half of October, exchange data showed on Monday, indicating bearish investors were stacking up against the stock even before a negative report torpedoed the shares last week.

Short interest in Valeant shot up to 10.54 million shares, or about 3.1 percent of the stock available for trading, in the period to Oct. 14, according to FactSet Research Systems data cited by the Wall Street Journal.

That was the highest since the last half of October 2014 and an increase of 49.3 percent from the 7.06 million shares, or 2 percent of the public float, at the end of September.

Overall short interest on NYSE stocks declined 2.2 percent during the same period, exchange data showed."

Q: Thanks for your quick response. I actually feel a lot better knowing it is a short report that created that panic. Usually these type of reports are self serving issued to generate panic for the perpetrators to make a quick short kill. The market is always more crooked than casinos. LOL. Just look at the weekly Monday sell off on crude oil and oil stocks! you can set a clock on that one by now.

Anyway my real question is - if that report is nothing but exaggeration, can the report issuers be sued by DH shareholders sold for losses because of the panic it created. I love nothing less than seeing these short sellers and their panic generating side kicks get hauled away. What are the investors rights in this regard. Thanks.

Q: What are your thoughts on the Valeant conference call? It seems like they refuted Citron's claims but the stock has been pretty neutral today. Any idea why that is/do you think their response was satisfactory?
Thanks!

Q: Your research report on Gildan states

"Gildan has significant exposure to cotton prices, which can have a big
impact on the bottom line. The company says fluctuations and volatility
in the price of cotton and polyester fibres is a big risk."

Is there any reason the company would not hedge these risks through cotton futures or even oil futures (for the polyester price risk)? It seems to me that this is exactly why these futures exist, to serve the producers and smooth their earnings cycles. Thanks, J.

Q: I'm holding DH. It is selling off heading into this week's earnings. Should I read anything into that? When a stock is dropping going into earnings, is that a predictive pattern? What are consensus numbers for DH for these earnings? Finally, does DH have internally generated earnings growth or will they need to continue to grow by acquisition in order to justify their PE multiple?

Q: FYI, BNN just mentioned a possible short-report on DH. I can't find anything on the interweb.

Q: FYI: Catherine on BNN just said that apparently there is a short seller report on DH.