Investment Q&A

Q: Happy new year Peter and 5i,
Once again it is time to add funds to our grandson's RESP [14 mos]. Currently his holdings are: XTC 20 % of portfolio up 35%, DHX 19.4 % of portfolio up 92%, AYA 25% of portfolio up 285% [wow]. We reduced his holdings by 50%, and AVO 8.1% of portfolio down 42%. We would appreciate your opinion of new picks and assessment of current portfolio
thanks again

Q: Hello- Do you think and investment in the large US banks might be a good idea right now? Of JP Morgan,Citi, Wells Fargo,Bank of America,
Goldman Sachs or others, which are a few of your favourites?
Thank you.

Q: Please provide your recommendations for Bri-Chem. At current price do you recommned an investmen in this company?
Do you know the level of debt of the company and asscoiated risk. Do you think company can survive in low commodity price environment ? If I would like to select one company in Oil Field Service sector which is the one 5I recommends and why?

Q: Last year I asked you what foreign stock market would be the best performer for 2014 and suggested ishares Japan or Germany as options to buy. You went for Brazil which didn't work out too well, while my own prediction for Japan was only slightly better. What is your prediction for the country ishares to buy in 2015?

Q: Looking to add one stock to my TFSA.Which one would you choose between CXI and DHX.B?

Q: I have held Intact for some time and have a decent profit. Would you continue to hold or would you recommend a switch to another Insurer/financial?

Q: Hi guys, Happy New year. I just have a quick question. Whenever I sell a US security in any account (CA, US, TFSA, RRSP), I get charged US tax. The tax is next to nothing, for example I sold $10,800 of a security and they charged me 24 cents. Out of sheer curiosity, what is this tax?

Also, I thought the only US tax charged or withheld was when a Canadian received a dividend in a non-RRSP account. Does the US government also withhold/charge tax when a Canadian sells a security?

Q: Can you recommend some funds that are CDN dollar and overweight in CDN industrial companies? I would like to take into account the growing US economy and the declining CDN dollar, allowing CDN manufacturers to prosper.

Q: I own Norbord (NBD) at a much higher cost. I sold Ainsworth (ANS) and bought Western Forest Products (WEF) a few months ago. Should I sell Norbord and buy more Western Forest or another forestry and wood products company. My only holdings in this sector are NBD and WEF.

Happy New Year, all the best in 2015. Thanks for the wonderful service you provide.

Q: During 2014 this stock showed pretty good growth in it's price…..going from the mid $40s to year end at the mid $50s. What is your present evaluation of this company…both short term and long term. Wishing all the team a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Q: Hello,

What are your opinions on this company?

Thanks!

Q: What can you tell me about that micro-cap company that is listed on the CVE?
How promising is it and what event should we watch before buying?
Thank you
Jean

Q: To my understanding, prairie sky earns revenue by activity on it's properties. Do you know percentage of nat gas verses oil on the lands. I would imagine that revenues would be less because of less activity on their land. Would they have less revenue per mcf of nat gas and per barrel of oil extracted from their property because of lower prices. Some of the gold streamers (i.e.: Franco Nevada) have been insulated from lower gold prices. Could psk be insulated from lower gas and or oil prices disregarding sentiment toward the sector.

Q: Hi Peter. I have $US to invest and am interested in US ETF's. I'd appreciate a recommendation for a US broad market ETF. Thanks.

Q: Happy new year and thanks for all your azdvice
would you consider ANY of the stocks in the model portfolio TOO RISKY to purchase right now, that is that they will probably go down in the short term or that the reward/risk ration would be small, either for fundamental reasons or technical
I am considering buying and sellin short term covered call on some of those I do not own, as a way to begin owning them; in particular to buy now (and sell at the money cover ed calls for 17th Jan), 2015 the following: BDI, HCG,MDA,STN,MG,G

Q: Hi 5i team,

For a high growth investor with a long-term investing horizon what would be your recommended portfolio allocation between micro, small, medium and large cap stocks?

Thanks as always,

Jon

Q: How secure is their dividend?

Q: The last few years have seen the introduction of style-based ETF's that focus on low-volatility (ZLB, ULV, XMI), momentum (WXM, YXM, MTUM), growth (XCG), or value (FXM, VLUE) styles of investing. The low-volatility and momentum ETF's in particular seem to have been doing well recently.
However for the last five years or so we have seen generally rising markets that have provided a climate for positive results, and one cannot check how these ETF's did in major down drafts because they were initiated more recently than 2008/2009.
How do you think the various style-based ETF's would do under different market conditions than we have seen in the last five years?
I have checked the performance of some of these funds against the TSX Composite Index during the correction of September-October 2014 and from the high point to the low the TSX Index was down 12.4%, FXM was down 12.5%, WXM was down 11.0%, XCG was down 8.4%, and ZLB was down 5.3%. How much significance should be attached to results from a single correction?
I guess my basic question is whether you see any advantage to diversifying my ETF's across different styles of investing, or should I just stick with ZLB (up 66% in three years) for my Canadian content ETF? (I recognise the value of multi-country diversification).
By the way, you have a great site - I admire your dedication to investor education. All this for the price of a cup of coffee a week is incredible.

Q: Thank You for the great service. My question generally relates to dividend paying stocks. I own the following dividend payers, BCE, BIP, BNS, BPE,CGX,CU,EMA,ENb,FTS,IPl,PPL,RY,SLF,T,TRP,NA,TD,CNR, KBL and a few others. These dividend paying stocks make up approximately 45% of my portfolio. My question is: Is this too much of this type of security to own in one's portfolio? Thank you.

Q: This year, I would like to increase the US equity weight in my family portfolio to approximately 15% of our overall family portyfolio and am considering the purchase of CLU with a MER of 0.72. I already own some VIG in US$ and believe that the spread between the US$ and Cdn$ will continue to increase in 2015. Do you see any better choice of ETF than CLU to achieve my objective. Thank you.