Investment Q&A

Q: I noticed in a response to a recent question that you disclosed owning Microsoft but not Alphabet when the question referenced both companies. Over the years you have been very positive on Goog and on that basis I have built a fairly large position. I am therefore interested to know if in fact you don’t actually have any ownership in this company, and if so, your reasons. Thanks.

Q: Hi Folks,
I would like to add to my position in either CSU, GOOGL or MSFT. May I have your opinion in what order you would add too and why. This would be in my TFSA account.
Thanks

Q: No need to post if others have asked already.

Your comments on the Okta quarter? Is it a buy at $107? How did their forecast compare to expectations and do you see this as a company on the right trajectory? Finally, the market didn't like the quarter but was it an overreaction or a justified reaction to a material change in the future value of the company?

Q: Update: According to BMO Investorline, item 2) below is not an option. The CRD has a different CUSIP (59516M104) than the NASDAQ listed stock (5949181045). Apparently this is true for almost all CDRs.

Hello,
I have 60 shares of MSFT in a non-registered account, and want to sell 18 shares to raise cash of about $11,300. I have capital losses in the account to offset the gains, so there should be no net tax.
To minimize transaction costs, I am considering three options:

1) Sell MSFT directly, and then use Norbert's Gambit to convert to Cdn$
2) Convert the shares the CDR equivalent, i.e. MSFT.CA and sell that in Cdn$ (not allowed according to BMO)
3) Sell MSFT for USD and then have the bank convert the shares (~1.6% conversion loss)

Which of these do you recommend?

Q: Thanks partly to your good advice, I have held GOOG and MSFT for some years. they are now 17% and 28% of my account. I am a senior but fairly risk tolerant. Should I reduce either or both and if so what do you suggest as replacement? Thanks Jim

Q: General question about Microsoft. Historical data looks great, at least for the past number of years (when one looks at FCF, EPS, Share buybacks, Revenue growth, ROE, Debt - all appears to be great). Looking forward, what are your thoughts re investing in this company for the long term? My main concern is with valuation. It is trading at the high end of its average high P/E of the last number of years. What do you think are the plus, minuses and risk.
And as a secondary question, do you think there are better FAANG stocks, than MS (if yes, with a possible one sentence explanation)?

Thank You!

Q: Pick and shovel companies in the AI space.
Could you rank the above you think are the most attractive growth prospects with least risk?
Thanks
Jeff

Q: Good morning!

Mag 7 owned, UNH, AMD, URI, POWL, ASML, KKR, CLBT, LLY, ANET.

What are “your” top 3 US additions to this list? Thank you for all the incredible things here.

Q: Good morning 5i
I am always interested in your strategy for options and the question about selling call options for Microsoft this morning raised some. I know that selling options can have many variables and will be context specific. And I realise that you cannot give a hard and fast set of rules. So, I hope you will bear with me on these questions. This morning you said that you would likely sell a call on msft going out a month for about $470. Today msft is at about $449. So, about a $20 difference. In previous posts you said that you would sell a call option just a few dollars above the price. I would take this to mean more like say $455 than $470. $20 represents about 5%. Is that what youwould see as a good point.?

Also on the idea of selling a put immediately upon exercise of the call. Would it be reasonable to sell both a call and a put at the same time and then if it was called away, then sell another put at $470?
Thanks

Q: What would your favorite option strategy be with a stock like MSFT?
Thanks Ron

Q: Hi, could you comment on ANET's earnings, which I understood were about 10% ahead of estimates per share, and 2% or so more revenue. The stock appears to have taken a hit today on the report, so were there negative comments from the management on forward guidance? Something else I missed in the numbers?
Thanks!

Q: Hi 5I,

Between these two which would be your preference for holding in a TFSA?

Thankyou,

Jane

Q: Hi 5i.

I am hoping you can answer this question, which has been puzzling me for awhile. Every day, when I look at the list of the top-traded stocks on the NASDAQ in the Financial Post, MSFT is never there. I can't understand why this would be. Is it because a huge percentage of the stock is held by institutions that simply do not trade it?

Q: My mag7 holdings have only really consisted of GOOG and NVDA, is this good enough? Seeing MSFT and META with strong earnings, should I diversity more into the other holdings? If you were to rank the mag7, what would they look like? Was considering a stake in AMZN and I know they report tonight. Thank you!

Q: Please, For tax loss would you provide some proxy ideas for
CAN: CLS & US: TSLA MSFT CRWD.
Thanks you

Q: Hello I am new to 5i (one week!) and am really enjoying the Q&A as a learning opportunity. I use one of the banks to invest our personal retirement funds (ie we don't have company pensions) and am keen to learn to self invest.

As a 60 yr old I have recently started an incorporated and am wanting to invest my incorp dividends appropriately. I have invested about 20% of my available funding and have a high cash position at present.

The information I have gleaned online is that a an incorporation should invest accordingly:

Corporation:

1. Corporate Class Mutual Funds/ETFs
2. Broad market ETFs (stock and bond ETFs) *capital gains only taxed when sold, reducing annual tax drag. Be mindful of whether dividends or capital gains.
3. Canadian dividend stocks (eligible for dividend refund mechanism)
4. Growth stocks (Capital gains taxed at 50% when you sell) but no Dividend reduction management benefits compared to Canadian dividend stocks.)
5. Investment Real Estate (Rental income is considered passive and taxed at 50%. Can reduce small business tax rate eligibility if passive income exceeds $50K)

The online information also indicates that incorporations should not invest in:

1, High Interest Savings accounts and GICs
2. Foreign Dividend Stocks and REITS
3. Actively managed mutual funds

As well - I have completed your portfolio questionnaire which tells me that I am an Alpha Balanced Investor. This happens to align with the personal portfolio that I hold for our retirement which is invested 70% in equities.

Based on the guidance you have been providing in the past week, I feel it is time to start $ cost averaging for my incorporation funding. I believe that my husband and I can live off of our personal portfolio and do not need to pull $ out of the incorporated for 3-10 years.

Given that my current interest is to starting investing my incorporated revenues, can you please recommend the selections?

I understand that you cannot provide personal recommendations. However, I suspect there may be additional members who have set up their own businesses recently and can benefit from a tutorial and investment recommendations. Thank you !

Q: Good Day,

I'm a current holder of NVDA. These other names are down 30 - 50%, and IF one were to want to add another of these, what order would you rank them, highest to lowest? Can you please comment a bit on each one including a good price target to buy at, expected growth rates, and, as much as your crystal ball can predict Agent Orange, How much more downside would you anticipate in this space this year? Will solid performing companies eventually just perform their way out of these dips in spite of him? Or will multiple compression from uncertainty continue to plague the markets until he's out of office/gets reined in?

Secondly, on the broader market, with next weeks tarriffs looming, would you trim a few positions, even if they were on position sizes that matched your size/risk profile, to have some extra powder dry for the anticipated overreaction? It feels like so much uncertainty is "priced in", but most things still drive lower when the event that was priced in happens.

Q: Could you please recommend five Canadian stocks and five US stocks that are usually good to sell covered calls on?

Q: Hi Folks,
I am looking to add some more US names in my RRSP account. I currently have AMZN, PG, V, MSFT, AAPL, GOOGL, ABBV and PFE( along with CDN names 50/50 split). Can you recommend 3 US names regardless of sector?
Thanks

Q: I noticed that some of the big American stocks that were trading as CDRs I believe on the NEO Exchange,stopped trading there on Feb 14 and now it looks like their trading in Toronto and only have a history back to Feb14
The companies are NVDA,MSFT,TSLA,GOOG META and COST,there’s probably more,do you know why this happened and is their any significance to it Thanks