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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 have been retired for 11 years and looking at de-risking a taxable portfolio consisting of HFR and corporate class index funds HXT, HXS, HXQ, HULC, HUC and HEQT. My registered accounts hold mostly corporate strip bonds. What would you suggest in terms of tax efficiency and capital preservation given the challenging investment environment ?
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 23, 2023
Q: I'm looking to generate a reliable source of income to support my family's essential expenses over the next 5-10 years. Ideally, I want a mix of investment products with a high level of principal security (around 80%) while allowing for some capital risk (around 20%). What investment options would you suggest? Should I stick with GICs, or are there more creative approaches available?
Read Answer Asked by Robert on October 23, 2023
Q: Now that the yield curve inversion spread has narrowed substantially from over 1.00 to about.20, is this a good sign for the mkt overall or a bad one? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by george on October 23, 2023
Q: Everyone, I have some capital to invest in the tech sector, specifically LMN, for a long term hold. The market is in a downward trend and I am not interested in catching a falling knife but I was contemplating investing half in October and the other half in November OR should I wait to invest half in November and half in December? Your thoughts. Clayton
Read Answer Asked by Clayton on October 23, 2023
Q: Hi 5i Team - Should DCM's recent and steady decline be of concern and is its balance sheet in decent shape. Also is this a growth stock or more of a value stock. Some time ago it did an acquisition which had an immediate and continuing positive effect on the stock price but the enthusiasm seems to be fading. Do you expect there will more acquisitions in the coming months/years. Also is insider ownership fairly substantial and is it growing or declining. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Rob on October 23, 2023
Q: I'm down 22% on Bank of NovaScotia. If history repeats again I should double down. I've lived thru cycles where the banks pay a yield over 5% and each time their price goes up and as a result yield goes to a more normal rate. I already have a 5% weighting on this stock, and my rule is not to go any higher, but this is so tempting. "Chasing yield". Where can I find charts showing prime rate vs BNS yield to compare over a 20 year period.
Read Answer Asked by Tim on October 23, 2023
Q: If you were to buy 8 energy stocks right now be they Canadian, U.S. or foreign, please place them in order of preference and why those companies ? Or would you not buy any right now ? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Frank on October 23, 2023
Q: Good Afternoon Peter,

Sorry for the length, but I would appreciate a second opinion please.

A cautionary tale for any other members using BMO Investorline, the new website no longer displays journaled stocks correctly or coherently.

For example: Earlier this year I bought NVEI:US in US dollars, it’s dual listed so I called in and had it journaled to the “Canadian side”. With the old BMO Investorline website the stock’s symbol would update the next day to “NVEI:CA” and display in Canadian dollars. Clear and logical.

With the new website however, the stock’s symbol did not update and remained as NVEI:US.

Thus, I called in again to confirm that the journalling had actually worked. They confirmed that it had & the representative seemed surprised that the symbol was still displaying on my screen as NVEI:US in US dollars, instead of NVEI:CA and in Canadian dollars.

Fast forward a few months: I wanted to sell my NVEI as a tax loss. I clicked the link to sell it and the symbol that automatically showed up on the website’s trading page was NVEI:US and in US dollars.

To my understanding this was incorrect. While NVEI:US is an equivalent and exchangeable with NVEI:CA, they are in fact two entirely separate stocks, listed on two entirely separate markets, in different currencies. I can’t just go ahead and sell one as if it were the other. {Question 1: Do I have this right?}

So I manually changed my sell order to NVEI:CA in Canadian dollars and sent in the order.

When the order filled, everything got more visually confusing on my computer screen with this stock. So I called in again and found out that when I manually changed my sell order from NVEI:US in US dollars to NVEI:CA in Canadian dollars I had failed to notice that the website had automatically switched it to a buy order. (I can only assume the reason was because the website didn’t recognize that I owned NVEI:CA not NVEI:US...) So what happened was that I wound up buying more shares of NVEI:CA instead of selling what I already owned.

To relieve my stress, I then asked the representative on the phone to please sell all of the NVEI:CA I now owned and wipe my hands of it. {Question 2: I think this now voids my tax loss sale?}

My frustration only boiled when the explanation I was given regarding why the stock journalling went awry in the first place was non-sensical. I’m trying to remember the exact wording, but it was along the lines of: “the market you bought the stock on can’t be changed … the dual listed stock will display on the screen based on the primary market that the stock is listed on regardless of which version you own.” It made me wonder if the representative I was speaking to this time didn’t know what journalling a stock actually was, or if it was me.

If you can please confirm or correct my understanding of the two points I highlighted, that would be appreciated.

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Sandra on October 22, 2023
Q: My 2 adult children have put in the $8000 in the first time home buyers account with the intention of adding the max in the next 3 years. This would be a 3-5 year potential hold until they can buy their first home. What 3-5 stocks would be a good fit for this plan?

Thanks
Doug
Read Answer Asked by Doug on October 22, 2023
Q: With the huge surge in the popularity of covered call etfs, the amount of calls written is also surging. Who is buying this huge increase in call options? Will this increased volume result in lower premiums and thus make the covered calls such as hhl, Zwu and others with a long history under perform their own history?
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 22, 2023
Q: Hello 5i,

My wife's portfolio is in a 62% cash position(very conservative), with half of that cash amount dedicated to GIC's.
These one year GIC's mature on November 14/23. Any ideas what the re-investment philosophy could look like considering her ultra conservative approach. I am pushing for a 50 to 60% split back into GIC's(2yr. this time) with the remaining balance split evenly between some sort of Bond participation(Bond ETF or Corporate or Govt. Bonds -- no idea on duration though?) and Equities like BCE, ENB, TD and DIV(already owned).
I have decision making authority on her investment accounts and therefore I need to be mostly 'right'. She is 53 years of age and does own stocks like AAPL, GIB.a, CNQ, GRT.un, TCW, CNQ, NFI, etc.

Thank you,

Dean
Read Answer Asked by Dean on October 22, 2023
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