Investment Q&A

Q: Which Canadian bank looks most attractive right now?

Q: curious what you think now on k92 at 1.65, you liked it before.
sell, hold or buy more
dave

Q: First of all I'd like to commend you for the rational approach you're taking on this current meltdown in the financial markets. Many of your younger subscribers haven't had the experience of multiple crashes similar to this. I recall Black Monday (the crash of '87), the pop of the tech bubble in 2000, the 2008-2009 debacle, and so on. In that last one nothing was safe, even bonds and bank preferreds dropped. Keep up the good work. In the longer term I believe your advice will save people money.
Going into this I had slowly moved money into the U.S. market (mainly bonds) anticipating that the party was coming to a close and the Canadian dollar would also be heading down. This does not imply that I foresaw the Covid 19 pandemic or the Putin-Saudi hissyfit. Those two hit us all unexpectedly and I am down an appropriate amount. It was just that I felt it likely that a correction and recession was on the way. I believe you indicated that in the past in your answers.
Soon I expect it will be time to purchase some safe, value equities that will weather this storm and even profit from it. I'm thinking mainly of U.S. equities with large amounts of cash and a bright future. A healthy dividend would also be nice.
On my potential shopping list I've included Cisco which I already asked you about. What about Berkshire Hathaway? I've heard they have a vast amount of cash on hand and the U.S. dollar is considered a haven.
Another would be Blackstone (BX) in private equity. They've been hit hard yet interest rates are almost down to zero in the U.S. and Canada. Many potential targets will be distressed and money is cheap.
Would BAM in Canada fit these parameters as an aquirerer. They'd mainly be using Canadian dollars, however.
Finally, would an ETF of FANG stocks make sense?
Can you provide comments on any or all of this? I'm intending to start cautiously picking up half positions when I feel we're reaching a bottom. I'd be poorly paraphrasing Napoleon here but I think he said something like "When I'm up to my butt in trouble, I make haste, SLOWLY.

Q: I’m confused by why you often suggest Sun Life as a suitable long term investment choice. Sun Life will be negatively impacted by lower interest rates and I haven’t understood what makes SLF so different from GWO or MFC. Can you expand a bit on the uniqueness of this pick?

Q: What securities would you buy to replicate an investment in gold bullion?

Q: A friend tells me she has a mutual fund that attracts a capital gains tax every year even though she hasn't sold any units. I understand how that happens but I'm wondering: are there any equity mutual funds out there that won't attract capital gains tax (or losses) every year?

Q: With this massive sell off, I am considering selling positions in to crystallize the tax loss, and immediately purchase similar companies to not miss out on future gains or realize any actual losses. Do you see any issues in this strategy and if not, do you have a couple suggested equal (or relatively equal) swaps in each sector? The banks are an obvious one, what about swaps for the tech, industrial, healthcare, utility companies in your model growth portfolio ?

Thanks for the great service!

Scott

Q: Would it be a good time to buy Preferred shares?

Q: In answer to Carlo on the call letters for the VIX, on TD Direct, they are VIN on US exchange.

Q: With China showing signs of recovering (a number of stores have reopened) would now be a good time to buy some BABA? Are there better alternatives?

Thank

Dave

Q: Hi there, just a follow up to my previous question. You mentioned a good strategy to get back into the market was to buy a 5% tranche on a 5% dip in the QQQ. If purchasing in Canada in a registered account, would ZQQ/ZNQ be good choices? Also, would you be doing 50/50 ZQQ/ZNQ split? Thank you!

Q: Would you buy any of these companies at this time? Would appreciate reasons for your answer. This will be in my cash account, 2-3 year hold, medium to high risk. Thanks.

Q: If I expect the US dollar rises against Cdn dollar to where we see a low 60 cent exchange, what would be a good strategy now? Buy US stocks with our current 72 cent dollar?

Q: The payouts on preferreds have become astronomical, and I'm a retired person needing income. Is this the bargain of the century?

John

Q: So with the various central bank moves, should I be nervous about holding Bankers Acceptances? They currently are my dry powder to buy stocks when things clear up. Would it be better just to hold cash or TBills?

Q: If the impact of Coronavirus leaves a "stay at home" legacy do you think Upwork is a company that stands to benefit and grow (like Etsy for skilled labour)? My understanding is that it's a marketplace for those with skills to meet companies in need. Do you see it as one to benefit immediately and in an ongoing when conditions improve? Would you endorse scaling into this?

Q: Hello 5i,
What do you think of REM as an income stock for a retired person?
Thank you.
Lisa

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan and team,

With the craziness of the market now, what top 5 US stocks are going to be a good buy opportunity?

Thanks

Q: Hello team,
This is a general question about metrics and about Microsoft in particular.If you back off cash and debt what is the metric for a P/E ratio with this applied and how does this comparison evaluate Microsoft and its peers.What is this metric called and how does this apply to for example CSU.

Q: I have always thought that "markets hitting all-time highs" is a huge concept that in my opinion the gravitas of which is lost on most. Because, if you have been invested across the market for some length of time, you will be up. And it seems to me it's not that rare to be at all-time highs. So my question is: Can you give some insight into how large the intervals of time are between all-time highs? I mean, generally, markets go up. But say, what's the largest interval between market highs and when was that?