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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: Just a comment, I’ve been a member since you launched your site. I read a load of investment things daily, and your offering is unparalleled. While I don’t ask many questions, I truly benefit from the Q&A every day, and of course the insight gleamed from your portfolios.

Since your company has grown a lot, obviously the demands - the sheer volume of questions alone - has clearly grown with it, because over the last while I’ve noticed a very big difference in your answers. They’ve lost the choppiness: the quick, short, get-to-the-point way in which they were always written. Now, they’re very smooth, all corners are rounded, very well-written quite frankly, so I assume that answers are now being dictated, and a ‘writer’ is putting them together for publication. Very nice, easy to read in a mellifluous kind of way. But I have to say, I miss the choppiness!

Had to comment on it, it’s just that marked a difference. Thank you for the excellent service, I look forward to staying with you until you hang up your hat!
Read Answer Asked by Warren on August 08, 2017
Q: The recent hand wringing (and rightly) over CRH (haven't owned for years) has made me question what rationale retail investors use to buy and sell. I understand why advisors suggest a buy and hold strategy. But can't understand why retail investors need to be tied to that philosophy. I'm making a leap and will assume most members of this site use a discount brokerage. Given the almost insignificant cost to buy and sell (assuming buys and sells of more than $10,000), isn't a more active approach to trading a reasonable proposition? I use technicals to take the emotion out of the equation and would love to know what buy and sell discipline you would suggest. Having personal buy/sell rules might help investors feel better about making these decisions.
Thanks for all your support and advice over the years.
Read Answer Asked by Kyle on August 08, 2017
Q: Looking for growth, I seem to have overdone it in the tech sector which is now near 30% of my portfolio. I assume you will tell me to rebalance, the question is how best to go about it to maintain a growth portfolio while reducing duplicates stocks. My tech names are as follow: itc-t 1%, aaoi-q 2%,amat-q 3%,nvda 1%,shop-t 1%,bkd-x 1%, syz-x 1%,kxs 3%,sq-n 1%,goog-q 3%, fb-q 3%,momo-q 3%,cohr-q 2%,cgnx-q 1%,pho-t 1%,pur-t 2%. Grateful for your suggestions.
Please deduct the number of crédits you deem appropriate.
Jacques
Read Answer Asked by Jacques on August 08, 2017
Q: I would like to hear your opinion on holding a cash position inside a stock portfolio (not counting any sort of life emergency fund). I read lots of company (Berkshire, Apple, etc) are building up big cash position to better pull the trigger when a market downturn occurs. If it can temporarily be good for a company, is it the same for an individual investor ?

If we take my current situation, I am 27, no debt with a decent job income which I put steadily towards stock investing. I currently hold a 5% cash position as a buffer between my income and my investing. Do you believe it’s enough ? Is my strategy of buying over time with my income without building a larger cash position my best option ? Would you consider building a larger cash position 8 years into a bull run as market timing ?

Thank you !
Read Answer Asked by Julien on August 08, 2017
Q: Can you please update this company. Are insiders still buying? Despite being unexciting in the current market, is this a good candidate for a high risk high reward play on natural gas? I am down greater than 50% since my initial purchase a couple years ago. It is a small piece po my portfolio (less than 2%). Do I double down and play my belief that the world is using natural gas as if there is no tomorrow and eventually supply will become more in line with demand?

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on August 08, 2017
Q: Hi 5i. I have held full positions in REI.UN and MRT.UN for what seems like forever, enjoying the yield. With the trend towards on-line shopping I am a little worried about owning shopping malls and am considering selling one of these and replacing it with
Read Answer Asked by MATHEW on August 08, 2017
Q: What do you think about the "baby bonds" EBAYL (Nasdaq) eBay Inc. 6% Notes due 2056 for income generation? I know it is thinly traded but currently provides interest payments at 5.5%. I believe it is issued by EBAY which should add some security. What other risks do you see in such a purchase?
Read Answer Asked by Bob on August 08, 2017
Q: I am retired and living on dividend income. I going to initiate a position in PKI based on your outlook and now consider PKI a Strong Buy after another 4% drop since your Aug 1 comment:
Aug1- "The $3 decline in July seems a bit much to us, and its prospects remain good with its recent acquisitions. We would view it as a BUY up to a reasonable portfolio position."
Aug 3-"Analysts expect lower earnings for 2017 and very strong growth in 2018. We continue to like its long term prospects."

I'm really attracted to investing in companies like this. Companies that are financially strong and fair/under-valued. But impatient investors aren't willing to hold for the long term prospects and are selling off because the strong growth won't be realised for 6-12 months.
Can you identify other dividend paying companies in a similar situation, that are undervalued but should realise strong growth and therefore share price in the next 6-12 months.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on August 08, 2017
Q: Please provide your top 3 picks in the energy sector for growth and also 3 for dividend amount and stability.
Read Answer Asked by Terry on August 08, 2017
Q: Peter
From Morgan Stanley, i think, a well written little dose of common sense...
print or keep for you

NEW YORK – The S&P 500 closed at a new high on Wednesday in what analysts hailed as the accumulated result of several hundred million people waking up every morning hoping to solve problems and improve their lives.

The index finished up 4 points. Goldman Sachs strategist Bill Blake said the move was the result of unidentified marginal buyers being a little bit more motivated than unidentified marginal sellers. “We’ve now had 241 years of people in daily competitive pursuits to do things a little better, and those benefits add up over time. Mix that with some good luck and where we happen to be in the business cycle, and here we are,” he said. “My job is to sound smart, but you can explain this stuff to a five year old,” he laughed.

Corporations earned $5.89 billion in after-tax profits. Financial advisors and middlemen took in $710 million in fees. The difference, Blake said, would accrue to investors over time.

Analysts warned of several metric tons of dopamine and cortisol careening through the global economy, which they said created a near certainty of poor financial decisions. At some point, Blake said, these bad decisions create social proof and feed on each other, leading to recessions. “When is the next recession?” he asked. “I don’t know. Whenever the second mortgage you took out to buy a boat to appease your insecurity convinces your brother in-law to do the same, and his boat gives the boat salesman enough misguided confidence to become a day trader, and then all three of you crack under a collective bout of geopolitical bad luck or something. But we’ll move on.”

About 9,000 new businesses formed on Wednesday. Another 8,200 dissolved. Analysts expect the trend to continue, calling it an “unmistakable example of basic capitalism.”

Fifty-five million American children went to school Wednesday morning, leveraging the compounded knowledge of all previous generations. Analysts expect this to lead to a new generation of doctors, engineers, and problem solvers more advanced than any other in history. “This just keeps happening over and over again,” one analyst said. “Progress for one group becomes a new baseline for the next, and it grows from there.”

Three dozen political pundits yelled at each other on TV in front of an audience of 75 million. Meanwhile, a couple hundred million people were reasonable and productive in front of an audience of zero.

Just over 1,700 patents were filed at the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, with a few expected to change the world over the coming decades. “Pretty damn cool” said Sarah Donald, a PTO spokeswoman. “I wish more people paid attention to this kind of stuff.”

Facebook stock fell $0.23 to close at $169.16. Four-hundred seventy one news outlets covered the move. No one knows why.

Analysts expect more of the same tomorrow, with the trend continuing into next week.

* Nothing, and yet everything, about this post is accura
Read Answer Asked by claude on August 05, 2017
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