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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: Peter; After looking back on my trading activity for the past six months I think a new self support group
would be a good idea. Even though I am up roughly 25% If I had kept my finger off the buy/sell button
i would be up about 35%, not counting trade costs. So for those who have the same problem welcome
to TA.COM - TRADERS ANNONYMOUS.COM-. Stop watching BNN.COM , reading the Globe and the Post, listening to every pundit and paid shill about why you should buy and/or sell a stock. Buy and hold
dividend paying companies that have a long track record of increasing earnings and dividends. Buy ETF 'S that mirror the general economy both locally and internationally. Balance them equally and forget about them until you are really old- say 45- then rebalance every 5 years. This is likely as hard as quitting drinking, smoking or gambling but the rewards will be worth it. Meetings will be ervery Friday after the market closes
and admission is a copy of your trading records for the past week.
This is obviously tongue in cheek and publish if you wish and add any comments.
Rod
Read Answer Asked by Rodney on June 19, 2014
Q: Good morning; When might I expect to see stocks like Badger, Painted Pony etc on the BNN ticker tape ?
Read Answer Asked by John on June 19, 2014
Q: Hi! What to do with FAP? They lowered there monthly dividend to 4 cents yesterday.
Read Answer Asked by Keith on June 19, 2014
Q: Hi Peter and Team,
I consider myself a short term, medium to high risk investor with perhaps some long term investments (more long term once I hopefully make some money!). I only have $20,000. to invest and would like your opinion of the percentage I should allocate to each equity. Should I stick with 5%, 20 stocks, $1,000. each? Or perhaps something different 10%, 10 stocks, $2,000. each, to be more profitable? Also would you recommend a mix of small cap and large cap stocks in a well diversified portfolio?
Thanks for your Great Service!
Brenda
Read Answer Asked by Brenda on June 19, 2014
Q: I hold a couple of small cap technology stocks: QHR-V and RC-T. Over the past three months the share price of both have been stagnant. Which of these stocks do you think offers greater potential for capital appreciation over the next 12 months? Thank you in advance for responding to my inquiry.
Read Answer Asked by Owen on June 19, 2014
Q: Good afternoon,
I realize you just answered a question on AXR, but shortly thereafter a much revised streaming agreement was announced. Could you comment upon its significance?
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on June 19, 2014
Q: BAM.A has been a very popular stock for some time. Yesterday a Financial Post report on Canadian companies listed BAM.A as the most indebted Canadian company in 2013. The debt was approximately 50 000 000 followed by Hydro-Quebec with 43 000 000 followed by Export Development Canada with25 000 000. Should one be concerned about BAM.A's debt?
Read Answer Asked by Bruce on June 19, 2014
Q: Hi Peter, I would like to add a base metals etf to my portfolio. Which would you recommend and do you think now is a good time to add this type of etf. I have no exposure to this sector what so ever currently. Thanks Luke
Read Answer Asked by luke on June 19, 2014
Q: I hold almost all of the stocks in both of your portfolios plus a few more miscellaneous stocks.
Currently I am doing a portfolio review with the objective of improving the overall quality of my portfolio.
My biggest "dogs" are CHW (Chesswood), WIN and also RFC. Do I need to be more patient with these stocks; or should I just bite the bullet and add sell them in order to add to existing holdings?

The stocks that I am looking at include AVO, CSU, ET, MG. I do not own ACQ so that is also a consideration.
Can you provide some guidance for me here.

Any help will be greatly appreciated - as usual.

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on June 19, 2014
Q: My husband has mostly bonds and GIcs in his TFSA and we are looking to add a few equities. He's looking for a good dividend with little volatility in stock price. So far we have purchased Boston Pizza. We are considering adding either SLF or BCE as they have good dividends. Would either of these make sense given our goals or would you suggest something else?

Carla
Read Answer Asked by Carla on June 19, 2014
Q: Hi guys,
I've held KMP for about 2 years and down about 15% in regular account. I'm thinking about selling my 700 KMP shares and buying 300 shares of BPY.UN to maintain real-estate exposure. Or do you have another thought or suggestion? I also own some AP.UN and happy with what they are doing.
Thank you for all your help!
Brent
Read Answer Asked by Brent on June 19, 2014
Q: My question is on market cap balance / diversification in a portfolio. When I google market cap definitions, I came up with the following from a couple of sources:

Micro: < $300MM
Small: < $2BB
Mid: < $10BB
Large: $10BB+

Using this metric, my portfolio split for Micro-Small-Mid-Large is 10% - 35% - 25% - 30%. Since I am a young investor (30) who doesn’t need cash anytime soon, making regular contributions to my portfolio, long time horizon and higher end of risk threshold, I was ok (prefer!) the small cap bias. Especially with 5i research giving me insights on everything I own.

Having said that, I was going through some old questions in the members forum and found one where 5i defines market caps as, based on Cdn / Us Equity:

Micro: < $50MM / $75MM
Small: < $250MM / $500MM
Mid: < $1BB / $5BB
Large: $1BB+ / $5BB+

Using THIS metric, my portfolio split for Micro-Small-Mid-Large changes dramatically to 1% - 9% - 20% - 70%. This strikes me as very conservative as over 2/3rds of my portfolio is large cap.

My questions are:

1. Is the second breakdown described the correct way we should be looking at market cap definitions?
2. What would you suggest is healthy Micro-Small-Mid-Large cap split for my general investment profile?

As always, thank you for this excellent service!
Read Answer Asked by Ray on June 19, 2014
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