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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 am a 60 year old retired conservative investor with a reasonable pension plus CPP. We have a well balanced portfolio that is roughly 67% equities and 33% fixed income. The fixed income includes a 7.5% Insured Annuity (yielding 5.1% pre-tax GIC-equivalent), 12.5% Fisgard Capital (1st mortgages yielding 5%), 2.5% Fisgard (2nd mortgages yielding 7.5%), and 10% cash (yielding 1%).

I am strongly considering directing some of the cash towards doubling up the Insured Annuity (this one yielding a pre-tax GIC-equivalent 5.2%). However, this is a "forever" decision. The annuity is not indexed, but compares favorably with long term bond mutual funds over 15-20 years. This would max-out my annuity allocation at 15%. What are your thoughts on this strategy?

The 2nd option being considered is Capital Direct (1st and 2nd mortgages), yielding 7-8%. My concern here is that I also have a 5% weighting in Sentry REIT (yielding 8%). Would that be too much concentration in the "mortgage" sector (Fisgard-15%, Sentry-5%, plus potential Capital Direct 7%)?

Do you have any other options for me to consider in the fixed income sector?

Thanks for your help.
Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on May 10, 2015
Q: Hello Peter et al.

What do you make of the recent run-up through April from a low of $0.50 to now $1.07 for Ithaca. The oil price recovered a bit in April to around $65.00 for Brent and Ithaca has its 2015 1stQ earning coming on May 14th. We should get an update on Stella's progress and the Ythan well. Since my last question they have sold their Norwegian assets and renegotiated their RBL. They expect to have at least $100M of borrowing room from peak debt from their RBL prior to Stella start-up. The largest uncertainties I see affecting this stock are:

1. The OPEC meeting in early June. If OPEC decides to keep production the same or increase it, it will have a negative effect on Ithaca as well as all oil stocks.

2. Any delay with Stella. Based on the past it is not improbable that there would not be another delay. A lot of oil projects have delays. For example here in NL the Hebron project has been delayed by at least an year to 18 months.

3. Markets this year appear to be showing the sell in May and go away and return in September trend. I have cash available and am looking to make strategic purchases through-out the summer.

I plan to hold this stock through to mid to late 2016 and have held it for a while now. I have made money on it in the past and have bought more on these pullbacks. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Brendan
Read Answer Asked by Brendan on May 10, 2015
Q: Hi Peter I attended the AGM this past week and must I was impressed with the results and forward plans .They appear to be a company that has legs and a excellent mgt group.I have been a holder for many years and served me well.
Regards Stan
Read Answer Asked by Stan on May 10, 2015
Q: Hi Peter,

Given what's going on with lawsuits and other pressures at GXI:

http://business.financialpost.com/news/fp-street/will-defamation-suit-proxy-battle

What's your take on all of this noise?
Read Answer Asked by Sheldon on May 10, 2015
Q: reported a great quarter I think. performing well in a lackluster gold market.any insight would be greatly appreciated.I bought in at .25 and it was 1% of my portfolio but now is almost 3%

Thx
Read Answer Asked by blake on May 10, 2015
Q: Can I get your updated views on Lumenpulse? Previous comments seem to suggest you are warming up to it, but the stock hasn't done much in the past 6 months. What would be a catalyst to provide some positive stock momentum?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Mike on May 10, 2015
Q: Re David’s question on the RSI. It and many other options are available on TMX money charts as a bottom indicator. You can choose various settings and save settings so you don’t have to enter it each time you are checking a stock.
TD Waterhouse also has many excellent options on their web site. I get an amazing amount of info from their program. You do have to have an account there to get all the perks though. To get an idea of the info that is available check out the Webbroker Tour site. Click on the Direct Investing Tour. The Research section will give you an idea of the wealth of info available.
They also have many free investment seminars, anyone can attend. Check to see if there is one in your area.
Read Answer Asked by Madeline on May 10, 2015
Q: MTY foods is trading under pressure recently, especially it heads south when overall market is pretty strong today. Is there anything I should be worry about this company!Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Rebecca on May 10, 2015
Q: Peter, what your thoughts are on DexCom - DXCM-US -, more than double in a year and 6 times in 5? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Ray on May 10, 2015
Q: Altus grew gross revs but adjusted earning are lower by 18%. I think I am reading this as - costs are higher because they are investing for future growth. If that is infact what is happening it should bode well for future earnings and I want to increase my position here. Please comment if this is how you read the earnings.
Read Answer Asked by Harry on May 10, 2015
Q: Hi
Ihave a few shares in my US account both are spin off from L Liberty which I bought in2004 DTV has a nice Capital Gain and I would like to know if it is a good
idea to keep them or transfer both of them into my TSFA US Account.
thanks a lot
margit
Read Answer Asked by margit on May 10, 2015
Q: vsn surged on Friday. Is this possibly due to the rejection from the bc indian band rejection of building a lng terminal on the west coast. Your updated thoughts on the company
Read Answer Asked by kenneth on May 10, 2015
Q: I am sorry to hear that you've decided to exclude dividends as an item separate from returns. I think yield and returns are quite different. I'm in retirement and by nature have little confidence in future growth,surmised from historical information and predictions. Simplistically, my general prejudice is to filter out anything which doesn't distribute half its profits.
Read Answer Asked by Carl on May 10, 2015
Q: Hi Team,

On May 8 Mehran asked about HHF. Are there any other hedge funds out there (Canadian or US) that you like and how much of a total portfolio for a conservative investor would you suggest holding in this type of security?

Many thanks.

Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on May 09, 2015
Q: Would you prefer KKR over BX for a five year timeframe in an RRSP and what yields do you show for each company?
Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Steven on May 09, 2015
Q: what are your thoughts on goldcorp?is the dividend sustainable?
Good time to buy?
Thanks Josh
Read Answer Asked by Josh on May 09, 2015
Q: Hi Peter,

I would like to ask what are the best reit to invest in? thanks a lot.
Read Answer Asked by Rosabella on May 09, 2015
Q: Their MD&A suggests a 3-4X increase in copper production with the Constancia mine on full production. Any idea what this might translate into in earnings/share price?
Read Answer Asked by jim on May 09, 2015
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