Investment Q&A

Q: hello Peter:
a general market evaluation question if I could:
S&P earnings are up around 7% this year, while the market is up 26.6%. Are we that much overvalued, or am I missing something?
thanks
Paul

Q: Peter & all
What is your opinion on TGZ in the light of the recent arrangements made with Franco Nevada?

Q: This is in response to Paul, regarding use of online brokerages.

For the record, I use TD Waterhouse and am reasonably satisfied with it.

I am familiar with Scotia's itrade, as well as BMO Investorline, and if I were to do it all over again, I'd probably choose BMO. Its platform is very clean and is not cluttered with external data that is not relevant to the portfolio. At a glance, (and again, without the "clutter") you can see exactly where you stand, without having to chase reports all over the site. Tabs at the top of the page direct you exactly to your choice of analysis tools. Their analysis tools and education segments are top notch.

Its wide variety of tools can help you analyze your portfolio, from asset allocation to choosing new/emerging stocks, and markets. It has tons of information available at your fingertips! This is what I enjoyed most as a "newbie" investor a few years ago, and which helped me tremendously.

As I mentioned, I am with Waterhouse, and am reasonably satisfied with it, but its platform, I find, is not as user-friendly as is BMO. For a new investor, I would suggest that BMO might be the better choice. TD and Scotia are also good, but in my opinion, would be better for someone who is used to some amount of trading and is comfortable with the jargon and the process. These two platforms, again speaking personally, are more intimidating to the new user than BMO.

BMO has excellent service for newbies, but also provides great advanced tools which you don't necessarily get on other sites, for no charge.

TD's new Advanced platform is intriguing, but it will come with a fee, unless you are a more active trader.

Only my two cents worth, if it helps ...

Q: Scotia iTrade vs BMO Investorline. I have the latter and could not be happier, at $9.95 a trade, and with more information and advice than I could have ever imagined. Updates on our portfolio value by the minute as well as the value of stocks that I'm looking at seriously, detailed info on any stock, advice from all the prominent investment groups, banks, etc. I'm sure that the Scotia product is also very good, but do check them both out carefully.

Q: A very general question- to find info on companies I used to go to msn.money- then I sort of moved over to yahoo finance- what site would you recommend. I am looking for the basics a price chart that goes back 5yrs minimum, the financial statements, maybe earning history-same a min of 5yrs...

Q: As a followup to Morgan's question re Mastercard; now that it has declared a 10 for 1 stock split and will buy back $3.5 billion worth of its shares would you have a different opinion of this stock?

Q: Hi Peter,
I am wondering if you have thought about giving a seminar/workshop on investing ? With defined benefit pensions going the way of the dodo it would seem prudent for individuals to take charge of at least part of their portfolio. I am particularly interested in finding something that would help put my two adult children on the right road.
Mike

Q: Hi Peter and Team,
I have allocated about 10% of my portfolio to higher risk/growth stocks.Which five or six of the following would you suggest? AVO,ACQ,LSI,BAD,EFN,MCR,FSZ,LGT? Or are there others you might suggest? Thanks Dave

Q: Comment on comparison of discount brokers.

I moderate a forum on high yield Canadian stocks and have done so for 11 years. This question has frequently come up over that time period and I have noticed some similar conclusions coming up over that time period.
1) Every brokerage will have its die hard fans who swear by one institution--those institutions are never the same.
2) the most general conclusion is that all the brokerages have problems and strong points but all certainly have their problems--seems more luck than picking the "right" one
3) Only trend over the years is that TD has been dominant but the number of complaints against it are also increasing.
4)for the record I have no connection to a brokerage (retired) and use Investorline personally.
Bryon in Elmira

Q: This is my response to Paul's question regarding self trading with a broker. I have used TDW for over 10 years am very satisfied with the performance of their system. I have recently started using their new Advanced Dashboard program and find it to be very complete and happy to be using it.
Good luck Paul in your decission.
Terry

Q: For Paul who asked about trading platforms. I used to be with TD, then moved to Nesbitt Burns and now with HSBC Invest Direct. Use HSBC for 99% my banking and like the world wide representation it provides. Check it out.
Ronald

Q: Could you please give me some information on ala.pr.e. Will this be affected by rising interest rates. Wishing you at 5I a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Years. Jack

Q: Good Day; We are starting up an RESP investment account for a new born and would like a suggestion on an ETF to start the first investment with. The initial cash investment will be fairly modest, probably around $2000 - $2500 for the first year.

Thanks for your insight.

Q: Peter
I own DHX and have owned it since $2.62.Now it is overweight in my portfolio.Traditional thinking is that I should be selling some and rebalancing.What is wrong with putting a stop loss(lets say 15%) behind the stock and let it run!I spend a lot of time trying to find such an investment and I submit I took more risk at $2.62 cents than I am today.

Q: hello 5i members:
I'd like an opinion on those familiar with using Scotia iTrade for a self-directed investment broker. If comparisons can be made with other experiences ie. BMO Investorline, or TD etc, then that would be helpful.

Q: I am in Goldcorp at about $26.50 and willing to be patient. Does it appear weaker to you recently, and do you attribute this weakness vs AEM (for example) due to this land claim issue in Mexico? Buy more, sell, hold at this point.

Q: I owe GNV as a play on infrastructure. I am up about 40%. I was thinking about selling at getting into STN or do you think there more to go for GNV? Thanks

Q: Hi Team
My adviser is suggesting purchasing Vertex Arbitrage fund as an alternative to a portion of fixed income type of investing. Do you know this fund and any feel what type of return may be achieved with this type of fund?

As always thank you for your advise.

Q: My question is on Abbott Labs and Abbvie. I had 300 shares of Abbott and they split. Now I have 300 of Abbott and 300 of Abbvie. Should I hold both sell both or keep one over the other. I know that Humira comes off of patton in 2016 in US and 2017 in Europe. Should I sell Abbvie before then?

Q: What are your thoughts on PMI.V sudden surge;good entry point?
Thx.Gerry