Investment Q&A

Q: Hi guys, Happy New year. I just have a quick question. Whenever I sell a US security in any account (CA, US, TFSA, RRSP), I get charged US tax. The tax is next to nothing, for example I sold $10,800 of a security and they charged me 24 cents. Out of sheer curiosity, what is this tax?

Also, I thought the only US tax charged or withheld was when a Canadian received a dividend in a non-RRSP account. Does the US government also withhold/charge tax when a Canadian sells a security?

Q: Can you recommend some funds that are CDN dollar and overweight in CDN industrial companies? I would like to take into account the growing US economy and the declining CDN dollar, allowing CDN manufacturers to prosper.

Q: I own Norbord (NBD) at a much higher cost. I sold Ainsworth (ANS) and bought Western Forest Products (WEF) a few months ago. Should I sell Norbord and buy more Western Forest or another forestry and wood products company. My only holdings in this sector are NBD and WEF.

Happy New Year, all the best in 2015. Thanks for the wonderful service you provide.

Q: During 2014 this stock showed pretty good growth in it's price…..going from the mid $40s to year end at the mid $50s. What is your present evaluation of this company…both short term and long term. Wishing all the team a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Q: Hello,

What are your opinions on this company?

Thanks!

Q: What can you tell me about that micro-cap company that is listed on the CVE?
How promising is it and what event should we watch before buying?
Thank you
Jean

Q: To my understanding, prairie sky earns revenue by activity on it's properties. Do you know percentage of nat gas verses oil on the lands. I would imagine that revenues would be less because of less activity on their land. Would they have less revenue per mcf of nat gas and per barrel of oil extracted from their property because of lower prices. Some of the gold streamers (i.e.: Franco Nevada) have been insulated from lower gold prices. Could psk be insulated from lower gas and or oil prices disregarding sentiment toward the sector.

Q: Hi Peter. I have $US to invest and am interested in US ETF's. I'd appreciate a recommendation for a US broad market ETF. Thanks.

Q: Happy new year and thanks for all your azdvice
would you consider ANY of the stocks in the model portfolio TOO RISKY to purchase right now, that is that they will probably go down in the short term or that the reward/risk ration would be small, either for fundamental reasons or technical
I am considering buying and sellin short term covered call on some of those I do not own, as a way to begin owning them; in particular to buy now (and sell at the money cover ed calls for 17th Jan), 2015 the following: BDI, HCG,MDA,STN,MG,G

Q: Hi 5i team,

For a high growth investor with a long-term investing horizon what would be your recommended portfolio allocation between micro, small, medium and large cap stocks?

Thanks as always,

Jon

Q: How secure is their dividend?

Q: The last few years have seen the introduction of style-based ETF's that focus on low-volatility (ZLB, ULV, XMI), momentum (WXM, YXM, MTUM), growth (XCG), or value (FXM, VLUE) styles of investing. The low-volatility and momentum ETF's in particular seem to have been doing well recently.
However for the last five years or so we have seen generally rising markets that have provided a climate for positive results, and one cannot check how these ETF's did in major down drafts because they were initiated more recently than 2008/2009.
How do you think the various style-based ETF's would do under different market conditions than we have seen in the last five years?
I have checked the performance of some of these funds against the TSX Composite Index during the correction of September-October 2014 and from the high point to the low the TSX Index was down 12.4%, FXM was down 12.5%, WXM was down 11.0%, XCG was down 8.4%, and ZLB was down 5.3%. How much significance should be attached to results from a single correction?
I guess my basic question is whether you see any advantage to diversifying my ETF's across different styles of investing, or should I just stick with ZLB (up 66% in three years) for my Canadian content ETF? (I recognise the value of multi-country diversification).
By the way, you have a great site - I admire your dedication to investor education. All this for the price of a cup of coffee a week is incredible.

Q: Thank You for the great service. My question generally relates to dividend paying stocks. I own the following dividend payers, BCE, BIP, BNS, BPE,CGX,CU,EMA,ENb,FTS,IPl,PPL,RY,SLF,T,TRP,NA,TD,CNR, KBL and a few others. These dividend paying stocks make up approximately 45% of my portfolio. My question is: Is this too much of this type of security to own in one's portfolio? Thank you.

Q: This year, I would like to increase the US equity weight in my family portfolio to approximately 15% of our overall family portyfolio and am considering the purchase of CLU with a MER of 0.72. I already own some VIG in US$ and believe that the spread between the US$ and Cdn$ will continue to increase in 2015. Do you see any better choice of ETF than CLU to achieve my objective. Thank you.

Q: Would you consider this etf in hedged cdn funds to be one that could be held in an unregistered account and used for u.s. exposure as it has performed very well as its cousin zlb that I have owned for a long time...I appreciate your thoughts on this ...thanks

Q: I have been looking into this Corp, the dividend being attractive.I am retired and conserative. What do you think? Is it worth taking a small position in? With the cost of there operation going down with the price of fuel do you see an upside

Q: Hello 5i staff, I have a position in Whiting Petroleum as a result of a takeover. It is about 1% of my portfolio. I am overweight CDN energy names. Could you please take a quick look at Whiting? Is it a decent name to hold for potential sector recovery? If it is not a hold could you please suggest a US etf ( non energy) that might have better potential for growth? Thanks as always, Frank

Q: Which of the following etf's holding emerging market securities would you recommend.... HAJ, VEE or ZEM? Most of my other ETF holdings are Blackrock iShares with some BMO products, so I would like to diversify into Horizons, Vanguard, or BMO on this one. Many thanks!

Q: I have a quarter position in Rifco that has not been working.
Would you trade this for Currency Exchange International(CXI)?
I would like to ensure my $ in the higher risk/higher growth portion of my portfolio are in the names that have the best chance of working.

Q: I hold two tech stocks at present, ESL and GIB.A. I would like to add a third and wonder which of the following you favour at this time: CSU, ET, OTC, SYZ. Thank you.