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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: Hello, I am looking to increase by Energy sector exposure from 2% to 5%. I was looking at XEG and HEE as possible options. I realize these are Canadian specific ETF's. I would prefer more of a balance between US and Canada. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks for all your great advice.
Read Answer Asked by Mauro on June 25, 2018
Q: Hi

I have noticed that most publicly traded companies do not publish a separate fourth quarter report . Why is that ?

I would like to know if by subtracting every line of the annual report from the first, second and third quarter statement of the income, balance sheet and cash flow, an investor can derive the fourth quarter statements?

Could you list the lines which are not suited to this exercise?
Read Answer Asked by Gilles on June 25, 2018
Q: I believe in the inevitability of alternative energy, although not imminent, I think fossil fuels are a dying industry. Energy transmission will be needed regardless of the generating source so I am looking for companies that operate in this space. ie build/maintain transmission infrastructure or develop smart grid technologies. The big utilities have some exposure but I was looking for more of a pure play. Do you have any suggestions on specific companies. Thanks

Kenn
Read Answer Asked by Kenneth on June 25, 2018
Q: I'm looking to start a new half weight position in an RSP account with a 10 year time line. Sector allocation aside, how would you rank these in terms of capital appreciation from most favorable to least. I have good tolerance to risk.

Thanks in advance,
Greg.
Read Answer Asked by Greg on June 25, 2018
Q: More of a portfolio construction question, I would really appreciate your opinion on the following. Whether in The Post or The Globe, more and more, I’m reading in the ‘personal financial profiles’ that individual investors should be allocating, in some cases up to 30% of their portfolios, to alternative investments. These typically include private company debt, individual mortgages, and ever-increasingly now, factoring, the assuming of small business’ accounts receivables.

I’m a conservative investor, close to retirement, no pension, planning to live off the income of my portfolio. Without over-reaching for yield, I invest in mostly blue chip big-cap, reasonably diversified, with an allocation to some of your growthier names. But when I look at what is increasingly being suggested by planners, always under the auspices that alternatives are safer because they cannot be marked to the market in times of corrections, I cannot comprehend it. Companies that cannot qualify for the better rates that banks offer, people who don’t qualify for bank mortgages, and companies who have to sell their receivables because they cannot wait to collect them on their own, sound very high risk to me, worlds higher than investing in a mix of banks, lifecos, utilities, pipelines, industrials, tech, health, reits, preferreds, fixed income, and the like. While the market values of what I typically invest in can tank during correction periods, in my mind, they certainly don’t carry the very high risk of permanent capital loss that these so-called alternatives do. Particularly so since most of the ‘alternatives’ I assume are small companies.

Are these being offered because, a) you require a broker to get them for you, hence you must use one and pay fees, and your accounts likely become stickier because of it, and b) so a broker, when in a correction period, can point to these and say they’re safer because they’re not reacting to the negativity — but only because in truth, there is no market to mark them against. Not until you try to sell, that is.

Long question, but am I missing the bigger picture, and these ‘alternatives’ are something that should be considered?
Read Answer Asked by Warren on June 25, 2018
Q: Mr. Hodson, today GUD and CSU concluded the day respectively at $8.02 and $1049.95. Do you consider these prices appropriate for the time being ? Is there any action you would recommend regarding either of these stocks, or is everything fine ?
As GUD reached $10 in the past, do you foresee the stock reaching that value again ?
Recently, you recommended awaiting a few weeks before buying more GUD shares; are you still of the same view in this regard ?
Read Answer Asked by Serge on June 25, 2018
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