Investment Q&A

Q: I hold all four of these financials.
The Bank stocks are performing well while GSY and PRL are not,
All are in the lending business. I would appreciate your explanation
of this difference other than the type of borrower they serve given economic concerns.
Thank you
John

Q: Have an RRSP currently holding 2 bank positions (BMO and NA) that represent 11% of the portfolio Also hold XIU and XIC that total 15 percent of the portfolio and CDZ that is roughly 10 % of the portfolio.
Thinking of adding BNS or selling the two banks and buying ZEB. Which is better option given the other ETF’s ?What percentage holding in the banks would be appropriate?
Also should portfolio hold both XIU and XIC or should they be combined into one of the two. And if so how does this affect the direct holding in the banks? Perhaps not needed at all? Would appreciate your comments.Thanks.

Q: What are your current favourite Canadian 'low worry' stocks from any category? Please list as many as you like! Cheers.

Q: Hi 5i Team,

Can you suggest 5 Canadian and 5 US Value stocks that you would buy in order of high to low and the rational behind it. Please also include the entry price.

Thanks
Joe

Q: The market keeps going up with high valuations for many stocks. What are your current top 5 Canadian and 5 US stocks with high convictions, good valuation and growth for the next 3 to 5 yeas in TFSA account. Please provide your rationale for each pick with risk level (H, M, L) and entry price if possible. Thanks.

Q: Do you have a sense of the liability potential for EIX with regard to California wildfires? EIX share price has recovered significantly from Jun of last year and I am within 1.5% of breakeven. What would you recommend to the 'income investors' in the group? Buy, sell, hold? If "sell", what would you replace it with?

Q: Could you provide the top (and rank) 3 or 4 stocks from each of the Income, Balanced and Growth portfolios to buy today.
Thank you

Q: I was planning on adding some or all of these to an RRSP and /or an RESP.
Any issues or better ideas. I am thinking ETF's and one or two blue chip.Thanks,Paul

Q: Can you please provide your analysis of whether AI software developments will negatively impact the businesses of OTEX and ENGH? Both companies seem solid, reasonably well-managed, and pay nice dividends to compensate for their low growth. Should I be concerned that their revenues will decline over time such that my retirement income will be in jeopardy? Should I move on to a more stable dividend payer, for example FTS, that is less likely to be hurt by AI?

Q: My daughter is starting her TFSA. I have suggested a couch potato strategy to start - can you recommend a good all in one ETF that rebalances and any suggestions for 1-2 buy and hold Canadian stocks if she wants to try that out too.

Q: Hi Peter & Team,

My observations are that, at the present, owning BNS is much better than being a client of BNS.

I've noticed, for example, that the customer service at Scotia iTrade, which incidentally has among the highest commission rates in the online broker category, has recently deteriorated to the point where they don't acknowledge that 'they'll get back to (me) within several days' or a similar phrase and response used by most other organizations. Indeed, with some issues I raised with them via a secure message and/or the 'service @' email, they don't respond at all.

They recently let go 3000 employees.

https://financialpost.com/fp-finance/banking/scotiabank-laid-off-3000-people-2025

In my view, going forward, their client base will drop over time unless their customer service improves, making BNS less of a viable investment.

Q: I'm thinking to rotate some profits in BNS, MFC, POW & TD into GSY for a long term value/income and BANK or HMAX to add some extra income.

What do you think of the move and how would you rank BNS, MFC, POW & TD, are all worth keeping a position in?

Of BANK/ HMAX which would you prefer or is there a better name for a banking & insurance extra yield ETF.

Q: BNS, like all the Canadian banks has had a good run. would it be a mistake to cash out and look to some small caps?? Thanks Jim

Q: As a retired investor I am looking for dividend income. Please rank the buying order you would have for the above stocks with the emphasis on rising dividends, dividend stability, and safety of dividend. My holding period is 10 years plus

Q: I am a buy-and-hold total return value investor. I have a concentrated portfolio of eleven stocks. I don't worry about asset diversification. I hold FFH and BN in the financial space right now, but I'm considering selling BN and replacing it with a Canadian bank (not an ETF). What do you think of that plan? Which Canadian bank would you think would best fit my strategy? Could you please list three banks, in order of preference?

Thanks.

Q: We are looking to inject more growth into our TFSAs - can accept reasonable degree of risk. Looking for concentrated list 10 stocks for 3-5 year hold.

Q: My financial holdings are TD, BNS, BMO, MFC and SLF. With the recent surge in the banks I am looking to rebalance back to a 50/50 split between banks and insurance companies. If you were to add a third insurance company, which would it be? Or should I add a non-bank/insurance company like BAM or X which is still classified as financial? I am only interested in large cap, dividend-paying stocks.

Q: How would you define a "core holding" in a portfolio? The above listed companies I consider to be core holdings. Does this list broadly match your definition of what type of companies should make up core holdings in a portfolio? Are there names in that list that you would NOT consider to be "core holdings"?
Thank you for your work and please deduct as many credits as you see fit.

Q: Similarly to the question asked by David regarding your Income portfolio, for B-E portfolio, what would be your top 10 stocks in the order you would buy. Based on anticipated total return (dividends + stock price increase) for the next five years expectations. I would also appreciate if you could add to these stocks your return expectations and risk ratios on the scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highest. Thanks.

Q: Thoughts on the results just released?

Thx