Investment Q&A

Q: Are the California wildfire losses expected to have any impact on Canadian insurers, possibly as reinsurance partners?

Q: These 9 stocks were approximately equally weighted in unregistered dividend account before NPI and BCE took a big dive. The overall yield of the account is around 4.8% which I have been happy with, but the loss of capital in the 2 mentioned is troubling.

Objective of the account is to generate retirement dividend income for the next 5 to 10 years.
Other accounts provide pretty decent diversification by sector / geography / growth etc.


Question 1. Should I take the loss on these two and redeploy into the other holdings?

Question 2. Any glaring omissions in this account which you think I should add in here?

Q: Hi 5i

Please as many questions as needed.

I am heavily invested in stocks and want to raise cash, putting more money into bonds. I have about 10% in Canadian oil and gas, 5% gold stocks, and about 13% in uranium stocks. I am going to hold my gold and uranium.

What allocation would you suggest for a retiree in terms of portfolio holdings of gas and oil?

I am concerned about the possible coming tarriffs and the effect on the Canadian ecomomy. Most of my holdings are Canadian. A lot of these are in dividend stocks. I have held them through the past few years but I do need to increase the allocation to conservative investments. I plan to reduce most by about 20% or consider outright sells. I currently prefer to reduce downside risk than worry about the upside.

Can you help me decide from the viewpoint of possible tarriffs and effect on the Canadian economy which are at risk the most. Could you class these as hold, reduce or sell. I will hold all my U.S. stocks which are about 15% of my portfolio and haven't listed those here.

Thank you for your very helpful advice.

Q: Hi Peter and all at 5i. Wishing you the best of the season!

Peter, first of all, I really enjoyed your last article in the National Post. Your financial stories were highly entertaining.

I manage a RRSP for my daughter-in-law. She has approximately 24K in cash due to a GIC that recently matured. (She got 5.16% interest).

She has these commission-free ETFs: CEW, QQC.F, XHC, XIT, and XST. She would have to pay a $10 commission on the following stocks and ETFs: BCE, BNS, FTS, PBH, SLF, WSP, ZIN, and ZRE.

Question 1. In what order would you suggest she uses the cash to purchase more of the commission-free ETFs?

Question 2. If there are compelling reasons to do so, in what order would you suggest she uses the cash to purchase more of the stocks and ETFs where there is a $10 commission?

I’m hoping that this question can be answered before Christmas if possible. Please use as many question credits as you see fit to provide a comprehensive reply.

Thanks as always for your valuable insight.

Q: What are your current thoughts regarding plaza reit as an addition to the income side of my portfolio? If negative, do you have any suggestions for stable high-dividend Canadian stocks that I can investigate? thanks, J

Q: Yesterday I asked you about a group of stocks with respect to trimming our positions to reduce our overall stock exposure.

Now I would appreciate it if you could categorize these stocks with respect to your opinion on the impact of Trump's election. Perhaps the categories could be: positive, negative, neutral, or not sure.

The stocks are:
BAM
BEP.UN
BIP.UN
BCE
EMA
FTS
NA
RY
SLF
TD

Q: My wife and I are mainly dividend investors. We tend to hold our stocks for many years. Due to the significant increase in the value of our stocks this year, we are considering reducing the percentage of some stocks in our portfolio by about 10%.

Could you please give your opinion as to which of the following stocks you would reduce. Would you reduce one or two selected stocks, or perhaps reduce across the board? All of the reductions would be in registered accounts. You can assume the stocks are all about the same percentage of our portfolio.

The stocks are:
BAM
BEP.UN
BIP.UN
BCE
EMA
FTS
NA
RY
SLF
TD

Q: Good afternoon. I'm wondering what your top five picks would be for both industrial and financial stocks. I'm looking for 10-15 year growth with medium risk.

Q: I am thinking of adding/increasing my position in an insurance company and have found that the combined ratio for both MFC and SLF are more than 100 while CB and TSU’s combined ratio is in the low 80. Does that mean MFC and SLF are not as profitable as CB and TSU? Which is a good buy currently? Thanks,

Q: Ignoring portfolio weightings, Can you give some advice on when to sell your winners? For example MFC has had a nice run. It seems fully valued. I am an income investor and am consider shifting to SLF for no other reason than the pick up in yield. There are other ‘winners’ I have that appear to be fully valued and I could shift elsewhere to boost income. What are the right things to consider re timing on when to sell?

Q: for a retired dividend investor in canadian stocks which dividend payers do you think are the safest and have some growth potential. seems lately that a lot of dividend canadian stock that i have been invested in is having problems. [bce, td, t, bns, enb etc.]

Q: Greetings, currently hold Great West and Sunlife well rewarded to date. Thinking of switching Great West for Dream REIt based on your Sept report. Objectively long term does it make sense., thanks Bman

Q: Your thoughts please on the quarter?

Thx

Q: Hi group on my last question to you I asked for 2 stocks in US and Cad (financials+ I also asked for 2 financial ETFs stocks same sector- I did not get the US and Cad etf sugestions...can you please revisit the question. has you stock pics picks on the financial stocks changes as of todays sell off ?...appreciate your help

Q: Why is their Share based compensation (SBC) so impactful and visible in the results? Is it because of the size of the company and revenue? Other companies I am sure has SBC but I rarely see it as a top headline item in earning press release.

Q: Hello,

New to investing and I have about 20K to invest to start...wondering how you would recommend to best distribute that? Looking for long term investments. Ok with some risk.

Q: Hi group I am short exposure in Financials in both Canada and us Please recommend 2 CAD+ 2 US stocks and 1 etf for each market. Also do you recommend a position in Bitcoin going fwd its getting hard to watch it hitting new highs as of late. Would you recommend a position for a moderate investor and if so what 2 stocks would you consider...thanks for your help

Q: Hi. I need to generate some cash out of a portfolio holding these positions. Can you please rank the noted companies in terms of which you would sell now based on current valuations and outlook over the next 2-3 years?

Q: I am setting up a TFSA for my wife. I have been managing my own TFSA for 7 years but my wife has maintained her account with a BMO investment advisor. We also both have RIFs managed by the same advisor. My TFSA has far outperformed the accounnts managed by the professional (thanks to your advice) but my wife is very risk adverse. She has about $100 K to invest. We are both in our 70s and don't have pressing needs for the cash. Could you. suggest a basket of Canadian/US stocks/etfs that would provide some low risk growth with a 10 year horizon.

Q: Sunlife Financial has had a nice increase (+20% since I last purchased). IS Sunlife generally a hold, ell or buy? The other financial I hold is Royal bank. Given decreasing in interest rates and potential impact on banks is it a good time to switch to a bank hold? Which may be the second choice if that is the case?