skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: These three companies are a part of balanced equity model portfolio as of last report. All three are down somewhere in the range of 15-20% since April 30. Do you still like/recommend them (i.e. are they still a "buy") or there is a change in your views and you are going to dump them and replace in BE portfolio?
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on May 23, 2019
Q: Hi 5i,

My question is in regards to tax loss harvesting. I am down, in our non-registered accounts, anywhere from 10-30% on Magna, Methanex, NFI, Vermilion, and Great Canadian Gaming.

I like all of these companies and would like to have them in my portfolio as long term holds. My time horizon is years, if not decades. I don't mind the volatility of these stocks at all, nor do I mind being down (on paper) significantly at any point in time with them - I understand these are cyclical names. Dividends, and dividend growth, from most of them ease any short term frustration.

All of that said, would you recommend crystalizing a loss on any of the above? Do you see any catalyst for short term price jumps (earnings?) that may cause me to get caught buying back in at a higher price in 30 days? And if harvesting a loss is the way to go, would I be better off keeping the proceeds in cash to buy back in after waiting? Or park it in comparable securities? If so, any suggestions?

Dollar-wise, the amounts are significant enough that trading costs aren't really material. The only other variable I should mention is that I don't have any capital gains (realized) to use the losses against, so it would just go "in the bank" to be carried forward to the future.

Lots of parts to that question so deduct credits as necessary.

Thanks, enjoy the long weekend!
Read Answer Asked by Ryan on May 21, 2019
Q: Hi Peter and Company:
I am a growth investor, presently down on above 4 Canadian and 5 US companies.
Should I keep, sell, add or replace e.g. GC with TSGI.
Since US market usually outperforms CAN market I am fine buying all best US growth
companies that you will recommend...…..or mixture of US and CAN companies. Long term hold fine but not required. I will trade as required, i.e. when becoming aware of it. E.g. missed selling MX, where I had an nice gain but no alert to sell and now a significant loss.
Thanks for your advice
KS
Read Answer Asked by Klaus on May 17, 2019
Q: I have decided to only keep a few stocks and follow the Growth ETF Portfolio. Of the 10 stocks I have mentioned above 9 are listed in your BE Portfolio with the exception SHOP. All have done very well for me SHOP up 568%, CCL,B up 180% ,SIS up 159%,MG up 112% and the rest all up between 11 and 42%.So my question is do I keep them all? Sell some ? Any suggestions appreciated.Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on May 13, 2019
Q: Hi, my only "basic materials" holding is Stella-Jones. It's a half position and is about 2% of my portfolio, which your analytics tool is telling me I need to bump up to about 4%. Could you suggest options under "basic materials" and whether I should increase SJ to a full position.

On your Portfolio Analytics tool, which I like, is there a way to enter holdings in US dollars, or are we to convert the Base Cost to USD when inputting those values?

Thanks,
Robert
Read Answer Asked by Robert on May 08, 2019
Q: Thank you for for answer yesterday about setting up my parent's investments. To summarize, they are very conservative, above 80 years old, and looking for safety and income.

I would now like to ask you about the distribution of the equity component of the investments (composing only 17% of the total, the rest being in bonds, preferred, and GICs). Those below are all in equal weight. What do you thing?

BEP.UN, BCE, BNS, CM, CU, ENB, TRP
XHC for healthcare exposure
IWO for US growth
VGG for US exposure
XEF (in a half position) for international exposure
VEE (in a half position) for emerging market exposure

Could you please suggest some more to round things out? I need another 5 or 6 stocks.


Also, do you have any objection to using ZAG and HYGH as bond substitutes for their conservative portfolio? I am buying individual preferred shares for that component.

Thank you once again,

Fed
Read Answer Asked by Federico on April 29, 2019
Q: I'm looking for a new play in the materials/resource sector and SJ seems to be viewed positively both at 5i and others. However, I see it has traded sideways since mid-2015, and EPS dropped to 1.98 in 2018 from 2.42 a year earlier.

What is the reason for sideways trading and drop in EPS? Are they behind the company?
What are the short and long term catalysts for SJ?
I see its free cash flow is variable from year to year, what accounts for this?
I'm thinking of moving my position in MX to SJ.
Read Answer Asked by Cameron on April 25, 2019
Q: I have received material from Methanex from the current management/Board as well as the dissident shareholders who wish to place 4 new Board members on the Board. What would you recommend to do in this case, vote with the current management/Board, or vote to replace some of the current Board with the 4 new nominees? I only have a small position in MX.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on April 15, 2019
Q: I was wondering if you could recommend some stocks that trade on the tsx that pay dividends in US money. I believe pif does, could you name some others.
Read Answer Asked by Anthony on April 09, 2019
Looking for more? Sign up for a FREE 14 day trial! No credit card required

We invite you to sign up for a 14 day free trial of 5i Research!
Experience all the benefits and tools we have to offer; stock research, model portfolios, Q&A with our experts, and so much more. Join a community of like-minded investors today!