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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: According to the 5i portfolio analyzer, I am underweight consumer defensive and industrials - can you provide your top 6 recommended buys for each sector. Ideally 3 in the US and 3 in Canada for each sector. (ranked on most attractive price entry today) Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on June 03, 2020
Q: Hello,

My partner and I heard about 5i from a friend whose been using you for many years. You came with the highest recommendation.

I feel like I should be copying one of your portfolios, especially due to my lack of knowledge, but it is very important for me that my investments to follow my ethics.

I would like to know which companies on your balanced and growth portfolios would be highest on positive environmental, social and corporate governance, which are low and should be switched and for which companies. I'm happy to do research, but I'm struggling to navigate the important statistics and feeling incompetent in finding good resources. I have seen your ESG scores (https://www.5iresearch.ca/blog/ESG-tsx-companies) and would be keen to know where to find information on how they are created. I would also appreciate other resources that you think would assist in building a portfolio, or simply which companies you would put on it.

Thank-you,
Ellen Perkins
Ucluelet BC
Read Answer Asked by Ellen on June 02, 2020
Q: Does you portfolio allocation as referred to country investment recognize that some companies despite designated as domestic (Canadian) have and derive significant income from abroad ?
Therefore these are more diversified by the location as it appears in the Portfolio Analytics summaries.Basically the summary understates the total portfolio diversification by the country .I give the two above companies as an example but there are more companies to which this would apply.
Read Answer Asked by Miroslaw on May 27, 2020
Q: Hi. I have the above stocks in my TFSA and have some cash to deploy. Could you please give me 3 suggestions and rank them. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Dona on May 26, 2020
Q: Comments by leaders of countries. " we will need to spend money on Infrastructure roads, bridges, airports, mass transportation, etc. How is best way to play this ? Heavy machinery, cement, re bar, steel, copper and other metals, Its like FDR times during the Depression to get the Economy going again around the World RAK
Read Answer Asked by bob on May 26, 2020
Q: Beside WSP, what are your favourite Industrials (CDN or US) for the next 3 years?
Read Answer Asked by stephen on May 22, 2020
Q: If a new investor had a $100, 000 to invest in Canadian & US Equities what would be the TOP 10 Stocks to invest today for the next 3 to 5 years.

Thanks Valter
Read Answer Asked by Valter on May 20, 2020
Q: Hi 5i,

Thanks for the quality work. Buy and hold forever. 1-3 and why? Insight appreciated. Maybe one thats better or missing?

Thanks again!
Read Answer Asked by Adam on May 07, 2020
Q: Hi Peter: When I sit back and take a look at the big picture and review how my portfolio performed during COVID-19 (so far), I try to see what lessons I can learn, then turn to how to apply those lessons to make my portfolio stronger.

I am a retired, dividend-income investor. I am a huge believer in asset allocation and have designed a portfolio, in my opinion, to be reasonably well diversified, although heavy to Canada. It WAS roughly 70% equities (including 32% foreign content) and 30% fixed income (roughly 15% insured annuities, 15% Fisgard Capital...both averaging in the 5-6% pre-tax range and minor cash). My equities are mostly blue chip, dividend payers, as you can see above. The 3 mutual funds are a very minor part of my portfolio, especially Eric's Energy Fund (<2%). I also receive a company pension and CPP-OAS which, when included, drops my equities to roughly 32%.

I use various metrics to monitor my portfolio, such as P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S, Beta, ROE, Div growth, Payout%, technical indicators like 200 mda. I am normally a buy-and-hold investor who trims/adds around a core position.

Periodically I measure how "at risk" my portfolio is relative to the overall market. I do this by prorating my portfolio using Beta. Based on equities only, I averaged 0.68 and for my entire portfolio I averaged 0.44. So, one would think that if the overall market (TSX) was to drop 30%, then I would have thought my portfolio would drop 44% to 68% of that, being in the range of 13% (overall) to 20% (equities only).

In actual fact, my entire portfolio dropped 27% from peak to trough vs the expected 13%...over double! I understand that EVERYTHING was sold off...almost no exceptions. So what do we learn from this and what changes should we consider? Do we accept that "sxxt happens" once in a while...you can't predict every event, accept it and move on? Should we consider increasing the cash component as a buffer? Or...is there something else to be learned here?

Thanks for you help...much appreciated...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on May 04, 2020
Q: Hi Ryan and Peter.
The gov'ts are talking about reopening Economy soon. A lot of stocks (except for the high techs) are still 50% less than the recent highs. Which industries or companies do you think will benefit from the reopening? Can you please provide 2-3 names in the US and Canada? I would like to move some money into my TFSA.

Thank you,
Yiwen
Read Answer Asked by Yiwen on April 29, 2020
Q: Morning:
I own equal weightings of these equities in my TFSA. I have some cash to invest, which one of these would you buy more of at their current market valuations? Looking for capital appreciation over the next 8 to 10 years. Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Greg on April 23, 2020
Q: Thanks for your flash report. Much appreciated.
Without doing a full review, which of the above would risk being downgraded if you were to do a full review? Thanks. Your service is great!
Read Answer Asked by Marco on April 15, 2020
Q: Hi Team:

I think the market would be changing or, already changing due to the virus problem. People will value things in life differently. so, what sector would you recommend, and what 3 companies you would buy either in Canada or USA?

Thank you.

Louisa
Read Answer Asked by LOUISA on April 14, 2020
Q: Hi, first I wanted to thank you for this amazing service, I am so glad I discovered 5i!
I recently sold my business and have 10+ years before retirement. I now want to deploy this cash to build my retirement portfolio, I don't need any income from this portfolio for 10 years.
I carefully reviewed your Balanced and Income portfolios. With much improved valuations for many stocks in these portfolios, what are your suggestions for 10 best (in terms of possible appreciation) individual stocks or ETFs for a non-registered portfolio. Either from your sample portfolios or not, US or CDN.
Thanks again!
Read Answer Asked by Laura on April 09, 2020