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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: Before proceed with a purchase would you confirm for me that a US stock or ETF may be purchased in a Canadian RRSP without having to file annual tax information or remittances to the USA. I know that a US stock or ETF purchased in a cash or TFSA is subject to annual filings. As a long time subscriber, thank you for your service.
Read Answer Asked by Doug on October 17, 2018
Q: As a new DIY investor following the Q&A on RHT about to adopt a position, today's news is intriguing. An experienced investor friend tells me that penny stocks on the Vancouver exchange should be avoided due to increased likelihood of fraud and "pump & dump" schemes. It seems the CEO and one of her execs have a history of starting tech companies with government subsidies, taking them public, then bailing. How can we avoid these "games"? I'm assuming your own research process aims to identify frauds in the making. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Michael on October 17, 2018
Q: I held CXR when it was over $100.00 and added to it on the way down. Eventually at $25.00, myself and 5i members were waiting for the quarter and after the report, it dropped to $12.00 and 5i said they were getting out of it. So did I. The same thing happened with RHT. I am concerned that COV a $9.00 plus stock now in the $6 plus range, seems to be repeating the pattern of the two above-mentioned stocks. My question is do you see the same thing happening again with this stock? Thanks Dennis
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on October 17, 2018
Q: I wanted to chime in on Johns question about bond etf’s. I completely agree with Johns concerns and feel that generally speaking the possibility of capital losses on a bond etf is under appreciated, under reported and glossed over by too many people. I have held VSB and VSC for well over 3 years and my yield to date isn’t even remotely close to covering the capital losses. I see absolutely no reversal in site. That they are more liquid and diversified to me is pointless. I would have been significantly better off in cash, GICs or an individual ST bond that matured and gave me my capital back.
Read Answer Asked by Morgan on October 17, 2018
Q: here is my personal mea-culpa

over 35 years i have lost an embarrassing amount of money in the market

i am an aggressive investor and have lost money in every single way imaginable - you name it, i have done it

mercifully i am getting 'better' and lose less, less often; yet being in the market means you will have losses

my biggest mistakes show up in these 2 areas:

1) impatience
2) buying hope

so regarding today's massacre of RHT I offer this:

peter's team provides an excellent framework on how to allocate assets; how to keep portfolio positions small (5% max) and 'second to none' fundamental analysis (P/E's, cashflow, balance sheet info etc)

most importantly - this information simply tells you WHAT to buy

to know WHEN to buy you must have a brief look at the chart (technical analysis)

for example; he can tell you all day that 'fundementally' BNS is a good solid company and should be owned; yet looking at the chart, a three year old with a crayon can tell you that it has not finished going down yet

why is it going down? who knows, and really who cares?

so i learned long ago to be patient.....and buy only when the stock has stopped going down --- therefore i no longer try to catch the knife; call the bottom etc etc - and therefore I lose less

and this brings on #2

as you have all heard before - hope is not a strategy

as humans, we are hardwired to believe we 'know' better and nowhere is this more dangerous than investing

when our stock (of a 'good' company) starts going down we buy more because "it's a daily mis-pricing"; then it goes down more and we 'double up' because "it's a great business and i can't believe how stupid some people are".......and then the poor news comes out and we sell (because we never did actually understand the company and we bought on hope (or greed) based on someone's recommendation...........or buy we more to "trade ourselves back on side"

a look at the RHT chart shows it has been going down in a perfect line since february - why was that? who knew? more importantly who cares? the chart has been telling you 'something ain't right"

to summarize

always look at the chart and most importantly....

IF YOU ARE IN A HOLE, STOP DIGGING!!!

i have made every stupid investing mistake; most of them many, many times....

i am probably not finished making stupid mistakes

but i hope I am.......

bob
Read Answer Asked by Robert on October 17, 2018
Q: Hi,

I just took my loss for RHT. In my TFSA, so that stings a little... but its all good, I'm plus 225% in SHOP and plus 30% in KXS.

Question - which of these 2 companies should I be topping up today, SHOP or KXS? the small sale proceed from RHT is not big enough to start a new position, and my TFSA is capped out.

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Ray on October 16, 2018
Q: I am mostly (90%) invested in US markets . (Had desperately wanted to allocate 30% to Canadian , but have done horribly on every Canadian stock I bought ( ENB, GUD, ALA) .Therefore , for next couple of months I have gone back to buying US , when markets dip. To take advantage of the dips , I keep cash reserve. That reserve was reduced somewhat as stocks fainted last week. This is a what-if question about raising cash for next big dip.
Question: I hold both PRu.us and MET.us. Which one (IF ANY) would you sell to add to cash reserve (there being no urgent need). Between PRU and MET if you like one a lot less than the other, your reasoning would be most helpful.
Read Answer Asked by Adam on October 16, 2018
Q: On the financials that came out May 30th 2018 (9 months ended Mar 31 2018) it indicates that RHT billed $2.27 MM in revenue.
It also indicates an increase of total receivables of $1.95 MM, from $34K to $1.99 MM total.
At the time of these financials (May 30th), could this have been construed as a bearish signal, given that 86% of the total recorded revenue ($1.95 MM/$2.27 MM) was as of yet uncollected ?
Read Answer Asked by Mike on October 16, 2018
Q: As a member of 5i since 2013 I have used your wise logic as one of the tools to help me position my portfolio. I have had some Major wins with your help, but this has been a gut wrenching experience and I have learned the hard way that keeping a reasonable weighting of any one stock is of paramount importance. I let RHT get too large a weighting and believed in their product as a way to help people. It concerns me that you used the word 'fraud' in one of your previous replies.
I have now reduced most of my position to a very small weighting and am reviewing selling it all.
I have a position in COV that is a full position. It is a bit weak of late but I think that is due to the Saudi Arabian rhetoric and is a temporary blip.
Would you consider VMD to be a good replacement for RHT.

Thanks for all your solid advise in these turbulent times.

Peter
Read Answer Asked by Peter on October 16, 2018
Q: in response to your suggestion that we use this 'downdraught' to add to positions, which companies in particular would you add to?
Read Answer Asked by Claus on October 16, 2018
Q: With this latest revenue fiasco at RHT I am swearing off Canadian healthcare stocks for good. I have been a 5i member since day one, greatly value your service and am not trying to lay any blame here. I lost 80% with Patient Home Monitoring and 97% with Concordia before getting out of these, and am now down 85% with RHT. I agree no one is clairvoyant, but this seems to be a recurring theme in Canadian healthcare. Any thoughts on how we can spot and stay away from names like these in the future?
Read Answer Asked by Steven on October 16, 2018
Q: It doesn't always work and some picks are disappointing but thanks for preaching diversification and reasonable stock weightings. As a % of my portfolio the loss will easily be covered. What I am not sure is how to divest my position for maximum return. Should I just bail ,let the dust settle or is the drop oversold and should I hold. Thanks John
Read Answer Asked by John on October 16, 2018
Q: What did you think of Aphria's earnings? Looks like they delivered eps of 9 cents a share when $0.00 was expected. Thompson Reuters has their current fiscal year (2019) estimates at 14 cents. Looks like a muted outlook considering what I thought was a pretty decent Q1.

Your thoughts?
Read Answer Asked by john on October 16, 2018
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