Investment Q&A

Q: Hello 5i,
I meant to send you a question but I am unsure as to whether or not it actually went through. I am only marking this "Private" in case it ends up being a duplicate, otherwise, "Public" is fine. If it is a duplicate, my apologies!!! Now to the questions:
What do you - and others - feel the Bank of Canada may do on April 16: raise, lower, or hold on interest rates? I know there is a *lot* going on at the macro level, but is there any consensus as to what we might reasonably expect?
In terms of the current environment, I have two questions about Covered Call ETF's:
Is the current environment good, bad, or indifferent for (un-leveraged) C.C. ETF's or is the individual performance of the underlying holdings far more important?
And, in this environment, what is the likelihood of C.C. ETF's needing to cut their dividends? What kind of factors have the geatest impact on a dividend cut decision for these ETF's? I hold a few of these ETF's and over the years have seen dividend cuts in some instances come and go, while in others, the cut has seemed more permanent.
Many thanks for any insights you can provide!! Have a great weekend, all!!
Cheers,
Mike

Q: What’s the best way to play the US and Canadian financials in this market? Stocks or funds are fine.

Q: Given the volatility of markets, I would like to purchase some small quantities of equities shares as I have some cash to invest. Which equities would you recommend, top 5 in Nasdaq, S&P 500, and TSX.

Best,
Neeraj

Q: I notice that Tim Cook has sold 24 million of his APPL shares the other day. Maybe he has personal reasons, of course, but the timing seems ominous. Any thoughts?

Q: What do you think of topping up low-ish positions of DIR.UN and CAR.UN in this environment?
Thanks as always

Q: Does Congress & Senate have to approve the tariffs?

Q: Good morning,

Can you recommend an income fund/ ETF to balance a portfolio? Looking at something that is 80% income 20% equity. Thanks.

Q: Recognizing that you don't necessarily follow NVO, do you still consider this a better long term investment compared to PFE with it's attractive dividend? I know that the company's recent trials have not been great, but do they have a better pipeline than PFE?

NVO's revenue and free cash flow seemed to have consistently grown looking in the past, and it appears to be at an historically attractive valuation. But now maybe the most important question going forward is has NVO lost it's "moat" ?

Q: Hi 5i - what are the most attractive CDN stocks after the massive sell off in the last few weeks?

Thanks, Neil

Q: During this mayhem I was telling a family member how I observed these mini-crashes since the mid-80’s and how we used to make transactions in the early days. I’m convinced a lot of recent investors, hooked my huge gains since 2020 have never experienced such painful losses. Zenfulness -if this is a word- comes with time.

Would you have a history of when all the self-directed accounts were created and available online?
For example, BMO InvestorLine was created late 1988 (fax! or phone) but available online in 1997, I was there …

Keep supporting us.

Q: As a retired mainly income investor am I okay to keep holding these ETFs in the current market?

Q: Oil stocks have not decreased proportionally to the drop in oil prices. Is there an inverse ETF specifically for oil company stocks (e.g. move with downward price of CNQ etc rather than simply oil price)

Q: I own these three companies currently, and am having a challenge, keeping my mind about me given their waterfall declines. Given what’s happening in the world today would you continue to hold the stocks or would you just cut your losses and try and live another day?
Especially after Dan Ives claimed the tariffs will be a Armageddon for technology companies

What are your thoughts?

Sheldon

Q: Gas stocks eg. ARX and TOU are down about 10% today-is this drop justified?- Are they a buying opportunity?

Q: Why the big drop today? A buy at these levels?

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

David Rosenberg wrote a very insightful opinion piece in the Globe & Mail on Friday, April 4, entitled “Trump’s ‘reciprocal tariffs’ are a con – and investors are now waking up to his bigger ambitions”.

The title may cause readers to assume it’s ‘political’, but it is not. Rather, it’s a careful analysis of what the White House is up to, and this short excerpt from the article explains what it really is:

“These are not really “tariffs” that are being imposed. These are actions aimed at completely eliminating the U.S. bilateral trade deficit with every country. That is why the “tariff” is really not that at all but rather a “ratio” of every country’s trade surplus with the U.S. divided by the exports of that country – it is that number that the White House expects to rid the United States of its trade deficits; not just at an aggregate level, but for every country that runs a trade surplus with America. This is why these numbers, 10 per cent, 17 per cent, 20 per cent, or 25 per cent, are so huge. They are ratios.”

I can’t resist, however, to be a little bit ‘political’. It’s unfortunate that Trump, Lutnick, Vance, et al will probably never see the article!
Rosenberg certainly stripped away the clothes of these would-be emperors.

The article is behind a paywall, but I urge 5i members to try to get a copy of Friday’s Globe. This will enable them to determine the real reason why many of their stocks and ETFs have recently ‘tanked’. 5i have our backs and they hopefully will continue to alert us about volatility and the potential for further losses to our portfolios caused by this insane ‘policy’.

Q: Any comments on the VIX volatility today

Q: What ETF do you recommend to mirror the S&P 500?

Q: Any idea or way to find out what Bessent or Carney are buying?

Thank you

Q: I'm interested in taking positions in S&P500 and NASDAQ for a long time hold. My funds are in regular margin account. Would you suggest ...
1. Convert funds to USD and invest in US currency?
2. Invest in CAD hedged ?
3. Invest in CAD unhedged?

Please suggest the ETF's based on the total return in next 5+ years.

Thanks in advance