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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: I'm 56 years old with no fixed income and have been quite comfortable with this choice up until now. I recently have decided to have 5% in fixed income but have no knowledge on bonds. I have a balanced portfolio of stocks and try and hold 5% in cash to take advantage of good stocks in a down market. I was thinking of VAB and a 5 year GIC for fixed income. What are your thoughts and recommendations. Have a wonderful holiday to all at 5i and your families. Merry Christmas!
Read Answer Asked by Cheryl on December 27, 2016
Q: With interest rates rising (in the US) the ongoing babble from so many 'experts' has been to stay away from 'bond proxies', namely utilities, telcos, pipelines, etc. However, those stocks have been performing quite well since the fed raised rates. Today Desjardins came out with top picks for 2017 (in the G&M which suggested Algonquin's forecasted returns would grow by 39% next year and Fortis by 17%. Do you think they're being too optimistic? And are these forecasted results already baked into the stock prices?
Read Answer Asked by John on December 23, 2016
Q: Greetings 5i team: Could you please comment on the above stocks with respect to their current versus historical valuations? I guess I am trying to gauge the extent(if at all)their share price is being "propped up" by their yield. I think I know the sectors that are considered most vulnerable to interest rate increases, but do any companies jump to mind that could be more negatively affected than their peers, particularly if rates rose faster than the market anticipates or for the wrong reasons, i.e. inflation versus economic growth? Thank you and best wishes,
Read Answer Asked by Stephen R. on December 21, 2016
Q: Hi Peter and Team,

I find that we need to buy some more in the Utilities sector, to keep to a 10% weighting. We presently have about a three-quarter position in each of AQN, BEP.UN, and FTS. Do you think that INE would be a good addition to this mix or is it too similar to AQN and BEP.UN? We can buy and sell XUT commission-free, but I notice that ZUT (not commission-free) has a better chart. Should I increase our positions in each of the three we already have, buy a new one, or top up with XUT/ZUT? Or is there a US ETF in this sector that looks compelling? Or perhaps in the present "climate", could the utilities sector weighting be reduced below 10%? What sector should take up the slack?

Thanks for all your great advice which has been and continues to be very valuable. A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you at 5i and the members as well.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on December 21, 2016
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