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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 hold Harvest group closed end funds HBF.UN (Brand Leaders Plus) and HHL.UN (Healthcare Leader) Only a total 3% of overall portfolio and fully for div income and diversive purposes into firms I couldn't hold individually. I just received notice of their plans to change over to a ETF for each of these close end funds. These are the only closed end funds I hold and I am wondering your point of view on this move. They of coarse say its to our advantage for Liquidity and growth potential. These are small funds and I wonder what kind of notice they really would receive in an already crowded ETF market and if the management team is really acting in our best interests here. I am not so sure they can maintain their current div yield of 8%ish either it seems high for an ETF. As always thank you for you good honest work on our behalf
Read Answer Asked by James on August 29, 2016
Q: I have a question about Manulife Floating Rate Senior Loan Fund (MFR.UN). It pays a monthly dividend of .0563 (annual div .68) at today's share price of $8.48 for a yield of 7.96%. Is this riskier than a preferred share? Does the floating rate change monthly? Or is it set annually or on a longer period? This investment could be in my RRSP or TFSA account.
Read Answer Asked by Carl on August 23, 2016
Q: August 22/16 ? Asked by Carla:

The question implies that CEF.A represents gold bullion, however that is only 60% true as the rest represents silver and cash. This is a frequent misconception. Publish at your discretion.
Read Answer Asked by Russ on August 23, 2016
Q: I've owned this fund for quite some time. It trades consistently at around 30% below it's NAV. The yield is decent and appears safe/reliable. I was thinking about adding to my position for the yield and "hopefully" some share appreciation or at least limited downside. The price to NAV seems long overdue to improve and the company continues to buy back units. What are your thoughts about this investment going forward and buying at today's valuation?

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Douglas on August 17, 2016
Q: In your answer to my question yesterday you noted "If the NAV falls below a certain level (found in the prospectus), the payout will be cut and that will likely be a huge hit to returns."

To be more precise the prospectus says:

"No regular monthly dividends will be paid on the Class A Shares in any month as long as any dividends on the Preferred Shares are then in arrears or so long as the Net Asset Value per Unit is equal to or less than $15.00 (calculated as described under Details of the Offering Valuation of Assets ). Additionally, it is currently intended that no special year-end dividends will be paid if after payment of such a dividend the Net Asset Value
per Unit (calculated as described under Details of the Offering Valuation of Assets ) would be less than $25.00."

When I look at the actual dividend history, I see that DFN has consistently paid dividends of $0.10 per share every month since inception -- including 2008 & 2009 when the markets were so unsettled.

I also note that DFN shares have traded below $15 since Jan 2008, reaching a low of %4.66 in 2008 and trading in a range of $10 - $12.50 since July 1, 2009.


My questions are:

1. Does it seem like they like have more flexibility to continue dividends than the prospectus indicates?
2. Given the this history of consistent dividends over a fairly long period, covering the scary 2008 -- 2009, why would you not consider DFN a screaming BUY?




Read Answer Asked by Douglas on August 09, 2016
Q: My question is in regards to my TFSA. I am adding new money to top up this account to about $45k. Currently I have only one holding($12k) in this account which is HPF.un, Energy Leaders Plus Income. My intention was to mirror some of the names in your growth portfolio. Do you see any potential in keeping HPF.un or should I sell it and re deploy those proceeds as well.
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Marty on July 20, 2016
Q: Hi Peter and Team!! My investment adviser is really enthusiastic about Canadian Equity Notes. She has a Bank note based on the TSX 60 that pays 4.5% . It has a 45% downside and is callable as soon as the market is up 10%. ( same type of investment as CBL9436.) I am a little leery and have a few questions. 1) Are these good investments. 2) what are the potential risks 3) because these sound too good to be true, how do the banks make their money? What's the catch. She claims that these are as good as fixed income with minimal risk and got a little upset when I seemed not to be so keen on them. Thanks for your insight, Cheers, Tamara
P
Read Answer Asked by Tamara on July 14, 2016
Q: Which silver bullion holding do you like best: SVR or CEF.A?
Read Answer Asked by Ed on July 12, 2016
Q: My broker has recommended to sell BHY.un The fund allows an Annual Redemption Privledge at Nav.once a year In May NAV was $ 7.67 It is currently trading at $ 7.33

He said it was also loosing dividend tax credit status next year and all payouts will be classed as income

I bought this fund at $ 8.83 Could you give me your opinion on whether it is better to sell this fund

Thanks for the great service
Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on June 29, 2016
Q: Hi, what do you think of this new fund, Caldwell US Dividend Advantage? It still very small. I am trying to diversify from Canadian only stocks, want a dividend and don't want ROC (which they state in their prospectus might happen). Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by TK on June 20, 2016
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