Investment Q&A

Q: Hello 5i team,
My portfolios are mostly stocks and with a possible recession coming next year, I would like to purchase bond ETFs for both my CDN and U.S. portfolios. At this point would you recommend long or short or ultra short ETFs? and could you suggest a couple of each ( CDN and U.S)? Thanks Carlo

Q: see question below I send you last week -unfortunately I neglected to ask for recommendations on the sectors you identified could you please attach several stock/etf recommendations to your answer. Thanks


I want to get more defensive going fwd I suspect Utilities + consumer staples should be increased are ETFs or individual stocks the way to go?. What other sectors/ stocks should be favored thanks
Asked by Terence on October 28, 2019

Q: Hello, continuing with portfolio fine tuning to achieve better diversification as suggested by your service. Need to reduce Canada and increase international.
Technology, need to reduce , hold csu, engh, and kxs and otex. would you reduce engh or eliminate kxs or otex?
Industrials, need to reduce, currently hold cae and tih equally, which would you keep?
As far as global, would you be ok with 7% in xef with another 3% in icln?
All are within an rsp with goal being growth/dividend. Thanks

Q: In a 100% equity portfolio would 75% CRBN and 25% ZLB be considered "diversified enough"? I'm trying to remove oil and gas as much as possible while still having reasonable fees.

Thanks

Q: With the speculation that a recession may occur in the next year or so and given the current downward trend of interest rates, what are your views of buying/holding preferred share etfs like zpr and hpr ? Thank-you

Q: Hi Everyone at 5i ...me again. I have a non registered account with the following breakdown: 60% GICs ( because this is my retirement money and I am conservative and I know that GICs in a non registered account are a losing proposition as far a inflation etc. )..10% XHY/CPD.....and 30% stocks..BMO, ZUT, ZWE,BNS,BCE,BAM.A,BEP,UN,BPY.UN,CCL,CAR,ET,FTS,GSY,HR.UN,KXS ,NTR,OTEX,PEO,QSR,SLF,T,TD,VFV,WSP. Now to my question....I am generating $30,000. Combo dividend ( a larger percentage ) and interest income . I want to increase this but at a lower risk. .I would like to extract 150K from the GIC column and produce a higher level of dividend on these monies, but yet, keep things as conservative as possible ( this is called having your cake and eating it too.) What would you suggest?...I thought I might divide this between XBB, CPD or....your suggestion. Thank you for your help, Cheers, Tamara

Q: to invest
Good morning
My son has recently opened an rrsp acct where he is putting a small amount every month $400 per month he is ensure how to proceed. i feel that an etf would be the way to go but how does someone get around the trading fees? Are you aware of any financial institutions that would have a program or programs that would work for individuals such as him who would like to get started but have only limited funds?
Thks
Marce

Q: If now is a good time to begin putting 12% cash to work increasing our USA div. income to balance our RRIF withdrawals for a mid 70s couple what stocks or etfs would you recommend. We currently own VZ@ 1%, QCO M@1% VGG 1% and VUN 3% to top up.
According to your portfolio analysis we need more US communication, US industrial, and US basic materials. Is it better to have div. income from Canada than US in our RRIF plans?
Would also like to switch our 3.5% position of IYT to div. position.
Take as many question as needed. Thanks

Q: I understand there are some ETFs or possibly mutual funds that invest in such a way that dividends are captured as capital gains, to reduce income tax. But I also understand the government is considering legislative changes to prevent this type of structure. Do you have any insights/recommendations on these products?

Q: Hello 5i,
I am up 125% on Target (10,000) and down 25% (5,000)on ZPR. Should I sell ZPR and substitute it with something else that you can suggest and sell TGT. This to buy back in a month.
Would you suggest buying back TGT with the full amount gained or get back to the original amounts splitting the proceeds between your suggested replacement for ZPR and TGT?

Should I just keep everything as is, collect the dividends and watch TGT go up? I do not need the funds.
Thank you and please remove the appropriate amount of credits.

Q: Hi, Where would you rank this ETF compared to bond, balanced and equity funds on a scale of one to ten over a five year period in all different types of markets, just a general answer?

Q: Another re-balancing questions as my “fixed income” levels are about 20% below where they should be .... as a retiree. And am holding 20% of my portfolios in cash.
My question is regarding XRB and if that would be an appropriate diversifier to a bond portfolio consisting mostly or your previous recommendations: XLB - CBO -XTR - TLT - CBO and VSC.
At some point interest rates will go up and in the meantime XRB has a 1.86% yield which at least beats cash.
Buy? Pass on this - at least for now? Buy something else as a fixed income diversifier.
As usual thank you for your any guidance you can provide here.

Q: It has been suggested to me that over the long term, the the average investor like myself is better off buying the indexes VFV with a dividend of 1.64% and XIU with a dividend of 3.61% rather than buying a portfolio of individual stocks. Would appreciate 5I's observation of this comment. Thanks, Bill

Q: Hi Peter, For 4 Years remaining in RESP, I would like to start accumulating/moving money in the fixed income side. What would you suggest - ETF or Mutual Funds (this is with RBC direct investing).Thanks

Q: Within fixed income today, is it wise to move from longer term bonds into floating rate bonds...seems the longer bonds are beginning to slide while floating rates bonds are holding firm. both pay similar yields. thanks as always.

Q: If I buy an international ETF, from a tax perspective, is there any advantage/disadvantage to buying one based in the United States vs. Canada?

Q: 5i Team,

Please provide your guidance on US based ETF's that you believe could be a buy now, and perhaps others that could be placed on a watch list pending a market adjustment or a new developing trend line. Goals would be moderate growth (lean towards safety) with a steady and growing dividend. I currently hold VIG and would want to expand my US based exposure. Position would be held in either a cash or rrsp account. Many thx. Steve.

Q: My question concerns my rif which has 50% cash right now with u.s. div. stocks representing that 50% invested. I am considering investing equally in usmv - aem and cwb (convertible bond etf) in this rif. Does this make sense in todays investment market with the u.s indexes at all time highs and trading sideways or should i hold that cash into year end . That cash in the rif represents about 23% of my overall cash position. We are 70 yoa with enough income from canadian dividend stocks to supply us with our living so look at this amount as next generation money...thanks for the great service...

Q: You recently responded to a question on ZWC, and suggested that you also liked XTR for income.

What specifically do you like about XTR, and what happened to the share price in 2016 ?

Q: Silver stocks have had a run since mid-year; does the team have opinion on silver itself and a preferred method of investing in the commodity.
Thanks... your thoughts are respected and appreciated
Doug