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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: In the income portfolio CVD has a yield of 4.9% but on the ishares website the YTM is 2.29%. What would be the yield if I purchased this product today. Thank you Ron
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on April 02, 2014
Q: re: XEG
I bought this a few years ago for growth
I found out that the energy sector is very cyclical
I am finally very near to breaking even (the 2% dividend helps)
The trend has been upward in the last few months
what is your outlook for XEG ?
I also owns Suncor, CNQ, HSE (all have gained 20%)
As for gas, I have ALA which has also gained 30%
The COS is the weak link in my portfolio, it has lost
over 20% though the trend has been up recently

could you kindly comment on the seasonal trend for XEG ?
much appreciated !
I might sell it and put it in something else, looking for
a decent timing to do it
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 01, 2014
Q: What is your view of the senior loan floating rate funds, like SSF.UN or MFR.UN? They look interesting with fairly high yields and mostly ROC for tax purposes. Also seem to trade below NAV. How secure are the loans and does the floating rate really provide any inflation protection (as they promote)? Would you buy today, solely for income, and do you have a preference in the group?

Thank-you
Read Answer Asked by grant on March 31, 2014
Q: please suggest a good agriculture ETF. US or Canada? thanks
Read Answer Asked by harry on March 31, 2014
Q: What is your opinion on MXF as means of getting some exposure to precious metals with a little income on the side? Is the payout reasonably secure with this kind of product?
Thanks for the info.
Brian B
Read Answer Asked by Brian on March 31, 2014
Q: Thank you Peter, for your response concerning my TFSA portfolio. In keeping with my goal of creating growth, I have come up with the following ETFs and would ask your opinion on their value. If you differ with any of them could I ask you to recommend a substitute. I find it a challenge, with the resources available to me,to pin down ``dividend growth`` ETFs. I have selected the following based on their asset size, MER, and sector diversification. They are as follows:
CDZ, XRE, ZPR, XTR and CHB. They would make up the entire portfolio. Thanks for all you do for us.
Read Answer Asked by Rick on March 26, 2014
Q: I'm interested in investing in stocks that are in the business of cloud computing for my tech sector allocation. I'm aware of the big names like Apple, Amazon, Google and now Microsoft but don't feel comfortable picking one or two. Do you have any ETF (or other) recommendations in this sector? Thanks again for all your guidance :)
Read Answer Asked by john on March 26, 2014
Q: I, perhaps foolishly, assumed that Vanguard Canada ETFs sold on the TSX in Canadian dollars would be Canadian income.... Are all the Vanguard Canada products US income, including VDY? Therefore is it ineffective to hold them in a TFSA?
Read Answer Asked by Marilyn on March 26, 2014
Q: With the reduction in MER's yesterday in 9 of Blackrock's ishares ETF's, (XIC,XEI,XSP,XUS,XEF,XEC,CAB,XSH,XLB)can you comment on how you would rate these in their categories compared to other company ETFs (i.e.- with the fee reductions, would you now recommend these over competing ETF's?).
Read Answer Asked by Alan on March 26, 2014
Q: Hello Peter, thank you kindly for your great advice to date. I would like your input on my TFSA portfolio. I am holding 6 issues, roughly 16 to 17% weight for each as follows:
ZHY, ZDV, OXF.A, LXF, IPL, and XRE. My goal was to create income but with a preference for long term growth. Am I on the right track? Please suggest any alternatives. Thanks very much!
Read Answer Asked by Rick on March 25, 2014
Q: Why is my CBO 5 year laddered corporate bond ETF giving me a present yield of about 4%. The best 5 year corporate bond I can find available to me as a DYI investor on TDWH yields only about 2.5% at. Why the difference. Should I be worried. I am 57 years old and approaching retirement and feel the need for some fixed and CBO seems the option. What to do about the fixed income portion. Sometimes I think for the fixed income component it would be best just to stay in an investment savings account which pays 1.25% and eliminates the risk of loss of capital.
Read Answer Asked by MANFRED on March 25, 2014
Q: Hi Peter and Team, a small portion of my portfolio (5%) is made of CGL (Gold Bullion ETF) and Goldcorp. Because of CGL fees and lack of dividends, I am thinking of selling CGL and use the money to buy more shares of Goldcorp. Does this make sense? Regards, Gervais
Read Answer Asked by Gervais on March 24, 2014
Q: Hi, I would like to add a good monthly income or dividend oriented etf to a diversified portfolio. What would be your recommendation?
Thanks for the great service.
Phil
Read Answer Asked by Philip on March 22, 2014
Q: Hi 5i team,

I know you prefer IWO for US Growth, but would you consider VBK (Vanguard Small cap growth ETF) a viable alternative? The MER is 0.10% for VBK.

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Sarj on March 21, 2014
Q: Hi folks, I`m a relatively new investor with a portfolio that I consider to be heavily diversified and Dividend Stock oriented. I recently made a contrarian decision and made a speculative play of 5% of my portfolio to Gold ETFs, just BEFORE events in the Crimea became relatively stable. Of course, my positions since then have been beaten down by almost 10%, but my original reason for investing in Gold was for the expected long term return after the last year of brutal decline. Am I being overly optimistic on the upside of gold stocks and am I better off staying on ETFs or should I consider investing in actual miner stocks? Sorry for the long winded question.
Read Answer Asked by Rick on March 21, 2014
Q: Would you please suggest a couple of ETFs for a very young 1 year old lady just beginning a RESP.Because of withholding taxes on foreign dividends in RESPs it seems those ETFs should be Canadian and also for a long term hold.Thanks for a great service. Don.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on March 19, 2014
Q: Hi Peter and 5i: I am looking at including a selection of convertible debentures in a reasonably diversified RESP that will likely not be used for education funding until at least 2022. I'd like to get the principal back, eventually, and to collect a decent interest rate within the tax-deferred RESP. I am more interested in using them to offset common equity risk from the stocks' side of the portfolio and less interested in their potential upside from the convertability aspect. Converts that seem unlikely to be converted sometimes appear to offer a decent deal on the yield side. But of course I don't want to enter any situations where there is a substantial chance of default by the issuer. With all that in mind, could you please give me your comments on Firm Capital's FC.DB.D? Thanks very much!
Read Answer Asked by Lance on March 19, 2014
Q: Hi,
I am trying to understand currency hedging. This is from FFI.UN's description:
"Currency Hedge
The portfolio's US dollar exposure is hedged back to Canadian dollars to protect against currency risk."
Does this protect me against the CND dropping or USD dropping?
Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Paul on March 19, 2014