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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’ve held BNS shares in a DRIP over the past 10 years. My ACB is about break even. I obviously chose the wrong bank as I would have done much better holding RY, TD, or NA over the same time period. Since I’m in a position to sell and not pay any tax, would you suggest switching over to one of the other big five or simply stay the course? I’m a long term investor and plan on leaving this money for my estate. Thanks for your insight.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on June 10, 2020
Q: This fund is recommended by my broker for my RIF/TFSA. Would appreciate your opinion on the pros and cons of investing in this fund. it looks like that this fund provides trailer fee to the broker, would that be an incentive for his recommendation?
The fund may have performed well due to the drastic fall in interest rate. What effect of higher interest rate on the performance of this fund? Do you forecast that interest rate may go higher when the situation of the virus subsides?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Saad on June 09, 2020
Q: I am looking to add one financial stock to me RRSP portfolio. I currently have TD as the lone finance company. I also have BNS , TD, BAM.A and VISA in other portfolios. Can you give me some names - US and CDN - that I can take into consideration. Preferably those with a safe, good and growing dividend. Your comments are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by JOHN on June 08, 2020
Q: Hello Ryan and Peter:

I hope you are all staying well in these trying times. We had our stock club meeting last month and one of our members was promoting hard for preferred shares because of the dividend. We purchased it for the club and I would like to know what are the advantages over the common share beyond the obvious of:
1. Preferred shares have higher pecking order in case of bankruptcy.
2. Dividend of the common share will get cut first before the preferred share dividend cut.

I see more disadvantages than advantages:
1. Dividend of the common share is similar to the preferred.
2. Very illiquid on the markets. The preferred can only trade 3000-5000 per day while the common share trades in the millions.

The slight difference in the dividend does not appear to be worth the risk of illiquidity. Also the higher pecking order in term of bankruptcy seems pointless when it comes to Canadian banks. Also the point of the common share dividend getting cut is not a big advantage when the big banks have not cut their dividend in over 80 years and National Bank I don’t include as one of the big banks.

Is there something that I am missing here.


Regards,

Brendan
Read Answer Asked by Brendan on June 08, 2020
Q: I have been investing recently in high quality dividend producing firms but have backed myself in to a bit of a corner in terms of my reliance on banking and insurance company stocks (FITB, BNS, BK, SLF, PRU, FSZ). Would ITUB's Brazilian preferred share provenance be both sufficiently secure and a good diversifier?
Read Answer Asked by David on June 05, 2020
Q: May I have your overview of the significance in terms of dividend security, market risk and general health of the Big 5 Cdn. banks now that they have all finished reporting. Were there any issues that you saw as alarming, or even concerning in terms of the short term future -- say 1 year or so. Clearly, a lot depends upon the outcome of Covid, but assuming a vaccine by mid to late 2021, what is your take? Thanks, Don
Read Answer Asked by Donald on June 05, 2020
Q: Have held Visa for some years and possibly one of the best stocks I own .recently I bought Square I guess its doing okay.
I had not paid any attn to PYPL. recentlyone of your answers you out pypl visa and sq on about the same level.
I watched the MadMoney featuring Pypl as your other caller referred to . it was impressive . I don't quite under stand where and how these Companies intersect/overlap. . is pypl encroaching on visas territory.? and SQ where do they come ?
I would love an explanation in layman terms
Read Answer Asked by thambirajah on June 03, 2020
Q: I know that 5i has not generally recommended these split corp funds but I would like your take in this scenario. We know they bottom when asset value drops below an acceptable number and this has occurred. I recall years ago the same thing happened and yields disappeared and values plummeted. When the market bounced back however each roughly doubled and paid lucrative dividends until of course the next major downturn. My question given that we all expect new highs some day, is whether these would not be nice tuck ins today that will eventually appreciate if not double and begin paying great dividends?
Read Answer Asked by Tim on June 02, 2020
Q: Hey team,

I seem to recall this theme being addressed as it pertains to Shopify but after listening to the PayPal CEO on Mad Money last night I Have to wonder if LSPD would not be a nice add for Paypal? It sounds like they really want to get more directly involved with retail/restaurants and POS to expand how people use their service. Could you foresee this happening and would you consider PYPL a buy today? Their CEO came across well.
Read Answer Asked by Tim on June 01, 2020