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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: Are preferred shares suitable for the retail investor?
I admit to not fully understand them but it seems to me that:
- value is primarily impacted by interest rates, so constitutes an interest rate speculation
- the positive or negative effect of an interest rate change will vary depending upon the particular issue
- even on a reset date, an issue will not necessarily trade at par
- the characteristics of individual issues varies a lot, complicating comparisons
- thinner market for individual issues, making for bigger spreads
- trading prices are not transparent
- a pref share ETF may be a better choice
Comments?
Read Answer Asked by Carl on April 08, 2019
Q: For those who are looking to park money for short term I suggest that they look at ffn.pr.a or ftn.pr.a they are redeemable in about 9 months and a year and 9 month. Has very good downside market protection of about 30% and over 5% dividend which is better than interest. Their prices have been very stable with about 1% fluctiation. Cannot explain why they are popular with investers. I personally own large amou t of both.
Read Answer Asked by Saad on April 03, 2019
Q: ZHY: high yield bond fund. Sitting on a fair bit of cash in RIF & RRSP from accumulated dividends. Don't want to deploy into buying more shares (dividend growers) as I think there may be a buying opportunity in the near future: uncertain economy and interest rate policy. Mild recession - rates the same or may go down, and if no recession rates may go up again at some point. Each scenario will have an opposite effect of the price of this ETF. Best case please.
Read Answer Asked by James on April 03, 2019
Q: Hi Guys,
I'm looking to put together a 5 year bond ladder through my discount brokerage, this is purely for downside protection, I would want to draw on the money if there was an extended downturn in the market to avoid having to sell positions mainly in dividend stocks that I'm holding for the long haul. My question is it worth building a ladder myself, or should I buy ETF's, with different approaches i.e. government or corporate bonds, do you have and suggestions for a one stop shop approach, my original thought was 50k spread over a 5yr ladder.
Best Regards,
Tom
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on April 03, 2019
Q: For all those questions related to parking the money - i happen to work for a bank and many of them (including CIBC) are paying 3% for new money over 5k to an e-savings accounts. How long it will last in this environment not sure but banks tend to match each other so.....Just an fyi - share if you like.
Read Answer Asked by kelly on April 02, 2019
Q: If one is sitting on a large cash position and wishes to park the money, do you have any suggestions for doing so. Thanks, Bill
Read Answer Asked by William J on April 02, 2019
Q: Hi, I am looking at buying minimum rate preferred share trust units in BEP and BIP and similar to the common shares a portion of the distribution is return on capital. I will hold them in an RRSP account. I am trying to better understand what ROC actually is. It almost sounds like it is just returning part of your capital invested back to you. If so, is it a ‘real return’ to the shareholder or just getting part of your money back. If so, what is the attraction? I’m confused. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Gary on April 01, 2019
Q: Sorry for this repeat question. I have a bunch of cash in CAN and US dollar accounts that I want to be more productive and I cannot find the right ticker symbols.

Last year there were several question/answers regarding money markets from TD Waterhouse for both countries. Are you able to find
those ticker symbols?
Read Answer Asked by joe on March 28, 2019
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