Investment Q&A

Q: If you assess the following Canadian sectors: financials (the big five banks, insurance companies), electric utilities (EMA, FTS, CU) , pipelines (ENB, TRP), telcos (T, BCE, RCI) and rail (CNR, CP) ... how would you assess each sector for dividend sustainability and growth?

Q: Just a general question as to what your thoughts are on the tech sector right now. It's obviously been extremely hot. How do you see the sector fairing in the short term (1 year) with the potential of covid passing. Do you see any need to reposition part of the portfolio away from tech and move to some value areas such as banks and energy? The reason I ask about the short term is because I think tech is only going to get bigger in the long term (5,10,20 years)

Q: Could you give a brief explanation of how price per cash flow is calculated. Also what ratio of price/cash flow would be concerning and what would be considered good. Thank you.

Q: Hello,
I am not sure I understand premium/discount when buying ETFs..Is this a parameter I should consider when purchasing ETFs..Lets say the ARKG or ARKK etf? Are there any particular days for me to purchase etfs? How do I know if an ETF is selling at a premium or dicsount on a particular day is it shown somewhere? Thanks.

Regards,

Shyam

Q: Im considering selling my entire portfolio - its close to 2 mill, was over 3 but too much Cnd oil and covid fixed that. Thinking, hearing of a potential sharp downturn. Another 20% drop is too much to bear. I'm retired, living on $100k per year is fine. I'm 61.
Is there a safe place to park money until a vaccine arrives? And is it possible to earn close to 4% safely? IF so - how?? I do worry that this second wave will pound my stock portfolio back to where it went in March

Q: With the West’s pullback from Huawei products what are the chances of China banning Apple ( or other firms ) citing security issues ?
How do you factor something like this when analyzing a company?

Q: I want to sell shares of BBD, NFI, SU. Do you suggest that I sell at market or should I put a price limit?
Same question for 32 shares of DXC and 43 shares of MFGP.
And can I sell those shares even if the lots are irregular?

Q: I've owned since the new year. Going to sell to realize the loss. If I sell before the next ex-dividend date which is November 10, will I lose this quarters dividend, payable on December 10? Meaning , do you have to hold the stock on or after the ex dividend date to get paid?
Thanks
Jeff

Q: What are your thoughts on treasury bonds?
Who sells them?

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I focus a lot on asset allocation...by sector and by security. I break out my ETFs into their various sectors (ex. ZLB, ZRE, ZWC, XIT, CDZ, LIFE) and then add in my individual securities (ex. AQN, BCE, NWC, NTR, PBH, PLC, RY, TRP, WSP, etc). Up until now I have lumped Telecoms, Utilities and Pipelines into one category and Energy is a stand-alone sector. The only "adjustment" I make is for TRP. I would normally assign it to Utilities, but because it seems to trade more like the Energy sector I assign it 50-50 to Utilities-Energy.

Fast forward to now with the increasing amount of "Renewable Energy". When researching individual companies for potential inclusion into my portfolio, they seem to all come up "Utilities" (ex. BEP, BIP, NPI). It appears Renewable Energy is not a subset of Energy.

So my question is...how do we deal with the asset allocation? Is Renewable Energy assigned to Utilities or Energy or is it a Hybrid?

Thanks...Steve

Q: Hi, I follow your BE portfolio and I am curious your thoughts on how to construct my families portfolio. My spouse and I each have RRSPs AND TFSAs. Would we be better off buying the portfolio of stocks for each account (so replicating the BE portfolio in each account), or divide the BE portfolio into 4 and putting a 1/4 of of the portfolio into each account. I hope my question makes sense. One way i would save on stock purchase fees but chance that the accounts won't grow evenly. What are your thoughts? Thanks

Q: Hi ,

Many thanks for your instant reply.

Can you now explain the difference between "capped" and "equal weight" ?

I wish you could have a place one could go to to understand the meaning of technical terms of the investing universe.

Merci encore,

Jacques

Q: Hi.
Would you please clarify what is meant by a “sell side” analyst? What is the difference to a “buy side” analyst, if that even is a expression?
Are the analysts with, say, Scotia iTrade considered to be “sell side”? Can you provide an example of a “buy side” analysts (if such exist). In what category would you classify 5i’s analysis?
Thanks!

Q: For Jacques
Investopedia,the free dictionary of financial terms does a good job explaining a lot of economics and financials terms.
User friendly

Q: Hi team,

What is exactly the meaning of "Capped" for an ETF.

May I suggest a category in your list of questions which would be 'vocabulary" or "meaning of..." for quick reference for unexperienced investors like me. It could avoid repetitive questions. I knew at some point what "capped" meant, but I forgot....

Many thanks,

Jacques IDS

Q: I got an article about the 2021 sector recommendations from Daily Advice and it goes like this
Overweight in Communication, Consumer staple, Financials
Market Weight in Consumer D, Energy, Industriel, Tech, Materials, Realestate, Utilities
Underweight Health Care
Do you agree with the above and if not can you suggest changes
Thanks for the help

Q: Hi 5i team,
What do you think of GIC Simple which is an Ontario online GIC broker? They offer access to GICs from different financial institutions, and allow account holders to set up a GIC portfolio that is fully insured. Is GIC Simple a viable option for those who want a better return on the cash portion of their portfolio? Is there a downside to using this service?
Thanks for your valued opinion on this particular subject.

Q: I earlier asked about when/if you thought HEO could possibly move to the TSX, it got me wondering about two other stocks I own - STC and PEO. Both of these stocks seemingly are big enough no?

At what point to companies decide to list on the TSX from the venture usually? Is it a market cap thing? Thanks in advance.

Q: I am planning on selling some of my losers for a tax benefit. I plan to repurchase many of them after the 30 day period. What is the best time to sell for tax loss. Early November or late December? and the reasons for

Thank you
Steve

Q: Goodmorning
What are your thoughts on the Canadian Scholarship Trust Fund as an investment vehicle for an RESP? and or would you have any suggestions as an alternative?
Thks
Marse