Investment Q&A

Q: I know very little about bonds and most ad advisers suggest some bonds for a 73 year old like me. Is this a good time to add bonds to a RRIF? If so, what bonds or bond funds do you recommend?
Thank you for your service.
Don

Q: So during the Trump impeachment hearings, I got nervous and I pulled my $500,000 pension out of my Blackrock mutual funds and stuck the cash in a money market account. Pure luck on my part but I figure I need to take advantage of this crash and reinvest. My organization's pension fund is through Sun Life. My question is, would you put this in the Canadian Mutual fund (blue chip Canadian stuff) or the US Black rock fund (again blue chip US companies).....OR....European focused. I am debating. The TSX has been pummeled and seems like a good choice. What percentages would you follow? Any advice?

Q: Dear 5i
I'm always a little confused as to which companies are CDN hedged and which are not . Just because it's listed on the TSX doesn't` always mean that it is hedged I'm guessing . I'm also assuming that it looks like the CDN dollar is going to be weak compared to the US dollar for awhile .That being said which of the ETF`s listed above are CDN hedged and is it wise to have a balance of hedged and unhedged anyways ?
Typically you expect share prices to rise as earnings increase . With the state of the economy ie covid19 it is likely that earnings will be lower for the next couple quarters at least so there are few expectations for higher earnings from most companies .Given this , would you expect the market to rebound higher even before there are rising earnings simply on the anticipation that higher earnings will eventually happen once covid19 is proven to be under control , or do you think we would actually have to wait for increased earnings to occur before we would see any meaningful bounce in the markets ?
Please deduct points appropriately .
Thanks
Bill

Q: Hello
Thank you for your timely reply to my question.
The link to “past crashes” didn’t go to the correct page. Could you resend it with the correct link.
Thank you
Dave

Q: This market is offering a wonderful opportunity to buy quality dividend paying companies at discounts that seem remarkable. I think this is a once in a decade opportunity. For the long term investor, who wants dividend income as well, this is a gift.

Q: So having been through the Great Recession and now the cornea virus, I finally get it. Review your portfolio ,sell those companies whose fundamentals are damaged and possibly beyond repair ( swallow the loss),deploy your cash after things have settled down and there is more clarity into stocks who have the potential to rebound much better than the stocks you have sold. Is that about it?

Q: How would you approach the situation where you want to "buy into the dip" but you also have an attractive tax-loss selling opportunity on the same security? Is there any rule of thumb here or it's really a judgment call?

Q: Could a covered call fund on a major index ever stop paying dividends? I realize they could plunge 50% or more in value. Thank you.

Q: What are people with a high net worth doing right now?
Clayton

Q: When I am watching BNN. The futures are showing on the side and the futures are often referred to.
I have always thought of it an a heads up leading indicator how the day would look based on trading over night but I’m not sure.

Can you explain what it actually is and how we should be using the information in som rod our decisions ?

Q: I found the earlier question about PPL prefers interesting. So my thought is to sell my PPL common and get the tax loss and buy the PPL preferrred even though the up side on the prefers is only about 100%. In doing some research I found that I do not understand the dynamics of rate reset perfers. The A is reset in 2013 and is down 2.5% today. The S is reset in 2020 and is up 7%. Both are down about the same from the issue. I would have thought that the 2020 resets would be much less valuable as they are sure to be called at the current market price and reissued at low interest. What am I missing

Q: Hi 5i - What up with the TSLA trading halt this afternoon? Is their new factory in China impacting shares as well as COVID effects on car sales?

Q: As we go through this cycle of the economy shutting down, stimulus to keep the lights on, and a restart of the economy... in Canada are we looking at inflation or deflation for the short or long term?
Thanks!

Q: Hi Peter

What % breakdown would you suggest for Horizon portfolio in cash account under current situation for new money. ( I currently have 50%HXCN/ 25%HXS/ 25%HXQ)? or suggest any changes. I don’t like bonds.

Thanks

Q: Peter, All Canadians and many Canadian businesses are being asked to
"lean-in" , and most are doing so.
Q1: If you take away its profit motive, what CAN the TMX do to help us exit "crazyville" ? ( eg: uptick rule, tollbooth for the algos, ban the shorts, etc)
Q2: If you remove "regulatory capture" from the OSC, what can they do, if anything ?
Thanks in advance for your usual unbiased perspective !

Q: Hello,

When I look at Canadian stocks traded on the US exchanges, why is there a yield and p/e discrepancy? Even after factoring the exchange, the Canadian stocks on US exchanges look much cheaper. Why is this? And should we be choosing the US exchange due to higher yield and lower pe?

Q: Hi Guys,

This maybe a naive question but I'm curious about falling prices of oil stocks. If a companies stock price goes to Zero does that mean the company is bankrupt and will go out of business? How important is a company's stock price to it's operation. We know that a stock's price doesn't always reflect a company's NAV but many oil company's stock prices are so low what's stopping a large company like Suncor from buying all the stock of cheap companies, other than that they are lousy businesses.

Thanks,
Charlie

Q: In general, when the markets come roaring back, do investors tend to load up on those companies that weathered the storm (kxs, real thus far) or promising companies like lspd or stc who are taking a massive hit?
Thank you,
Kevin

Q: If things get real ugly, do we need to worry about cash being held within RRSP with an investment dealer? What type of insurance is typically on these funds? Is it better to have cash with a bank?

Q: Hi,

A general question about a companies responsibility to update investors with respect to their business. Occasionally, companies update the market with respect to upcoming earnings and will 'guide up' or 'guide down' depending on what is happening. In light of the current chaos, it seems to me that now many companies have not updated guidance (I could be wrong, I follow the market generally...). Could you shed some light on to why not many companies have issued guidance updates? Perhaps the situation is so fluid, companies really can't update b/c they can't update with reliable numbers, or they are afraid to (make a terrible situation catastrophic), or...?

Further, are there time frames on issuing updates (X weeks before next quarter, for example) or perhaps requirements for updating if forecasts are going to be massively missed?

I'm basically wondering what to make of the few corporate updates.

Cam