Investment Q&A

Q: Given that my Margin account has the 5 big banks and 2 Telecoms paying dividends on a periodic basis and that I'm not "too" concerned that these will cut their dividends, would it be wise to implement trailing stop loss orders for these in case there is another retest of the lows of March. Had I done that at the beginning of the year, I could have picked up the above at much reduce prices with resulting greater dividend yields. And would using the same procedure for my RIF account (which has mainly REITs) be beneficial to capture the current values to avoid further losses there.
Your comments. Thank you

Q: Hello
Have you ever considered limiting the words in a question to something reasonable? Perhaps something like 100 words. Some questions are sooooooo long that it takes the fun away from reading them. Just a suggestion. :)

Q: While at home these past weeks, I notice a strange phenomenon that maybe you could explain. The Dow futures right before market open give a fairly good indication of the direction of the market for the day. So I thought, well hey, if you know the market is going to go down, would it be possible to sell early? Using MPC as an example, however, you can see that there in an IMMEDIATE 2 dollar drop in the share price at open. How is this possible? Why would an owner of the stock at 32 dollars one moment be willing to accept a bid of 29.91 with no intermediate prices at a large volume? Unless that seller was trying to move the market? Would like to hear your thoughts.

Q: In your opinion,what are the best sectors in North America to invest in at this time

Q: You often cite "insider ownership" ratios when commenting on various equities. Can you point me to a website where I could access this info or is access limited to professionals?

Q: This is in response to Donald's inquiry about converting CAD $ into US $. I've used Knightsbridge Foreign Exchange many times to convert USD to CDN and been very pleased. Its easy to set up your account and fees are approx 0.8% (or lower for large transactions) vs the banks 2.5-3%. Place a call to their trading desk and you'll be able to complete a trade immediately. They will quote you a rate, which is the spot rate less their fee. You can also place a standing order that's triggered once your price is hit. It takes about 5 days for your cash to be transferred from one account to the other. Hope this helps.

Q: We are managing the assets of my elderly parents. They have $1.5 M cash in a Canadian interest account. We are wanting to diversify and put some of this into a US interest account of some type, thinking the USD will gain over the next couple of years. Do you have any ideas of how to do this that will avoid the usual 2.5-3% currency conversion? Is the an ETF they could purchase that will basically give them US cash, or something else that you are aware of? Thanks for any advice you can provide.

Q: Hello
The Bank of Canada Target Rate is set at .25% until the Fourth Quarter of 2021.
However, I also noted that the forecast for the 5 year Government of Canada bond is different as follows:
Q2 2020......54%
Q3 2020.......63%
Q4 2020........75%
Q1 2021.........98%
Is it possible to have a gradual increase in the 5 year bond rate while the Bank rate is kept static at .25% ??
Thanks

Q: Another member pointed out that you have a link to "Dividend Updates", which I did not notice before. I don't recall seeing an email announcing that.

What is the criteria for entries in that list? Is it all Canadian stocks that report dividend changes? Since Jan 1, 2020?

I maintain my own list of dividend changes for stocks that I own, and noticed that there are a few dividend changes missing from your list. These changes were announced after Jan 1, 2020.

Specifically:

PPL Announced 20200106, up 5%
BPY.UN Announced 20200205, up 0.76%
BCE Announced 20200206, up 5%
BAM.A Announced 20200213, up 12.5%
TD Announced 20200227, up 6.76%
ENGH Announced 20200305, up 22.7%
SGY Announced 20200309, down 90%
VET Announced 20200316, down 82.6%
SGY Announced 20200415, dividend suspended
MX Announced 20200429, down 90%

Q: In todays list, you mentioned to a subscriber to consider VOM.

This ETF has a tracking error of 5.03%, is this important?

Can you please explain "Tracking Error" for everyone, including me.

Q: Do you have a list of companies that have cut their dividends/distributions?

Q: I was wondering if there was a way to find out what equities are in the CPP and Teacher's Union pension funds.

Q: Jacques asked about finding better brokers than RBC . I too ...as in another answer from another member...use TD and BMO Investorline...for self investing. BOTH have been very good so far after 6 years of self investing. If there is the odd issue it is corrected very quickly...so far.
I hope that helps

Q: If a person is concerned about the bank of Canada printing so much money , that it starts to lose its value and the money I have saved up in cash starts to lose its value as well , what can a person do to protect the value of the money you have . And how would a person go about doing this? thanks , especially during this crazy economy.

Q: Hello 5i-
what do we do with Canadian $ in cash. We've got cpp, oas, work pensions : however, all of this can go down significantly too and we need to preserve for our later years.- - my ? is this: what shoud we do with xtra cash now? Should we buy usa $, usa stocks, etfs? thank you for your time

Q: Hello
Very few bank rate reset preferred shares indicate that there is a "NO NVCC" clause. An example are the above noted two preferred shares.
Can you please tell us what the NO NVCC clause means and how these bank rate reset preferred shares differ from ordinary bank rate reset preferred shares?
Thank you

Q: Hi Team,
Just to comment on risky short term trading vs long term view. Tuesday Apr 28, during trading hours, Ford was up near 4% to the close while Google was down about 4% all moved along with broad index, looks like 8% trade move in between, right after the close, Ford came out with projection of revenue down X billions in next Q, while GOOG put out "ONLY" 13% on revenue growth in the past Q, also sticking with share buybacks. share of Google are up 9% next day. Ford was at same as yesterday close, could have crashed more if.... Wondered WHO are the "INVESTORS " traded or made those moves, imagined one sold Google on the way down and bought Ford on the day up 24 hours ago. FOMO or Logical ?

Q: Hi 5i,
In response to Jacques frustration with RBC; I found solace in a free program called WeBull. It is available in phone and PC downloads. Up to the minute market and stock information, pre-market data on each US stock (this can be useful to see where stocks may open). Overall it is the best free program I have seen. There is an option for a subscription but for those of us who do not day trade the free program is very good.
Debbie and Jerry

Q: A comment on Jacques frustration with RBC. I use TD Webbroker and very rarely experienced any disruption of service. I also use BMO Investor line with some minor disruption but not to the extent described by Jacques.

Q: Hi !
I presently do all my transactions for the stock market on RBC Direct Investing. However, I am increasingly frustrated by the frequent breakdowns in the site. For example, this morning, 20 minutes before the opening of the market and now, 35 minutes after the opening, it is just impossible to check stocks or pass an order. In trying to reach the site, I get the following message: "The server is busy at the moment. Try later."
I understand the markets are seing increasing traffic lately, but I would expect the biggest bank in Canada to be up to the challenge.
Do you know if the problem of accessibility to direct investment account investment is similar in other providers of such service ?

Thanks for your help,

Jacques IDS