Investment Q&A

Q: Do you know how brokerage firms determine maximum margin on specific stocks? About a year ago one could have 70% margin on GIL but it dropped to 50% a few months ago while a much smaller company like SIS continued to have 70% margin. Just recently GIL went back to 70% margin. I thought larger companies that pay dividends like GIL generally have 70% margin.

Q: Assume that Company A buys out Company B and included in that transaction are shares in Company A.

1 - What is a typical lock-down period for these shares?

2 - Would these new holders of Company A shares need to report on SEDI, even if the holding is as little as 4%? Does it matter if these new shareholders are part of Company A's regular operations?

Thank you.

Q: Today on BNN, David Burrows suggested using the 150-day moving average to determine a stop loss point. Would he be referring to a "Simple 150-day Moving Average" and over which period of time on a chart does one apply the 150-day M.A.?

Q: You noted a couple of days ago that you (almost) always put a limit price in place when buying/selling. The few times that I have done this I find it to be very cumbersome because I then often have to wait or even check back an hour or two later to find out if I was able to purchase the stock at my chosen price. I have even missed out on a purchase because I went in too low. While it is nice to get the lowest price I am a bit confused as to your comments because you often state that it is best to purchase a stock without trying to time it too carefully because in the long run (and I am a long term holder) a few cents here or there isn't going to be material. So when do you suggest we place a limit on the buy - always, only with small caps, only when it is a lightly traded stock or just when the bid-ask is rather large? And if using a limit, how do you know what price to go in at?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: do you still publish 5i research SUMMARY

Q: would a 10% weight of this ETF be too high as this would be the only US ETF in a RRSP account for a young person.

Thanks

Q: Does the annualized return on these funds include the dividend?
Also, if they are purchased and held for say 5 years in a non registered account,is there any tax paid other than tax on the dividend?
Finally, if one chooses to go with the DRIP, does dividend tax still need to be paid annually?
As always,thanks for the great service.
Phil

Q: Hi team:
the money has rotated out of the Weed stocks (marijuana) since last year
the Tech stocks are doing very well, can you tell us if the funds rotated out
go to any other particular sectors (not banks, utilities are flat recently)
of the stock market ?
many thanks
Michael

Q: Often one hears an investment advisor (especially those with a long-term buy-and-hold style) say: “if you had bought $10,000 worth of company X in 1990, you would have $1,000,000 (or whatever) now. Yet, these same advisors (and this would include 5i) usually also advocate regular “trimming back” if any one security becomes overweight in a portfolio. But you can’t have it both ways!!—if you are lucky enough to get a 20-bagger, or 40-bagger, or (in my more extreme example above) a 100-bagger, you won’t get the aforementioned immense absolute $$ gain if you constantly trim back the winner(s). My own style typically is to just keep adding new $$ to my other (lower-weight) holdings, and thereby avoid selling my winners: e.g., I’ve had CP, ENB, NA, TRP, CAE, TD, QSR [via predecessors WEN and THI], etc., for >20 years, and have hardly ever sold any shares (and have often regretted those times I did sell a few shares for “trimming” (rebalancing) purposes. The only time I was hurt by not rebalancing was when AIG became 15% of my portfolio, and it subsequently imploded during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. But, otherwise, my general reluctance to sell high-quality securities has paid off. I am curious what comments 5i might have.....

Ted

Q: To all the great folks at 5i a big thank you. Our returns have been calculated for 2019 and we are up about 33.8% across all accounts! Yeah!! Total trading costs for the year about $160 + 5i subscription!!! Thanks 5i. If averaged with 2018 returns things only look "good" rather than "great" but with basically, not many portfolio changes. Buy and hold!!! Thank you for teaching me patience. Now if I could just learn to take some profits! What will 2020 bring... We will see in time.
John

Q: If you were a contrarian investor what sectors would you guys think would be a great area to look into at this time? Maybe pick 2 sectors and 1 or 2 stocks in those sectors. If room maybe add your reasoning as well. Feel free to deduct as many credits as nessacary.

Q: Is this a safe place for cash at this time. Could you recommend a better alternative?
Thanks as usual.

Q: "I am interested in bitcoin. Perhaps something like Coinbase not GBTC. I realize that this is more gambling as apposed to investing but it is possible for large gains and I would appreciate any guidance that you can give me. Thanks, James"

To provide James and others some points/options to consider:

Coinsquare is a fairly reputable exchange that is accessible to Canadians. Coinbase is also an option. Poloniex in another one. I have only used Coinsquare and the now defunct QuadrigaCX.

If buying cryptocurrency coins, consider researching and using a software based wallet such as the bitcoin.com wallet for Bitcoin Core (BTC), bitcoin.com or Electron Cash for Bitcoin Cash (BCH or BAB), or Electrum SV for Bitcoin SV (BSV). There are also hardware based options (Ledger, Trezor). Always withdraw purchased coins from any exchange to a wallet which you control (majority of coins lost have been lost by poor exchange management). Take care in writing down and safely storing any information these software wallets prompt you to as this information can be used to recover your coins should anything go wrong from a software/hardware perspective (i.e. data corruption, computer failure). When the exchange QuadrigaCX went under I was thankful that I had always withdrawn my coins to a wallet under my control and thus had minimal losses.

Many hardware wallets offer support for cryptocurrencies outside of 'the bitcoins' (BTC, BCH, BSV). The only software one I know of is Coinomi, though I am sure there are many others. Cryptocurrency coins outside 'the bitcoins' are not something I have much experience with.

As for public companies the field of options is thin. Most are small cap or micro cap companies and generally speculative in nature. Some companies to research: Hut 8 Mining Corp., Bitfarms Ltd., Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd., and Taal Distributed Information Technologies Inc.

Proceed with much caution and assume a high risk of loss.

Hopefully 5i members find this information useful in performing their own due diligence.

Disclosure: I own Taal and BSV only.

Q: General trading question question for you. When buying or selling, how does one identify or understand the spread drivers or factors between the "bid" and "ask" price to get the highest price (when selling) or lowest price (buying) when quotes are presented from an on-line service. In my case iTrade. As the transaction value increases (from selling or buying), the potential for an non-optimized trade exists for an individual investor. I realize that their are potentially many factors that can contribute to the spread between the bid and ask (particular day, volume, larger players, etc) but how does an individual investor maximize his/her return? On a recent trade (sell), I received the lowest price in the spread with the net results of a $1000 reduction as compared to the median price in the spread. Thx Steve.

Q: Regarding a companies credit rating, is this something that is reviewed automatically every year.

Q: Do you think AQN lost an investor or gained an investor based on yesterday’s trading

Thanks

Q: Greetings and Happy New Year,

What are your thoughts on QYLD? The yield is nice but has it underperformed its benchmark overall?

Cheers!

Q: Peter and His Wonder Team
Assurance Global Services has offered to buy CTG for $7.00 per share, an all cash deal. What does this mean for existing share holders? If the deal goes through...will I just automatically get $7.00 per share and no longer have any shares. Or will I have an option to keep my shares in a new company? Thanks...for your help!

Q: I am assuming that a company with lots of cash can withstand a major pullback better that a company carrying a lot of debt. could you give me 5 or 6 companies any sector with lots of cash that could withstand a market correction with less impact to their share value?.

thanks Dave

Q: What companies have you attended their conference calls and which ones were you impressed with?