Investment Q&A

Q: First and foremost looks like the 5i team is working overtime to keep up with all the questions to ensure us members are not waiting long to get answers. Much appreciated! Compared to 2008 are the governments responding faster this time around and is the play book the same or different this time? Trying to see if all of these measures will have the same benefits as before?

Q: I have noticed in your renewal section you have a$ 179.95 annual membership. In previous years there was often a multiple year subscription price, normally two years.
As well I have numerous question credits, in the event I do not review are these simply erased? Seems this service is escalating as with others but seriously looking at moderating my costs. Any comment?

Q: Good morning guys:
Just like every other investor my stocks in my tfsa are down big time. I have not sold anything as of yet and bought Boyd and MasterCard for my cash account with the recent dip . I know investors should stay the course and not sell quality companies , but just like 2008 it took a long time to get our money back that was lost . That being said is it a better move to sell all my stocks in my tfsa and take the loss . I take the remaining funds and buy quality companies that have been hit big time like a Disney , mastercard , visa , Boyd for example . I presently own 10 stocks in my tfsa and they are all equal weightings. Could you please elaborate what an investor should do in this situation
Thank you for great work .
- mark

Q: Hi,
Could you elaborate on " Implied Price Return" on your companies report.

Best,
Matt

Q: Hi 5,
Could you please tell me what stock symbol I can use on my TD Direct watchlist that indicates the VIX level that I keep reading about on 5i and on BNN?
Thank you

Q: ETFs
- is it correct that net asset value is determined once daily based on the closing price for the day?
- if correct, shouldn't the trading price reflect changes during the day, disregarding the NAV at close of the previous day?
- if the trading price doesn't reflect changes during the day, I suppose, in the case of a big change in underlying securities during the day, one should postpone a trade decision until the NAV for the previous day is published
- when will the NAV for the previous day appear in the quotation services? By open of trading on the following day?

Q: With governments pouring money into businesses, dropping interest rates, Retirees and individual investors getting killed,(mostly by computers and algorithms) everything shutting down why don't they shut down the markets worldwide to stop the insanity and panic? This may seem simplistic but we make rules to protect ourselves in the mortgage market, we need to protect our companies and ourselves from sheer panic.
Mike

Q: It would be very interesting for you guys to comment on market liquidity, and bid/ask dynamics with this market sell off. Specifically; for every sale, there is a buyer, and the sellers and buyers keep transacting. But, perhaps there simply is less buyers and sellers overall, so it is forcing people who want out specifically, to receive a lower price to do so. Is liquidity of bid/ask shrinking in these panic like events? With this point, who are the general sellers in this market; retail, institutions or hedge funds, etc. Are ETFS triggering this selloff etc. I hold a lot of stock, but simply don't want to be the last holder in the game, when the so called passive investments helped create this melt up in the first place. If they are also the first to leave, that may be bad for smaller folks like me. So.... if you come back and say that we have whipsawed lower 20% plus, but in that time, less and less shares are being sold, that may imply that still large smart money is still here, with the same large market participants having faith. Any comments on these points would be helpful. Bill

Q: Hi Team,

In this panic selling who are the big sellers? ETFs, Institutional, pension funds etc and they are moving to cash since bonds are also sold along with stocks. I believe individual stock investors are very small percentage of market. Is there a website which shows etf outflows/inflows.

Keep up the great work.

Thanks

Q: retiring next week and now this happens
i will be totally dependent on dividend income
yes, i should have bond income but i don't
ytd shows:
50% of dividend portfolio is <20%>
50% at <37%>
should i sell <37%> portion to protect portfolio?

Q: Interest rate on our money in the bank or in gics is virtually zero. I always heard that in a disinflationary period, the worst place to be is in stocks. But would people not want to be in the stock market and at least get a good yield. So many dividends are over 4%. This is a contradicton. Can you explain it to me. Thanks.

Q: ‘Nervous nellie’ here...is cash (over 100k) safe in canadian account (brokerage or bank) ? Any Real need to spread it on different instution, or buy short bond, cd etc.

Q: Hello 5i Gurus,
The central bank authorities at the Bank of England and the ECB have, this past week given authorization to all banks (domiciled in the UK or Europe) that they will be allowed to release ALL of their strategic counter cyclical funds that they normally hold in reserve. From what I remember, this would be several hundreds of billions of pounds or euros. Question is: Does the US and Canada have similar "counter cyclical funds" (not sure if this is the correct terminology)? that they can use to support the economy temporarily?

Q: We Canadian like to drive and are willing block pipelines our resources re not worth anything if don’t export them our motor industry is dead how long government will be willing to pay our mortgages and pump funds in to our economy on borrowed funds
I think we re very near reccesion or let’s say reality check
Can I have your opinion on my assessment
We Canadians have very high debt so is our governments

Q: Can you comment on the repo purchases that have been ongoing and have ramped up recently in the US. Does this add another layer of concern to the markets or just what needs to be done in times like these? Is there any holding that might benefit from this?

Q: Hi, my question is more about next time the market goes into bear territory...
I currently own "SIL - Global X Silver Miner ETF" and always thought it would do better in market downturn. However, i am down 45% over past 3 weeks. Please help me understand why is it down so much.

Q: What do you think about leveraging into this decline. For example I could borrow $100,000.00 on my line of credit at 1 over prime. Prime currently at .75 percent. The interest is tax deductible. I could spread the investment out over 5 stocks that are paying over 5% and just let the dividends pay off the load. I have enough faith that we are close to the bottom and have no doubts that most blue chip stocks are not going to drop that much more.

Q: I hear you when you say that we shouldn't be too involved in playing the exchange rate between the Canadian and American dollar. But would this not be a reasonable way: buy sunlife in American dollars, since i have them. If the Canadian dollar goes up i sell in canadian dollars. If it goes down, i still have my American dollars in Sunlife that i had before
Looks good but am i missing anything?
Thanks

Q: Hi 5I,

Looking back to 2008 the utilities sector held relative well to the meltdown of the TSX. This time around ZUT is following the TSX down. One would think people still need hydro to heat/cook.

Can you comment on why this is happening? Is there a fear these companies will become insolvent due to their balance sheets?

Thx,
Chris M.

Q: With all the selling taking place, I am curious about what characterizes a buyer now. Someone suggested that companies are doing a lot of buying of their own stocks, which doesn't make sense to me. I would think a lot of average investors looking for bargains, especially high yields, are doing the buying. I would greatly appreciate your opinion on this.