Investment Q&A

Q: What is your view of structured products such as PaRs and PPNs? I had thought you had previously commented on these products but cannot locate. These products appear to be designed by the financial industry for selling rather than real investor needs.

Q: I have a philosophical question on bond allocations in a portfolio. Simply put, why would anyone put money in bonds or bond funds in the current interest rate environment. A high bond allocation made sense in the 70's and 80's but for the last many years the returns have been very small. I realize that the bonds won't fall in a recession, but is that worth the high lost opportunity cost compared to say, holding banks or utilities. What bothers me is the almost universal acceptance by advisors that a bond allocation is mandatory. As a nerdy engineer I get suspicious when ideas are presented as fact with minimal apparent logic. I can see why bonds are somewhat attractive to advisors as the low volatility keeps clients less "edgy" but is it really the best long term strategy under the current conditions. I am in the fortunate position that I do not need to make large withdrawals and I can usually plan ahead. Why would I need bonds?

Q: Hi guys

Most ETFs I kind of understand what they are using to mimic an index, and to create the holding. With this ETF trading off the VIX wondering how they do this? What do you think of this as a short term holding. It just seems the VIX should have much more noise, given Trump, uncertainy, and trade issues, yet you wouldnt know it. Your thoughts?

Thanks
Stuart

Q: I have a general question but I will use SIS to help me as an example. I am trying to learn how to find out what a company's Debt is. I want to be able to calculate the ratio of Debt to Cash Flow. I can find Cash Flow right from the TD Direct Investing website, but how can I find "Debt" to plug into the ratio? Many thanks. Marilyn

Q: I am a "teach me to fish", not "give me fish" kind of person, so I was wondering if there is a simple method of determining the US portion of revenue of a Canadian stock. Going through financial statements don't seem to help. Your service seems to be able to determine this, so I was wondering if you could share your source of this information. Thanks for your great service.

Q: my brother had some shares in MKNA which is now WLLW but they have removed all shares from his account, can you tell me why this would have happened as I can't any information on why this was done ? Is it an error on the brokerage firm? The shares were removed on May 22,2019.
Thanks

Q: When researching companies, do you ever take ESG risks into consideration? If so how do you factor this into your process? Are there any metrics you consider significant in identifying potential alpha?

Q: My Question is on General market conditions from Technical point of view

Its seems looking at the technical charts for $INDU (DOW index) it has formed a TRIPLE TOPs with divergence in RSI and MACD with lower lows at each tops and $INDU now breaking off 200MA and from todays action its seems $INDU may run down to 20,000 or even 18,000 unless it jumps back above its 200MA
5i expert comment on this please

Q: Does the TSE nolonger produce a bi-weekly short report.

Q: Greetings Peter and team,

We had set up the Knowledge First Financial's group RESP program for my daughter and contributed for 2 years. Then opened another account with CIBC and contributing regularly. Recently, we have received a mail from KFF asking us to vote on changes to the plan. Following is the link

https://knowledgefirstfinancial.ca/subscribervote/documents/family/2019-04-15-cover-letter-family-group.aspx

Do you see any issues with the proposed changes and or about the plan and company? My daughter is 12 now, is it ok to keep the money there for the rest of the time or should we transfer it to CIBC account? Please advise.

Thank you in advance

Q: Hi team,
I saw the comment earlier from Rick on TD not offering Norbert’s Gambit option for RRIFs. I am not at the RRIF stage yet but moving closer. I have used Norbert’s Gambit many times for my RRSP, TFSA and Cash accounts at TD. Without this option, I think the FX conversion charge, if I recall past conversations with TD, is a minimum 1.5% for larger amounts, ranging up to 2% or more for smaller amounts. If Norbert’s Gambit is not available at TD once I get to the RRIF stage, I will look at moving my account(s) as well. In a RRIF, I will likely be using Norbert’s Gambit more to move funds back to Canada from the U.S. for the minimum annual withdrawals required by law. Like Rick, I am interested if other members have the Norbert’s Gambit option for their RRIFs.
Dave

Q: Good afternoon, could you explain process to tender GS shares in response to approved buyout by Onex. GS shares are held at BMO Investorline.
Thank you

Q: Is portfolio balancing different than averaging down? I will be doing my semi-annual portfolio over the next couple of weeks and with the decline of names like MG, MX and TSGI to name a few I suspect I will be a bit underweight in consumer discretionary and materials. I see portfolio balancing as shoring up the laggards and trimming the overweight (winners) but that means buying stocks that are not showing momentum and may even be in continuing decline. So, are these two ideas incompatible and if so, what is the "proper" way to rebalance?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: On my previous question on EQNR you stated that they had Debt at less than 1x cash flow, just curious at how you arrived at that value, as when i look at Morningstars info they show ttm free cash flow at 6.8 Billion and short and long term Debt around 25.7 Billion. I find this Debt/cash flow Ratio as one of the more useful metrics as it can give you an idea how fast companies can pay off Acquisitions, however few web sites report it, as well as yours when i search under companies
thanks Gord

Q: Clarification on my question --"whether it is best to convert money to the US and then buy stock or just buy stock and then convert to the USA stock". You say "that if one is buying a US stock there will be conversion at some point. Either C$ gets converted into US$ for the purchase, or US$ gets converted into C$ when the investor wants to withdraw Canadian cash from the account eventually."

There will be no conversion fees if I do below steps.
Example: I buy CSU on TSX Then move to USA Stock
When I decide to sell I move CSU from the USA to CDN and then sell.

Is this strategy will end up saving money or the best way to convert money from CDN to the USA or vice versa.

Thanks for the great service.
Hector

Q: Hello 5i;
I don't understand your reply to Hector's question today about "whether it is best to convert money to the US and then buy stock or just buy stock and then convert to the USA stock". You say "........there will be no difference". If he converts cash, he will be paying a FX fee. If he buys a stock on the TSX and then moves it to the US side, are you saying that there will also be a FX fee involved?

There is obviously a lot of confusion about US/CDN conversion, be it cash or stocks, the question of dividends, etc. The subject keeps coming up, resulting in a lot of fragmented Q & A's. I wonder if you could come up with an informative blog that would address this whole issue (incl. Norbert's Gambit)? I think we would all find it very useful!

Q: A member reported that TD Direct charges a fee for moving funds (via Norbert's Gambit) between CAD- and USD-denominated RRIF accounts. I cannot confirm that this is the case, but it bears noting that, not long ago, TD added a transfer function to WebBroker, such that account holders can execute Norbert's Gambit themselves. I have used this feature for this purpose (between CAD/USD RRSP accounts) and paid no fee - except, of course, the trading costs for opening and closing the position, which, at TD, for a smallish currency move, might well exceed 1.5%. Put another way, being thrifty with brokerage expenses might have more to do with minimizing trading costs than with occasional service charges.

Q: What drives price changes in Canadian-traded ETFs holding US securities on days when US markets are closed? Is it after-hours trading prices of the underlying securities, or something else?

Q: Moving a Canadian stock to the U.S. side in order to keep the dividend in U.S. $.
Is it best to convert money to the US and then buy stock or just buy stock and then convert to the USA stock? Do you end up paying less or is it same? (I.e Fex fees).

Thanks for the great service.
Hector

Q: I just found out that TD Direct does not allow Norbert's Gambit to transfer funds to/from Canada/U.S. within a RRIF. Their fee for moving the money is near 1.5%. Do you know of any discount broker that allows Norbert's Gambit within a RRIF? I am prepared to move my RRIF if so. Thanks. Rick.