Investment Q&A

Q: Your new portfolio analysis tool sounds perfect for me. I am my own advisor (with help from 5i). So I have signed up. I wonder how I should approach the questionnaire on what my risk level is. For our RRSP’s I am a conservative income seeking investor. For TFSA I am a growth investor. In a smaller non registered account an aggressive growth investor. I should add I have a very good defined pension.

Q: Hello
Can you explain what is standard deviation and how does one calculate it? I am trying to understand how to calculate it when it comes to options especially for selling put options?

Q: does your new service provide daily gains/losses? also can it be used as a watchlist? ie does it accept indices , commodities, currencies ,or other items with but no positions?
thank you.

Q: Are we able to track RDSP accounts through your new portfolio analytics tool?

Q: Hi There,
This new tool sounds interesting but, the pricing is confusing.
My current 5i subscription expires Jan. 30, 2021.
How much does it cost to add Analytics so it expires Jan. 30, 2020?
How much does it cost to add Analytics so it expires Jan. 30, 2021?
This sounds like this advisory service may qualify for a tax deduction. Can you confirm this?
Is there a limit to the number of TFSA, RRSP/RRIF, NonReg accounts that can be supported?

Q: When filing your income tax return and you have to declare stocks sold in a particular tax year from an open account ( T5008) the CRA requests the Adjusted Cost Base for those stocks/sales. Can I as an individual calculate the ACB or do I have to have my financial institution provide it? If I can calculate it what backup material do I have to provide?

Q: What is the record like for Veritas on these types of calls ? i.e.: sell the banks.

All the best for your launch today !

Q: Can you tell me if my thinking is correct here. The MER on the 2X leveraged short ETF is 1.52 whereas the MER on the non-leveraged ETF is 1.42. However if I want to go short (or long on the short ETF technically) for 10K CAD, on the leveraged I would buy 5K. Paying the MER on the 5K would be almost half as expensive as paying it on the 10K for the non-leveraged ETF. Is this essentially correct, or am I missing something?

Q: Gentlemen, Good Morning
Following question Asked by richard on March 26, 2019.
There are more details on the Forum US dividends by Canadian Corp.
Richards will find his response
Thanks
Best Regards

Q: In reply to Dawn's question of the 25th about the paying of US-denominated dividends into US accounts, you replied that the dividend was paid directly in US dollars. However, a member a few weeks ago pointed out that some institutions (it would be good to know which ones) double charge for this service. First, the US dividend is converted to Cdn dollars and then re-converted to US dollars.

Q: Hello!

What are your thoughts on VantagePoint AI software? I went through a 2hr demo which looked very impressive but too good to be true. Looking forward to your take on it. Also, is this is one of the marketing schemes, what leggit AI software packages would you recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Q: What is the formula that allows you to compare the after tax return on Canadian dividend income compared to interest income. For example how do you calculate if it is better to receive a 5 per cent dividend from a stock that qualifies for the dividend tax credit or a 8 per cent interest income assuming you have a 60,000 taxable income per year. Thanks for you help.

Q: These companies are all now the subject of an active open Dutch Auction / share buyback offer to purchase for cash. I am interested in your thoughts on the merits of entering these auctions, and if entered at what price point (the offers are between $29 - $35 depending on the company). The shares have all risen with the release of the offer. Will they fall back after the offer closes? What is the longer term outlook for these companies?

Q: Gentlemen Good Morning
Your answer today about dividends in US$
"Holding US-dollar dividend companies inside a US account saves this fee, and we would prefer to see them held in a US dollar account"
Not always thru unfortunately.
At NBDB, if you have CSU, FNV, OTEX, NTR in US account the fees fx/x conversion are double, because NBDB said it receive dividends in Ca$ from their agent (or custodian). I will complain to the Ombudsman.
At Scotia-ITrade they said the dividends are in Canadian by default because its a Canadian corporation, but they deny that dividends are payed in US$. The agents don't understand (or not competent)
At BMO said they dividends as paid in US$ if the stock is in US account, I feel some uncertainty on this answer but maybe true
VB said "This will only happen for two reasons at Virtual Brokers. First, if you do not have an U.S. side open in your account. Second, if the company trades on Canadian exchanges and pays the dividends in U.S. dollars we convert it to Canadian". Its clear. The G&M gives to VB best discount broker.
Best Regards.

Q: Hi ,
This is a follow up question to the March 25th one asking which companies pay dividends in US dollars. As the US dollar dividends are (usually) automatically converted to Cdn dollars when paid into a Cdn held account, would there be an advantage to buy and hold the equities paying dividends in US dollars in a US account? Or do the currency risks outweigh any potential benefits?
Thanks, as always, for all your insight and suggestions!
Dawn

Q: Can you refer me to any sites (including subscription) that are good for trading options? What I had in mind was a service that provides some form of probability analysis on the likelihood that an option contract will expire worthless or in the money? Thanks in advance.

Q: Hi Peter, on the 5iResearch’s company tab, for each company listed there are approximately 35 financial numbers & ratios describing the company’s financial situation. Could you please suggest the most important financial figures or ratios listed for the company that an investor with a limited understanding of financial statements could look at in order to get a feel for the company’s present financial health. Thanks … Cal

Q: Further to a question asked by ‘M John’ on March 15, about CIPF protection for larger portfolios, my understanding is that an investor is protected to a maximum of $1M, but that is for the ‘cash’ side of things, meaning, if you had $900,000 of stocks and $100,000 of cash, should the broker go under, you’d only be calling on CIPF for $100,000, because all the stock holdings are automatically ‘guaranteed,’ because they’re held separately. So in theory, a portfolio held at one institution can be very large, and one need not worry, unless they get above $1M in cash or cash-equivalents.

Is my understanding correct, or is it $1M total, including all stock holdings?

Thanks for clarifying this.

Q: Good mornng,
Thank you for your prompt and very helpful answer to my question re: Mutual funds/ETFs that do not pay any DISTRIBUTIONS and only generate CAPITAL GAINS.
As a follow up to your general HORIZON Total Return ETFs recommendation, what are your thoughts in terms of appropriateness if I were to split the amount to be invested in each of my minor grandchildrens' Non Registered in-trust accounts as follows: 50% in HXS.CA and 50% in HXT.CA? Your comments/thoughts on these specific ETFs would be most appreciated. Feel free to recommend other ETFs as need be . Thank you.

Q: Hi 5i,
When considering individual stock weighting % allocations should I use the consolidated market value of all equity RRSP, TFSA, Non-Reg accounts? For example a $40K position in KXS is 2% of $2M ( but because the position sits in a RRSP account it makes up 15% of that account then the position is over weighted)?