Investment Q&A

Q: I read with interest the question from Richard about the Canadian Income Tax System. I was wondering how 5i would handle it. Not very well. My view is that it should have been immediately directed to a blog for those who want to discuss it. It has no direct bearing on 5i's reason for being, and what I pay an annual fee for, which is:

Investment Research For Regular People
Conflict-Free Research on Investments: Stocks, Funds, IPOs
5i Research works only for you.
We are conflict-free.
Our research is independent.
No one else in the investment industry can honestly say that.

But instead of doing this, you presented specific views on the tax system. You would prefer a flat tax system. You make a broad statement that "lots of time, money and effort is made by Canadians to lower their tax burden, which we think everyone will agree is too high on average". Everyone doesn't agree with this. I for one absolutely don't want a regressive flat tax system and I also don't feel the tax burden is too high, on average, for what Canadians get back in services from the government. Could it be more efficient and effective, absolutely.

I subscribe to 5i for good conflict free investment advice. I continue to subscribe to the service as, on average, I'm generally pleased with the results. But I don't subscribe for quick, superficial, one sentence views on very complex topics that have no bearing on my investment decisions.

Q: Hi, a couple or questions here. First, I am wondering about switching a lot of my portfolio to US$ and investing there. Just thinking Canada as an investment place will be a bit dead for quite awhile. Apart from a few of the Cdn growth stock ideas you are touting which I would keep. Is this a good idea? Or if one is spending Cdn $ does the currency risk say stick to Canada. Or do you just hedge that somehow. Next, you have mentioned you are working on "new services". Would this be adding the USA to the Cdn service you now provide? Thanks.

Q: I spend a lot of time flying,do you know of or could you recommend any podcasts to listen to that is similar to your service or just stock picking in general thank you

Q: ZDY.U is thinly traded, so shares must be bought/sold carefully. Looking at this security under your 'Companies' tab, I see that at the time of this writing, there is a bid of 23.25 x 22000 while the current market price is 23.27. If I put in a sell order at 23.25 at that very instant for less than 22000 shares, is it likely that the order would get filled and my shares would sell at 23.25? Thank you.

Q: Can you please suggest a site where I can find the following 3 pieces of information regarding a companies next quarterly release: date of release,EPS estimate, and revenue
estimate. Thank you, Ian

Q: If Canaccord as an example raises capital for a public company, and usually if not always obtains warrants, is Canaccord then allowed to make an analysis with a buy recommandation on that stock ?
Is there a time restraint at the onset ? Is there a time restraint at near a period when warrants are about to expire ? For a junior company particularly when any or few analysts cover such a stock, my feeling is that Canaccord could influence strongly the stock price . I welcome your comments.
Thanks.

Q: We often hear about the advantage of keeping U.S. dollar denominated securities in an RRSP to avoid the 15% withholding tax. We need to look at the formula used on tax software to verify how much of the withholding tax that is refunded if in a non registered account. I just reviewed my tax return for last year and got all my 15% withholding tax refunded.

Paul

Q: Where can I find information on your company ratings system? Does a high rating indicate an attractive price or is it indicative of the company's fundamentals? Thank you.

Q: CTL has just announced a voluntary partial lot purchase or sale program, but at a cost of $3US a share (to a limit of $65US). Why would anyone participate for three or more shares given a $9.95 trading fee at, for example TD? These programs are usually free to a limit.

Q: Do you have a resource for accurate tabulated annual returns of the TSX and S&P500?

Q: I've been looking at the StockCalc reports on some of the companies in my portfolio. Do you know them and put much confidence in them? For example, they report Kinaxis is 68% undervalued, while BBU.Un is 46.1% undervalued. Do you trust their uhm, evaluation of what is and is not over or under valued? I'm trying to get a handle on how much credence to lend these for buying and selling purposes.

Q: Having 150K in cash that will want to investment.

1. how many stocks should be in the portfolio?
2. based on the number stocks, then that establishes what a full position or half ?
3. how many sector should be included?

any other items to consider?

Thank Ed

Q: Hi, I assume this might be common among your readers. I have had 2 kinds of promo calls. One fellow calls periodically, offers a name, but no follow up, so it does not bother me.
The other call I received about a year ago there was a boiler pot operation going on in the States, calls were from NYC. Over the course of several calls, I got to know the fellow at some level. Their company was paid to elevate the stock price of various companies. So they had a system where they established a databank of customers. The deal was they would give out the tip and they knew how widespread the information was . You had to buy at the level. you received the information They would monitor your compliance by watching the block trades going thru . Of course, the price lifted as expected since their database was buying...then at some point outside people watching the technical indicators would see the stock rise and also buy in. The company would then give a call when to sell and sure enough it was like letting air out of a balloon since the stock rise was all based on hype and not quality. I never engaged this fellow beyond trying to find out how it worked since for me it is immoral . Some poor person is left buying high and getting stuck with valueless paper. I don't know if this is helpful.

Q: Hello again,
Further to my most recent Question, I just went into the Forums now and there is already a forum for Tax and FX strategies and some address Norbert's Gambit. Perhaps Youssef and others might want to engage in the forum and see if people can or will update FX strategies for them and the rest of us.
I am as guilty as anyone, but it is disappointing how little the Forums are used. I never thought to check them before posting when that is the first thing I should have done.
Cheers,
Mike

Q: In today's (Tuesday) Globe and Mail, there was an article about "covered bonds". Could you explain to me how these differ from the mortgage backed securities that lead, in part, to the 2008 financial meltdown?

Q: Hello 5i,
Today Youssef asked about converting $CAD to $USD and getting the best rate. I would suggest that in his research he look into Norbert's Gambit. I have just used it for the first time with RBC's Direct Investing and one thing I discovered that DI is fully aware of the process and actually seems to condone if not encourage it. When I needed some help with some of the technicalities of doing it, they were extremely good about assisting me.
Once my trades have settled and I find the time, I will be going over the numbers to determine for myself just how beneficial the process was in terms of the actual rate I received.
In a nutshell, the theory is that you gain by not paying the spread that the banks charge on CAD - USD FX but lose your trading costs - which should be a pittance as compared to the spread.
It is my understanding that RBC's D.I. is one of the better platforms for executing Norbert's Gambit, but that is only surmise.
Perhaps Youssef or others might want to open up a "Norbert's Gambit" topic on the Forum for further insights from other members?
Hope this is of some help....
Cheers,
Mike

Q: Good morning and HNY
My wife and I have several investment accounts ( two individual, one joint, one RIF, one RRSP, one LIRA, two TFSA). We recently retired and transferred from an advisor to self managing. My first question is how to allocate both sector and type of investment ( equity, prefs, bonds etc) given the different types of accounts. Should we look at the aggregates or each account individually. Second question. We have roughly 20% of our total worth in GIC’s, largely held in our RRSP/RIF/LIRA. Safe, for sure, but it seems we are just parking our money which is galling in retrospect as our advisor charged his normal fee for said parking. Are we better off with pref shares versus GIC’s. Our prefs have suffered recently with the interest rate increases and they are more “risky” than GIC’s, but having so much money parked is concerning. I would appreciate your suggestions. BTW, we have followed your service for the past year to gain confidence as has our neighbour.Thanks for providing an integrous platform.

Q: Hi;

This question is more about trying to figure out a possible fraud. This afternoon, I received a telephone call from a guy claiming to be with an investment company. He was calling to priovide me this some unsolicited stock tips related to companies including US Gold Corp. He claimed that he the company he worked for was paid to promote stocks by individual companies and that he got my contact information through a third party website. He knew my first name.

I heard him out, he never asked me for my credit card information or personal information and asked only that I look at the stock and he would call me back on Friday to get my thoughts. He told me if I were to buy the stock, which trades on the NASDQ, I would have to do so through my own broker.

I have been in law enforcement for the past 31.5 years, and I can generally smell a rat a mile away. I felt this way with this call, but could not find the ‘string’ in what he was tellng me.

Have you or any of your members run into this type of scam before and it so, where is the hook?

Out of interest, what can you tell me about this company which apparently has some strong gold properties in Wyoming and Nevada.

I am not looking to invest in a speculative gold play, just trying to understand the call.

Thanks in advance.

DON

Q: When I am reading the questions that other people asked, every time I have to click the "Read" button to open your response. Is there any setting that I can select so your answers are automatically open so I don't have to do an extra click?
Thanks.

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

Can you explain the advantage of purchasing CBO with a yield of 2.74% instead of GIC's (1yr @ 2.6% & 2yr @ 2.8%-3% ) and Corporate bonds such as BNS 2-yr @ 3.27%?

Cheers,
Debbie and Jerry