skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: When it comes to how liquid a stock or ETF is on a daily basis, what would you suggest is the minimum amount trading you would like to see if you were to buy?. I have a couple of different accounts that I use different strategies and one of my thoughts is if you had a sizeable position in and etf or stock that trades under 10k or 100k a day would this not be of great risk if a person needed to get out of it in a timely fashion due to market conditions or personal need? Some examples of securities I am looking at or own are PBH, XTR, XTC, VFV. I am well diversified with my investments and typically look to buy and hold just wanting some input on this topic. Thanks keep up the great work
Read Answer Asked by Kolbi on February 28, 2019
Q: In response to the question about GICs through TD Waterhouse. Under the research tab, click on GICs. That will bring up a list of those available. from TDW. You can't buy them online yourself though. There's a number you can call to order them.( The rates are not quite as good as those directly through the issuer.)
Read Answer Asked by M.S. on February 28, 2019
Q: Would you please further explain how advisors are incented to sell products (funds)?
On April or, 2017, in a reply to Bruce, you stated: "HWF is a new closed end fund, which did its IPO in October last year and the indicated yield is 5.1%. In our opinion, this fund was designed to sell, with high commissions to advisors." Generally, what kind of fees/commissions do advisors receive that many retail investors may not be aware of? And does this also apply to pushing/selling certain stocks, like new (share) issues?
Read Answer Asked by Helen on February 28, 2019
Q: Regarding sector weightings, I have developed a portfolio strategy based on your income and balanced portfolios augmented by other holdings. I have based the overall sector weightings from your recommendations adjusted for my own preferences. It would actually be helpful if you published monthly your weightings (with the obvious warning that investors' preferences my differ). I began moving away from financials and into REITS and Utilities early this year because of my belief in rates are not going much higher. I see you have done this too and it is comforting to know you may have he same idea. We do not have to agree, I just need all the information available to make investment decisions.
Read Answer Asked by Greg on February 27, 2019
Q: 1:03 PM 2/24/2019
I am increasingly concerned about the financial stability and credit quality of several of my investments.
Could you please provide the S&P or DBRS issuer rating or bond rating of : ENB, TRP, PKI, BCE, CSW.A, AW.UN, SIA.
This information is very difficult for me to find and is often quite dated. Could you suggest a source I could use.
Thank you........... Paul K
Read Answer Asked by Paul on February 26, 2019
Q: Hello, I would like to know how you determine the valuation of a company. It seems every industry is assigned different pe ratios. How is that established? Once a company reaches a valuation does that mean it is time to sell?
Read Answer Asked by pietro on February 26, 2019
Q: What are your asset allocation suggestions for the TSX industry sectors? Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Paul C. on February 25, 2019
Q: Hi, I'm a dividend/ income investor new to 5i and have a question on portfolio allocation % with regards to geographical location. ie - I have ETF's ZWA (USA) at 8.6% and ZWE (Europe) at 5%, (13.6% total ) of my overall portfolio. I have a general rule that no one position should be over 10% and no one sector more than 25% of my portfolio. What is 5i's perspective on this and would your recommendations be higher when you're talking ETF's that hold a basket of stocks?
Read Answer Asked by William on February 25, 2019
Q: 5iResearch is a great service and I really appreciate all the advice subscribers get on individual stocks. Having said that, can I get 5i's opinion on whether it is really possible to outperform the market in the longterm. Most of the literature I have read indicates that buying the S&P500 (ie. a market ETF) is the most time-tested way to be a successful in the markets.
Read Answer Asked by Mike on February 25, 2019
Q: ..given growing expectations of a Canadian recession, i'm thinking of moving away from utilities into fixed income. how do you expect XBB, XSB and HFR to perform in comparison to ZWU if a recession occurs. thanks, great service.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on February 25, 2019
Q: I like to check on insider ownership of stocks (I use INK research) but do not understand a lot of the below listed terms. Could you tell me how I can tell exactly what they mean or where I can look up such terms?

Convertible Debentures A (Sept 2014) Options
Rights Deferred Share Units (DSUs) Rights Executive Share Units
Rights Performance Share Units
Subscription Rights
Units Restricted Share Units
Read Answer Asked by Doug on February 25, 2019
Q: Hi, It was nice to watch Peter's BNN appearance on Wednesday. Very thorough and objective !! And, yes a US stock pick was interesting. Enjoyed the show.
It was also very reassuring to see Constellation Software as a Top Pick, even with the recent bounce. Clearly shows your conviction in this superb company, from the early days. Your comment about memebers' questions, which is the next comparable company with similar attributes - " The next Constellation Software is Constellation Software, itself" confirmed your confidence. We have a large position across all family accounts and have benefitted tremendously over time. Thank You.
My question is - How do we ascertain, if there has been institutional interest/buying of a stock, over certain time period ?
Yesterday, Canaccord Technical Analyst repeated Constellation as a Top Pick and mentioned that they have seen institutional buying and volume going up over past 6-8 weeks, which is healthy and a strong positive indicator.

Thanks again for your insight.
Read Answer Asked by rajeev on February 22, 2019
Q: Hi where would I find a source showing institutional buying/selling please? thanks Rick
Read Answer Asked by Richard on February 22, 2019
Q: about the question for a stock screen for Relative Strength Index.....
Stock Trend is a Canadian site that analyses RSI for each stock on Cdn and US stocks
https://www.stocktrends.com/main.php
Read Answer Asked by Tom on February 22, 2019
Q: Hi there,
I use VectorVest which is great for a lot of things but it does not allow to sort/filter based on RSI. I can't find a function anywhere that allows me to identify the most oversold stocks (aside from the Globe's once a week article). Do you know of a tool that can be used to sort and identify stocks based on RSI?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Tim on February 22, 2019
Q: to what extent should novice investors use price alerts or price targets to monitor their holdings? It's kind of like asking when to sell?
Read Answer Asked by adam on February 21, 2019
Q: My question is to do with more general knowledge of the products available, especially in some ETF's. My question is regarding Hedged to Canadian ETFs. When they say "Hedged", does that mean the Canadian Dollar is Hedged to the US $ in both directions, up and down? In effect, does the Canadian dollar become a US $? We would then not get the benefit from a Canadian $ that is dropping in relation to the US$, nor would a rise in the Canadian $ in relation to the US$ hurt us?

I hope you understand my meaning in this question and I thank you for your answer.
Read Answer Asked by Alex on February 21, 2019
Q: Good Morning

According to my broker's website IPL insiders performed the following transactions on December 31, 2018:

NATURE OF TRANSACTION SECURITY PRICE
Rights Exercise Rights Restricted Share Units $19.18

Over 140,000 share units were involved

Can you please explain as to what these transactions are all about ? Are they rights not exercised? Further are these transactions positive with respect to the activities of the insiders?

In general what is your opinion with respect to the activities of the IPL insiders?
Thank you as always for your insight.

Read Answer Asked by Terry on February 20, 2019
Q: A warning to Jim concerning moving his shares in the Brookfield Co to his USD account because of dividends paid in USD: I called Qtrade (my broker) to find out if the USD dividends paid by my Canadian companies (including BEP) were deposited directly in my USD account. They actually convert the dividends to CAD and then reconvert them to USD before depositing the cash in the account (I moved all these shares back to my CAD account). I would advise you to check with your broker if they charged conversion fees twice.
Read Answer Asked by jacques on February 20, 2019
Looking for more? Sign up for a FREE 14 day trial! No credit card required

We invite you to sign up for a 14 day free trial of 5i Research!
Experience all the benefits and tools we have to offer; stock research, model portfolios, Q&A with our experts, and so much more. Join a community of like-minded investors today!