Investment Q&A

Q: I'd like to know how much you find important to diversify through asset classes for a young investor with little financial responsabilities and a salary covering well over his regular expenses.
In my situation, I have no real estate, but 95% stocks diversified across sectors and geographies and 5% cash position to cover 8-10 months of living expenses in case of emergency. I am 27 and wondering if it is OK to have no bonds at all and focus on stocks? If one can tolerate a severe market correction-recession and has 25-40 years ahead of him, would bonds only be useful to help the investor feel more comfortable and a full-stock portfolio still be a better option?
Is the %Stocks=100-age a good thumb rule or just an overrated commonality?
If you consider one should still always hold some bonds, what would you consider a reasonable weighting for a young investor and what ETF(s) would you suggest?
Thank You!

Q: Hi

I have noticed that most publicly traded companies do not publish a separate fourth quarter report . Why is that ?

I would like to know if by subtracting every line of the annual report from the first, second and third quarter statement of the income, balance sheet and cash flow, an investor can derive the fourth quarter statements?

Could you list the lines which are not suited to this exercise?

Q: More of a portfolio construction question, I would really appreciate your opinion on the following. Whether in The Post or The Globe, more and more, I’m reading in the ‘personal financial profiles’ that individual investors should be allocating, in some cases up to 30% of their portfolios, to alternative investments. These typically include private company debt, individual mortgages, and ever-increasingly now, factoring, the assuming of small business’ accounts receivables.

I’m a conservative investor, close to retirement, no pension, planning to live off the income of my portfolio. Without over-reaching for yield, I invest in mostly blue chip big-cap, reasonably diversified, with an allocation to some of your growthier names. But when I look at what is increasingly being suggested by planners, always under the auspices that alternatives are safer because they cannot be marked to the market in times of corrections, I cannot comprehend it. Companies that cannot qualify for the better rates that banks offer, people who don’t qualify for bank mortgages, and companies who have to sell their receivables because they cannot wait to collect them on their own, sound very high risk to me, worlds higher than investing in a mix of banks, lifecos, utilities, pipelines, industrials, tech, health, reits, preferreds, fixed income, and the like. While the market values of what I typically invest in can tank during correction periods, in my mind, they certainly don’t carry the very high risk of permanent capital loss that these so-called alternatives do. Particularly so since most of the ‘alternatives’ I assume are small companies.

Are these being offered because, a) you require a broker to get them for you, hence you must use one and pay fees, and your accounts likely become stickier because of it, and b) so a broker, when in a correction period, can point to these and say they’re safer because they’re not reacting to the negativity — but only because in truth, there is no market to mark them against. Not until you try to sell, that is.

Long question, but am I missing the bigger picture, and these ‘alternatives’ are something that should be considered?

Q: Ancient person would like your insight on whether or not best to make transfer out of mandatory RRIF deduction early in year or late?

Q: Hi guys,
I used to love google finance to follow and compare various stocks. I could easily chart and compare 4 or 5 companies. However, they changed things a couple weeks ago. Would you mind recommending a useful stock tracker for following and charting companies?

Thank you for your wonderful service

Brent

Q: Good morning,
Are there any studies or perhaps form your own experience, that have determined a general optimal balance between equity and fixed income allocations over time for someone who doesn't want to keep re-allocating asset mix. Is it 60:40 equity , 65:35 etc....?

Thank you

Q: In Joel Greenblatts book "You can be a stock market genius" he mentions that spin-offs historically have been great investments. Obviously not all of them but a high number of them. Specifically they were most successful when key executives from the original company would be moving to the spin off company and leading it, and most specifically when those key executives had large incentives (options, shares, etc) if the spin off company was successful. Also there was a large amount of insider buying from these execs, specifically the CEO, CFO, etc. One example was one of John Malone's spin offs which to this day is seen as one of the most profitable in history. Anyway, what are your thoughts on this theory. Does the theory rain true in some of the spin offs we have seen like (ECN/EFN), (Bombardier/DOO). Thanks!

Q: May I have a suggestion regarding the displays of portfolios for the month, is to add names of companies that are added and deleted at the end of the month,

Thanks

Q: http://business.financialpost.com/news/economy/beware-the-mother-of-all-credit-bubbles

Hi - curious if Peter and team have read the linked article in the financial post on the Mother of all Bubbles and what your thoughts are especially in relation to our holdings in the Balanced Equity Portfolio.

Q: I find that 5i has some interesting perspectives but I continue to be confused about how the service operates in the following respects: 1) You have companies in your portfolios which you do not rate and you even comment on them in the media (e.g. WEF in the Globe recently) but you have no reports on them, 2) I am unsure about portfolio movements as you seem to sell/trim A- names while there are still plenty of B names in the portfolio - what do the ratings really mean? Personally, I would prefer not to have the portfolios at all and just have updated reports on a range of companies

Q: where can I find info on whether a preferred is rate reset or not? my discount broker cannot seem to offer help in this regard

Q: when considering a new stock to buy what are the three most important things you look for

Q: Our 35 year old son parted ways with his financial advisor and I have been chosen to invest the sizeable cash balance in his rrsp. I get that you discourage market timing. Many are talking about a late 2019 correction; who knows. I can average in over 6 months, but that is little help if the above correction happens. I can average in over 18 months; is this practical. I don't want to be the one responsible if he suffers a large draw down.

Based on your years of successful investing, please help me benefit from that experience and comment what you would do in this situation. The etfs mentioned would be the investment vehicles.
Thank you for your input.

Q: 5i has had a bit of criticism recently regarding the income portfolio performance. Obviously 5i does not need me to “rebut” this. However it is worth pointing out that 2 other respected advisors (John Heinzl and Gordon Pape) have outlined their own concerns recently with the performance of their income portfolios and have made some adjustments.

I also have a couple of cynics sceptical of my “wisdom” in sticking with an “income” focus. I wish to educate them by sharing some long term data with them regarding share prices and dividend growth. Companies like Enbridge .... a signifcant casualty in my portfolio comes to mind. Where can I go to find historical data on stocks - ideally going back as far as 1990?

Thanks for your help. Good luck and keep up the great service you provide for your customers.

Q: What is CRA's position on short term trading of a security in a TFSA while it is also being held in a non- registered cash account or a corporate holdco account?
For example if I have a long term position in ENB.to in my core dividend growth portfolio am I allowed to swing trade ENB.to in my TFSA account? Additionally, would it make a difference if the long term position was in the black or red?
Thanks,

Q: 5i team,

Your general opinion of the fed hike decision and commentary yesterday? Thoughts on the impact to markets moving forward?

Thanks, as always for your insights.

Q: What do you think generally of trailing stops as a protective strategy? And specifically, I was fully invested in Shopify at an average cost of about $90. Now it is starting to seriously unbalance my portfolio, and yet I hate to sell any of it when it is doing so well. If you think a trailing stop would make sense in my case where would you set the delta?
Thanks.
Chris

Q: Goodmorning

What are your thoughts on using robo advisors? i looked in the Q&A and did not find any questions

Thks
Marcel

Q: I have noticed in the last few minutes of trading on the big US boards large trades in AAPL, AMZN, BRK, GOOGL and V to name a few of the stocks. Does this mean anything?

Q: With Michael's Q on D. Rosenberg interview. What I am curious about was DR's call on the Fed fund rate for next year. He was saying it should be 2.75% now and that this is what it will be next year. As I heard DR he was saying the market is unprepared for this eventuality. So first, do you think that is a reasonable observation i.e. market unprepared for that large a rise? If so, is it enough to cause a 10%-20% pullback?

TIA