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Investment Q&A

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

Q: You, at 5i, represent yourselves as fundamental analysts but according to your answer to Darcy on April 5th, you show yourselves to be at least aware of technical analysis as well, with your answer of the death cross re ATD.B. You might be interested to know that, on the weekly charts, the 20 week moving average just crossed below the 50, often considered to be a selling point for many long-term investors. As well, the weekly RSI broke below the 50 line as did the Full Stochastics and both lines are still pointing downward. There is a support band between about $50 to $55 with the current price at $55.58. The price could easily drop to $50 or less.
Technical analysis is more an indication of investors' attitude than is fundamental analysis and I assume your are still okay with ATD.B's fundamentals or you would have sold it out of your portfolios; is that a fair assessment?
(I gave up timing the market a long time ago as I could never maker any money at it. But I am still fascinated by technical analysis and watch it, I guess, as a hobby).
Read Answer Asked by Fred on April 09, 2018
Q: What are Robo advisers and would you recommend their services and if so, whom? Thanks, Bill
Read Answer Asked by William J on April 06, 2018
Q: Hi Peter, Ryan,and Team,

The Motley Fool had an article called "3 Canadian Dividend Aristocrats With Dangerously High Payout Ratios".

They cite current and 2018 payout ratios for these three stocks:
CGX: 150% and 144%
ECI: 182% and 124%
PKI: 340% and 329%. (yikes!)

They end the article with this statement:
"It’s important for investors to understand the sustainability of a company’s dividend. These aristocrats all have a history of raising dividends, but their high payout ratios are reason for concern. This does not necessarily mean they are bad investments, but investors looking for sustainable dividends may be better off looking elsewhere."

Should this article be taken with a 'grain of salt'? Are their payout ratio numbers valid? What about the Motley Fool in general? Is it worth reading their articles?

Thanks as always for your level-headed and pertinent advice.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on April 04, 2018
Q: Hi 5iResearch Team,

Just wondering if there is a site(sites) one can go to for short positions on both Canadian and US equities.

Cheers,
Read Answer Asked by Harry on April 04, 2018
Q: A few questions if I may:

1. I gather that Preferreds are becoming increasingly rare and that they are concentrated in financial stocks. Is that also true in the U.S.?
2. Is there a site that lists or focuses on Canadian Preferred shares, or similar in the U.S.?
3. In a gradually increasing interest rate environment I assume it then follows that Preferred share prices would be under downward pressure?

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Kim on April 03, 2018
Q: I have a question related to inverse index ETFs and payments of dividends.

I hold 100 shares of the New York-traded ETF "PROSHARES SHORT QQQ", ticker PSQ, which behaves in an inverse way to the NASDAQ index. Last week I received a dividend of US$4.01. Although this is a modest amount, I am very surprised that I would receive any dividend at all ! How can this be with an inverse ETF? (If anything, I would expect to have deducted the dividends of the underlying shares, as is the case with a "short" of an individual stock.)

Thanks for any clarification you can provide!
Read Answer Asked by Gregory on April 03, 2018
Q: Gentlemen:
I notice some preferred shares have an option to convert to another issue and are also redeemable on the same day. Can you exercise the option or do they redeem them?
Thank you
Ken Beatty
Read Answer Asked by Ken on April 03, 2018
Q: “The dark side of dividends: Ballooning corporate debt”. Could you please comment on this article in the Globe this week suggesting significant increased corporate debt (to support corporate dividend programs) actually poses a looming threat to dividend viability going forward. To what extent do you feel this applies to the utility and pipeline sectors in particular and specifically which companies might be most impacted. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Gary on April 02, 2018
Q: Good morning 5i,
I set up a DRIP program for my daughter's TFSA in BNS PKI and WSP. Dividends have been accumulating but no new shares have been added. Does the bank or the company determine when new share will be issued? Does each company have a minimum number before adding ( i.e. 3 or 5 ) before issuing? Any clarification would be appreciated.
Thanks for your great service ,
Gary
Read Answer Asked by Gary on April 02, 2018
Q: Would like clarity on what 5i defines as a position. My understanding is that if I buy a stock/ETF etc that I have a position. That is how I find it defined in literature. In reading your Q&A I see references to 1/2 a position, 3/4 of a position. Is this a dollar value or % of a portfolio?
Read Answer Asked by Betty on April 02, 2018
Q: Hi 5iResearch Team,

Would you happen to know of a web site that I can go to for earning release dates for both US and Canadian equities?

Cheers,

Read Answer Asked by Harry on March 28, 2018
Q: To add to your response to John this morning regarding sources for latest company news, you can often get up-to-the-second information about a company by searching Twitter using the company's ticker symbol with a dollar sign in front of it, and clicking the "Latest" tab. A couple caveats: the signal-to-noise ratio can be extremely low, and it will return tweets about all companies using the same ticker from all exchanges. Searching with $DWS in this manner cites BNN as the reason for its big move in line with 5i's response, but also returns news spam from dubious financial websites and info about DWS Group, which shares the same ticker. Nonetheless this method can frequently provide quick satisfaction during those what-the-heck-is-going-on moments!
Read Answer Asked by Peter on March 28, 2018
Q: What is the best place to get the very latest news on Canadian companies? Free would be best but I would be willing to pay if it was a good service. I see moves in stocks I own and then often have to “Google” the company and find the relevant news. What does 5i use, Morningstar?
On this note, I see a move in DWS-X today with big volume, but could not find any news. Do you know what this is about?
Thanks
John
Read Answer Asked by john on March 28, 2018
Q: further to Ian's Corporate Class Mutual Fund note re swaps and tax considerations for ETFs in future, read a good article on the uses of Corporate Class Mutual Funds that remain as well the swaps are not eliminated just the length of contracts is limited to 180 days;
http://www.advisor.ca/tax/tax-news/corporate-class-funds-etfs-still-tax-efficient-after-budget-112009
share if think useful
Read Answer Asked by John on March 27, 2018
Q: I am a long-term investor with the majority of equities purchases targeted to 5-10 years. Certainly, I have a few equities that are in loss positions similar to the model portfolios on 5I Research. Would you recommend using a stop loss process on all stock purchases in an entire portfolio? If so what stop loss system would you recommend for purchasing a security such as SIS? If I purchased SIS today with the intention of holding long term is there a need to utilized a stop loss system?
Read Answer Asked by Dean on March 26, 2018
Q: Hello, this is in regard of the Globe & Mail article by Ryan dated March 12, 2018. Does this new index change will impact the sector classification we get from TMX Money? For exemple does this mean that using TMX Money, companies such as OTEX, CSU, MSFT will no longer belong to the technology sector as of Sept. 28, 2018? Thanks, Gervais

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/getting-a-read-on-index-changes/article38279262/
Read Answer Asked by Gervais on March 26, 2018