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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: Further to Chris suggesting Morningstar, I also use it and find it great except if you add to a position. It doesn't blend the two transactions together but rather lists them as separate purchases, which is annoying. You have to do paper calculation to arrive at blended price and then enter as a total new purchase and delete the original entry.
Read Answer Asked on March 15, 2018
Q: For those Globe investor users looking for an alternative watchlist following their changes I can recommend Morningstar.ca which is free to use. It allows you to enter the number of shares owned and will show you total portfolio value, daily change in value, stock weightings, etc. You can also enter cost if you want to track gains and losses and measure performance. For my purposes, this site was much better than Globe investor and financial post.
Read Answer Asked by Christopher on March 15, 2018
Q: John, the Nat Post just came out with a New WATCHLIST. http://business.financialpost.com/markets/watchlist

Austin
Read Answer Asked by Austin on March 14, 2018
Q: With regards to John's question on the G&M watchlist feature. The new rollout is terrible. I wasn't aware it was only for subscribers, I am a subscriber and one now considering cancelling. I have changed over to the Financial Times watchlist which meant typing in my stocks again but it was worth it. You can subscribe for free and set up a watchlist, the screener there is not bad too.

https://markets.ft.com/data
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on March 14, 2018
Q: hi, wrt John's question about "My Watchlist " from the G&M/Globeinvestor, I have also been using this service for years. Awhile ago (a few years) they required you to 'register' to use this service but you did not have to 'subscribe'. Recently they updated this service. As far as I know, if you were a previously 'registered' user ie you had to login, then you can continue to login to use My Watchlist...at least that is what I have done to continue to use the service. I did not have to create a new account to use the new My Watchlist update. I simply logged in using my previously registered account.
Hope this helps John and others.
And yes they keep removing features of this service ie recently removed the 52 week high/low of a stock from the main view....but you can still see it by selecting the down arrow or expand graphic of each stock but they have also added some other very useful 'views', ie Dividend and Perfomance data

Cheers,
Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on March 13, 2018
Q: My investment company has changed their calculation of portfolio returns from time weighted to money weighted returns. Do you know where I can find money weighted returns of Canadian and US stock indices, so I can benchmark my results against the markets? Many thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Linda on March 13, 2018
Q: I have been using the Globe and Mail "My Watchlist" for years which I have found quite useful, although gradually some features have been removed and saved for G&M subscribers only.
Now The watchlist feature is only available to subscribers only.
I really don't want to subscribe to the Globe and Mail Paper which has nothing to do with the Watchlist. I am hoping that 5i (or one of 5i's subscribers may know of a similar site.
Thank you for any you can provide.
John





Read Answer Asked by John on March 13, 2018
Q: Good morning 5i

I have benefited quite well from the ten year market performance. Not as well as if I had bought the US Market on March 9 2009 and added new capital all the way. In some individual stock positions I have experienced losses during this longest bull market run.

Additionally, over the past couple years, 5i has add positively to net asset value and this investor's awareness level.

The question here is about seeing through an inevitable correction or bear market event.
The minor correction event of 2018 offered a view to how it will feel when prices decline.
In the wake of that event, how does an investor continue to deploy and redeploy capital while staring at the high potential for a market decline.
The difficulty being experienced is, as I cleanup and balance individual weighting, it is now difficult to make a go-forward redeployment decision......add to equity exposure.
Additionally, the amount of time being waisted watching daily price movements has increased.
Some days it feels like going to cash would solve all my concerns. It would not however since asset growth is a necessary target.

From your experience would you please offer some Thoughts and guidance on what is written above?

Thanks
Dave



Read Answer Asked by David on March 12, 2018
Q: You have said in the past that New Highs tend to go higher. Is buying New Highs a good strategy ? Recent New Highs are GIB.A, TSGI, ZBK, PBL, TD, CSU, SHOP, CF, all good names and you seem positive towards these Companies. RAK
Read Answer Asked by bob on March 12, 2018
Q: Som seif recently said he predicts emerging block chain technology will cause the etf industry to go to zero. Do you consider this a feasible scenario and if so how imminent is this likely to occur in your opinion.
Read Answer Asked by Vicki L on March 12, 2018
Q: Greetings
Being retired I am interested in income and I am unwilling to give up a lot of upside for income security. As a result I own all the BMO covered call ETFs: ZWB,C,E,H and U. It has occurred to me that, if you feel the market will rise from here, buying the put strategy of ZPW and ZPH would make more sense as since calls limit the upside puts should limit the downside. Is my logic correct?
Thanks
Don
Read Answer Asked by Don on March 08, 2018
Q: Re Kim's preferred share question, TD Webbroker publishes a monthly analysis covering the following topics:
Market Commentary
and Strategy ................................................................................................
........................................... 2
Preferred Share
Recommendations ...............................................................................................
................................... 3 - 5
Preferred Share Classes
and Characteristics ...................................................................................
...................................... 6
Preferred Share
Table Notes ...................................................................................................
................................................ 7
Retractable Pref
erred Shares ..................................................................................................
................................................ 8
Rate-Reset Pref
erred Shares ...................................................................................................
....................................... 9 - 19
Floating-Rate-Reset
Preferred Shares ..........................................................................................
................................ 20 - 21
Perpetual Prefe
rred Shares ....................................................................................................
....................................... 22 - 25
Fixed-to-Float Pr
eferred Shares ...............................................................................................
............................................. 26
Floating Rate Pref
erred Shares ................................................................................................
............................................. 27
Split S
hares ..................................................................................................................
................................................. 28 - 29
U.S. Dollar U.S. Iss
ued Preferred
Shares ......................................................................................
............................... 30 - 36 (It's 36 pages)

Also http://www.prefletter.com/ publishes monthly recommended issues. A single copy is about $20
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on March 08, 2018
Q: Given the recent volatility in the US I am wondering about portfolio insurance in the short term. While holding cash is one way to mitigate a drop, I don't really want to hold much more than I currently do so I'm wondering if HIU would be a good way or if there is some other strategy you might suggest. I hear many comments about more significant declines, with the trade issues that are currently occupying a lot of political talk, raising rates, and, if the Dow gets back up to the 26,000 level that could be a double top, all of which make me nervous.

So, since I am a long term investor, rather that take profits and raise more cash, what would you do for some short term downside portfolio insurance? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by ralph on March 07, 2018
Q: Further to Peter’s question this morning about passive income earned within a corporation, given the new punitive tax rules that are being implemented, limiting fair taxation to the first $50,000 of income, what stocks should he be switching out of to limit his annual income? He was asking for stocks that did not pay a dividend.

A note to fellow member Peter, which is that you still have to be very careful when realizing capital gains, because they too will be treated as income, just at the 50% inclusion rate. So if you have some dividend income still, and you realize capital gains of $100k in a single year, you’ll still go over the $50,000 threshold. I personally don’t know of a way around it, but the stocks you mentioned already have a preferential tax treatment, so short of removing funds from the corporation and investing outside of it, I don’t see a way around it. I’d be very curious to know how other members are handling this new tax. Any chance of writing an article about this, as I’m sure in your wide membership base, there must be a good number of people affected by this.
Read Answer Asked by Warren on March 06, 2018
Q: What is difference between:
Management exp. ratio(MER)
And
Management fee
Thank you.ebrahim
Read Answer Asked by ebrahim on March 06, 2018
Q: Hello
Could you please tell me how drips get taxed?
Since they pay in stock, does the value of the stock received get treated as dividend income on a T5? Is the only difference being the dividends are paid in stock and often purchased at a discount?
Or is it a formula where the ACB gets adjusted and the benefit is in the form of a capital gain once the shares are sold?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on March 05, 2018