Investment Q&A

Q: As part of my morning routine, I always check the Ink Insider Morning Market Reports on the TD Web Broker website for individual insider buying and selling which I have found helpful. Do you know of another source where this is available? With thanks, Bill

Q: Re: Brenda's inquiry about an online brokerage, I cannot say enough about Q-trade in Vancouver. They come by their #1 ranking in the annual Globe poll honestly. Superb in every way. I have trading authority over several friends' accounts housed at the major banks and none of them, with all their resources, can match Q-Trade. It's a sweet Canadian success story, in my view.

Kim

Q: Thank you, 5i Crew, for posting Dan's correction so quickly. I was all set to sell my TCEHY held in my TFSA and RIF first thing Monday morning. So very pleased with your service and delighted members are generous with useful information.

Q: I don't have a good feeling about this market. It seems very finicky. In the last month I've lost about half of last years gains. I got out of the pot stocks at the right time and did well, but aside from that, everything else is going bust except for Reliq Health. I'm tempted to sell everything and wait. The dividends don't help when the market is like this. I'm losing thousands per day. Do you have any sage advice when this kind of panic sets in? I only started investing a year ago so I am not used to this constant crash scenario...

Q: Good evening. What are the requirements needed to up list from the venture to the TSX?

Q: In response to the question about news releases, I have found Stockwatch is very good for that.

Q: My question is regarding CDIC coverage for GICs in related companies. Specifically, is there $100,000 CDIC coverage for each of Laurentian Bank, Laurentian Trust, LBC Trust and B2B Bank, all of which are 100% owned by the same parent company, for a theoretical total of $400,000 for the group; or is it $100,000 combined total for these related financial institutions. The same question for Home Trust and Oaken, as well as others.

Q: What is the FASTEST way for ordinary shareholders to get news about a company.. any news that's significant, but especially earnings reports.... it seems some get the news much earlier than others, and of course, i cases where it's bad news, have a considerable advantage over the ordinary investor
Thanks

Q: Hello, I have many less than 1% positions among mine and my wifes rrsp, tfsa etc. these are all good stocks which I would like to own. But this leads to too many holdings..what is a best way to manage these. Is it better to have one or max two stocks or one etf in each sector and sell the rest? Is there a good time to do this? Do portfolios with more concentrated positions say 5% do better? What position sizes for growthy small caps?

Sorry multiple questions use as many credits as appropriate.

Thanks.

Regards,
Shyam

Q: Hi Peter, Could you tell me where I would find PE history for companies listed on North American exchanges? Thanks.

Harvey

Q: As a bit of a follow-up to Theresa's question regarding where to find information on earnings beats and misses, I would point out that the quarterly earnings history (consensus vs actual) for many companies is available online for free at marketbeat.com.

Q: In terms of positioning I present a scenario. You are 68 years old. You have currently 1M invested. You are 20% Fixed Income. You are 10% cash and 70% equities. You somewhat depend on Dividends so you have slanted the 70% equity portfolio to dividend stocks. (90%) Blue chip BCE, ENB, MFC etc. Is this a mistake? Should you perhaps even out the portfolio to growth stocks that pay no dividend but offer you upside. i.e. CCl.B, SJ, ATD.B. You get the gist. Now supposing you have been diagnosed with a medical condition that tells you will be dead in 5 years. When you kick the bucket (which in end we all do) and want to leave the maximum amount of money to your dysfunctional family how to you structure this now? I have no concerns about running out of money but at the same time I want to leave the maximum money on the table when I die. What do you recommend as a strategy? That’s the there, there!

Q: I have a general question with regards to stock splits. Why is it that companies don't seem interested in doing stock splits any more? I realize that stock splits don't change the value of a stock - you just get more shares at a lower price. But isn't there still logic in a lower stock price being more affordable to individual investors?

Q: Do you have an example of a stock moving from the CSE to the TSX?
Would this result in an increase in the share price?

Q: In response to where you can find information on past earnings, beats or misses is SeekingAlpha. Just enter in the symbol on the home page and select earnings. You will find the history for all US stocks.

Q: Further to Lance's fine suggestion of using CanadaHelps for excess gains I can add TD's Private Giving Foundation as an alternative I've used since 2007. A twist is that contributions are endowed over a period, usually 10 years, with annual disbursements to chosen charities. Undistributed amounts are invested in TD's conservative mutual funds so some growth can be expected and a legacy is established. You get to name it whatever you wish eg: The Jones Family Foundation. Minimum $10,000. Details:

https://www.td.com/ca/products-services/investing/privategiving-index.jsp

Q: Hi Peter and Team - I know this question is a little outside of the regular type of question/answer component of your services and that you are not in the business of predicting macro economic events. However am just wondering if you have any thoughts on how interest rates may play out over the next couple of years both in Canada and the U.S. With the tax reform package now passed in Congress is it quite possible that this could lead to fairly major inflationary pressures in the U.S. and therefore substantial interest rate increases. If so then what might be the effect on Canada's interest rates and resulting stock market movements. Thanks.

Q: I manage my own RRSP portfolio which is in the 7 figures. It is made up primarily of micro and small cap stocks. I spend on average about an hour a day doing research and placing purchase and sale orders. Does this time spent seem typical for anyone who wants to do a proper job managing their own money and hoping to do better than ETFs or mutual funds?

Q: what was the date that 5i started?

Q: In your email of February 15 you provided a list of changes to portfolios and reason for these changes. (Model Portfolio Changes) where can I find a copy of these reports on your website?

Thanks