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: Hello Folks:
Thank you again for your terrific service!
I am a 71 yr. old investor who has never kept any amount of cash in our accounts.
I feel there may be a serious negative re-evaluation approaching for world
markets; therefore considering moving to a half cash position, as we rely on returns for a good portion of our income. It is a difficult choice as dividend and rising equity prices have been very good since the recession, however nothing remains stagnant.
Our portfolio is primarily large cap US stocks and some quality dividend paying Canadian equities.
As always, I appreciate your point of view and suggestions
Brian
Read Answer Asked by Brian on November 07, 2017
Q: Professionals have preferred means to determine value and whether or not they actually invest in a company. Free Cash Flow appears to often come up these days as a key consideration in interviews and their recommendations. Not all research sites provide it consistently across all sectors. I decided to refresh my memory but my research suggests there are variations? A recent guest on BNN provided a basic quick version. Corporate financials are not all reported the same way so that creates its own challenges.

In the case of the discount broker I deal with, their research reports provide FCF for certain stocks/sectors but not all. When I tried to duplicate their numbers, I ended up with different results!

Would it be possible to explain how you go about determining FCF? I am basically looking for something I can rely on for consistency across all market sectors. Or is that where/why adjustments must be made?

Your insights would be gratefully appreciated

Thank you,
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Michael on November 06, 2017
Q: Sharesight. This is exactly what you should implement into your services!!!!! It is such a perfect add on, that we will pay for, in my humble opinion. I am sure that the figures are not complete thru my discount broker or the port tracker that I use.
Anyhow, I would appreciate your opinion on it as I am contemplating it because accuracy is all we have to work from.
Also I am considering all ETF's thru Vanguard although I hold with I shares, Purpose and a couple of others. I appreciate your opinion .
IF 2 CREDITS fine.
Read Answer Asked by JAMES on November 06, 2017
Q: I've made a ton of money on Warrants but don't know of any site that reports New Warrants as they are issued. FP releases a monthly report on the 1st. Business day each month....but that's too late as most are out of the money by that time.
Until a year ago the Star would everyday display high volumes and I caught the Warrants from there.....but they stopped reporting on that.
Do you know of any site that reports Warrants as they are issued?
Thanks for the great service. I've learned a lot and made a lot of money from it.
Cheers. Austin
Read Answer Asked by Austin on November 06, 2017
Q: Here are two strategies. I sense that a lot of us are doing 2) but that you would favor 1) am I right? How strongly do you feel about the pros and cons of each.

1) Pick one (or more) of the 5i portfolios and invest your entire nest egg into it. Keep the asset levels in sync with changes you make. Keep doing that for many years no matter what your emotions may tell you.

2) Pick and choose only certain stocks you want to buy looking at the 5i portfolios, also BNN top picks, the "Buy" ratings on your online investment tool, similarly with stocks not in 5i portfolio but that are discussed here in the question section, etc. etc.

P.S. I ask in the context of a basic semi-savvy investor who is no way as knowledgable as any expert, does not have the time or ability to become one, is retired and whose worst-case investment needs are simply to beat inflation over time to preserve purchasing power and deliver an income stream that does not run out before death.
Read Answer Asked by John on November 06, 2017
Q: Hi 5I- We are a couple of RRIF collecting seniors with 63% equities, 20% in your income portfolio minus AGU, CPD ,CVD and XHY, and 17% cash. Please comment on our plan to take some profits from our equities to add to our cash and invest half of cash in the missing parts of your income portfolio and wait for a downturn in the market to deploy the rest of the cash to your income model. Would you suggest another option? or add to some of our downers instead, eg. loblaws, enbridge, kwh.un, disney? Appreciate your advice and service, thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on November 06, 2017
Q: Hi Team, Every day for the last week I have been following this stock on the OTC website. My friend bought some 30 days ago at .30 cents, today the stock is $2.29 and he is now up 660%. How can this penny stock be rocketing into outer space with an average daily trade volume of 20,000s? I mean look at the OTC site...the share offerings are in the 100s. It seems to me it's breaking all the trading rules ever thought of. Up, up, and away.....how high will the stock go....and there is no news and no Insider trading?? CRAZY!!!
Can you explain to me both what is going on how is it going on with this stock? PS I have not bought any stock yet. Thanks Team, can't wait for your reply on NRBT.
Read Answer Asked by Chris on November 03, 2017
Q: Great new website.

My question is about interest rates. I saw an interview recently discussing interest rate cycles, stating that we have have had 30 years of interest rate decreases, that interest rates have now bottomed and we have begun a long term trend of rate increase. The guest also said that the last long term rate increase cycle was during the 1950s and 1960s. During that 20 year period, the interest payments on bonds were mostly offset by capital losses, resulting in a net return of less than a half of 1 percent annually over 20 years while stocks returned 19% annually over that period. In your opinion, what would be the catalyst for a repeat of this scenario? Does this mean that retirees should shun bonds in favour of stocks even though the risk might be higher?

Thanks and great work
Read Answer Asked by Hans on November 02, 2017
Q: I try to maintain a diversified portfolio. However, I am wondering when you refer to owing "materials" what role metals and other mineable resources should play. For example, I tend not to own metals or mining stocks but instead, I choose to invest in other materials such as chemicals (MX) or lumber (SJ) (and maybe even including CCL as your portfolios list it as materials).

Am I getting "proper" diversification this way or should one also invest in gold, silver, copper assets etc?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on November 02, 2017
Q: Hi 5i
Thanks for the service. Certainly worth the investment.

While in my view I maintain a diversified balanced portfolio, a major market setback would be uncomfortable. As you will likely tell by this question, my Investor behavior and potential investment actions are currently suspect. It only took a couple of Market Pundits to turn me into a potential seller.

Without all the tools to see money flows and changing trends and without a pile of time to dedicate in a way that will distill the varying Market Opinions, it does not take much some days for me to think I should be exiting the market to protect against a set back.

I do hear lots about strong and growing earning in the US and a mending economy in EuroZone.

What is the case and evidence currently showing through indicating higher markets and stronger companies performance? (recognize set backs come from where we are not looking and can happen without notice)

Aside from the global Quantitative Easing experiment and nose bleed valuations for some stock prices, what caution signs are flashing for you?

Thanks
Dave


Read Answer Asked by David on November 01, 2017
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!