Investment Q&A

Q: Do you find tmxmoney.com a good website for quotes and business news in general ? Which website do you usually recommend ? Thank you .

Q: Most of my international (non-USA) holdings are ETFs that trade in US dollars on US exchanges. This adds a layer of FX (US dollar) into the equation when considering the performance of these holdings. With the quick and drastic FX moves that are becoming more common, I’m starting to loathe the FX volatility and believe that my other US equity holdings already provide sufficient (US) currency diversification. What advantage/disadvantage is there in holding international equities in US dollars, and if I wanted to replace each of the above ETFs with a Canadian dollar equivalent what ETFs would you recommend?

Q: Congrats for you terrific job!
I am often wondering when you recommend certain etf over some great money manager (like phn, egdepoint or mawer) for just half a point of management fees and on the other hand, you recommend full active management with your own model portfolio.
I think with all the money flowing into indexing and closet-indexer and quants, we are gonna see some benefits in years ahead for truly and talented active managers.
With respect, your model porfolio have proven their ability to beat the index as some greats money manager (as mentionned above).
Comments please

Q: How is my TFSA doing? Has anyone prepared an analysis like this: assume one started a TFSA when they were first introduced, and added the maximum allowable contribution each year in Jan., and they received an average annualized return of X (pick some decent average)...therefore the total value of TFSA portfolio should be Y.

Q: I have an opportunity to invest in a private enterprise that has developed new technology in the music industry. The technology is both significant and international in scope but the company is still in the early stages. Capital investment seems to me to be high risk, but if the company is successful, there could also be high rewards. With 5i's experience in venture capital over the years, I would appreciate your words of wisdom.

Q: Not a stock specific question but more of a learning question. Have done well with PEO and COV but the volume of shares traded is very low. I can see these 2 companies continue to be successful and I was wondering at they grow and more investors want to get into the shares what are the options the company have to increase the liquidity of shares and are the options usually beneficial to existing shareholders?

Thanks
Sal

Q: Canadian companies that pay dividends in U.S. dollars: In your Nov. 29 answer to Patrick, you listed some companies; MG, MX, BEP.UN, AQN, TRI, OTEX, CSU, AGU
Are there any more beyond this list? By the way, it may be good to identify this somewhere on your web site. Thank you.

Q: Today Norman Rothery has a column about Canadian microcap investing where he took microcaps and ranked them by low P/E and then ranked this group by recent momentum. Where can I get a Canadian service that will allow me to do this? Search databases of stocks and then rank them for criteria? Thanks.

Q: Do you know of a software program which will give you a visible pie chart to display your portfolio in terms of asset allocation amongst the various sectors in your portfolio? Thanks!

Q: Hi Peter: A few months ago Yahoo Finance changed its website resulting in a site that is much less useful and now Google Finance has followed suit. Before Yahoo and Google changed their websites these websites were very useful for giving access to financial statements of Canadian and US companies. Are there any other good financial websites that an individual investor can access that would have quarterly and yearly financial statements?

Q: Please relate briefly to:

1. is it time to reduce stocks in a heavily weighted dividend portfolio
2. assuming it is how would you treat the below L- leave R- reduce I- increase S-sell
3. buy other div. stocks that may fair better in a increasing interest rates economy,

ACR.UN (2%
HOT(0.8%
BEP.UN (4.8%
DRG.UN (5.2
DIR.UN (1.3%
HR (0.8%
NWH.UN (6%
AD (1.5%
AQN (1.9%
ZWE 1.4%
BK (6%
CHE.UN (1.0%
CHR.UN (4%
DR(1.2
PVD(4.8%
SOX (4.9%
STB (1%
MBK(1%
ENB (1.5%
RCI ( 1.2%
PPL (1%
IPL (1.5%
ALA (1.2%
PGI.UN (3%

THANKS
PS

YOU CAN CHARGE AS MANY QUESTIONS AS YOU LIKE.

YOU HAVE NOT ADJUSTED THE EXPIRY DATE AFTER MY LAST RENEWAL

Q: Marijuana and blockchain stocks seem to be soaking up most of the small cap/microcap dollars. As a result, a number of quite cheap stocks not in those sectors are being ignored. Do you think there is anything to this thesis?

Q: Just a comment on Earle’s post on Friday on the 30 day waiting period on capital losses and being able at least to adjust your cost base. I am an “active” investor, which is a polite way of saying I trade a lot. I am not recommending that for all but here is my approach to taxes. I really don’t pay much attention to the 30 day rule during the year. If I sell a loser and change my view in a week or so due to new information, I will buy it back right away so as not to lose potential upside on that stock. At year end, I get my detailed trading statement. When I am calculating my capital gains/losses for the year, I check each losing security to see if I bought it back within the 30 day window. If I did, I just don’t claim the loss. For me, missing a taxable capital loss feels a lot better than missing the opportunity to get back onboard a stock on day 10 or 15 if my view has changed rather than waiting for day 30 to pass. I agree with Earl that taxation should always be secondary in your investment decisions.
I assume my approach is fine with CRA as I do not try and claim my capital losses if they are not past the 30 day window. Your views are appreciated.
Thanks again,
dave

Q: Hi, I work for one of the big 5 Canadian banks. I have the majority of my portfolio in shares of the bank I work for. Simply through unvested and vested shares. Some are paid via performance and others are through an employee share plan. I want to manage risk so should I sell the shares as they become vested and put elsewhere or leave them be. Seeing I work in banking I understand the business moreso than other sectors so there is a comfort factor here. Has Peter experienced such a dilemma at any of the previous companies he worked for and how was it managed? thank you

Q: Hi 5i team,
If I buy shares in a dividend paying stock the day before the dividend pay date, would I still get paid the dividend, or is there a minimum amount of time you need to own shares before you get paid the dividend?
Thumbs up on the new website!

Q: Peter; Re Tamara,s question on Bitcoin today. I think you should cross reference the question under “bitcoin” as it is the best and most comprehensive explanation of it I have read. I can now pass it on to my grandchildren who might need to know exactly what it is.
Rod

Q: I received the following notice on my TFSA account this morning. Why would TD do this ? I have never known the bank to provide a service without a fee attached ! What is in it for TD ? Thanx Robbie

":You hold some securities that may be subject to Cease Trade Orders (CTO). If you would like to remove them from your list of Holdings, you may apply to gift each security to TD Direct Investing. View/remove CTO securities "

Q: Hello Team: Season's Greetings
In my company DCPP Sunlife offers the following 3 funds among others but the following have had the best returns:
MFS Global Equity: Allocation U.S. 54.15%, Intl 44.64%, Cash 1.21%. which I am currently in.
TDAM Global Equity Index: Allocation U.S. 61.19% Intl 38.6% Cash .14% Other .07%
TDAM Intl Equity Index: Allocation .97% U.S., Intl 98.59%, Cash .03%.
I would like a little less U.S exposure than the 54-61 % which the first two have but to do that I go to 98% International. The 98% International exposure consists of 31.7% Eurozone, 24.3% Japan, 17.2 % U.K., 13.3 % Europe Ex-euro, and 7% Australasia, by region and by sector : 21.2 % Financial services, 13.5 % Industrials, 11.7% Cons Cycls, 11.2% Consumer defensive, 9.7% Healthcare.
All three funds have had 1 yr returns in the 18 -20% range.
What is your opinion regarding my selection of the TDAM Intl Equity fund with 98% International exposure going into 2018 or should I stay with a fund with ~60% U.S. exposure.
Thank You once again for your help
Clarence

Q: Good day – could you please provide a brief description or guideline for how to tell when one is reaching for yield. In my case I am quite happy with a 6 to 8% total return, and if I can achieve that with a high yielding investment I'm not as concerned about growth. However, the question remains - when are you reaching for yield so that you may be exposed to an unacceptable capital loss? Thanks so much.

Q: Hi guys,
Nice new site. I want you to go a little deeper into your assessment here. Mark me down for 5 questions. Please provide a more in depth assessment of DOL activity this morning at open for us "commoners, dotards", etc. I owned 900 shares of DOL, and put in a stop loss of $138.00 when trading at $155.00 over the last little while. My position got activated regrettably, only to see an immediate rebound. The activation and drop was so fast, I cant even assess the decline in price vs. buying fulfillment,steps etc. The chat forums are pointing to some manipulation on this, etc. How does this process even happen so quickly like this. It was instantaneous, only to rebound. The earnings we good, and matched most analyst assessments. I just want to learn more about this process to prevent unnecessary trigger activation's for the future being in a taxable "holdco" account. It happened to a lesser degree a couple weeks ago with TOY also, but to a smaller extent being a smaller company, with less shares going to market. Having read Flashboys...... can I better plan for this stuff, with my buy and sell triggers etc. Or, does the little guy always loose. Thank you.