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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: Could AMZN prior to buying Whole Foods short stocks like Kroger, Costco, Target and Wal Mart and use the money made on the short to buy Whole Foods for the win?
Most companies use cash to buy equities. Or would this be totally offside?
Read Answer Asked by Terry on September 15, 2017
Q: Hi 5i

I own most of BE along with AAPL,GOOGL,DIS, TD, BEP.UN and a few others. Want to add 2 of the above soon. Which 2 would you recommend now?

Also, I would like to know your thoughts on PEG/PEGY ratios. Do you use them and if so, how?

Thanks, Greg
Read Answer Asked by Greg on September 15, 2017
Q: Hello Peter,
With the increase in interest rates, i was expecting Sunlife and Manulife to go higher but they have dropped. Any comments? I want to increase my weighting to 5 percent for Enbridge and Alimentation Couch Tard but both stocks are not responding well eventhough Alimentation had good results. Would 5 percent be too much? Also, if you had a choice between fairfax africa and india, which one would you prefer and finally, I was thinking of Jean Coutu for a 5 year hold. Can you see it doubling in 5 years? Lastly, all the stocks that the shorts went after have not really recovered (CXR, HCG, CRH, etc). What does this say about the analysis that was done by various managers including ones on BNN? I am not blaming anyone but it is discouraging that the shorts were right. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by umedali on September 08, 2017
Q: I currently hold a significant amount of U.S. cash in my US dollar RSP. With the latest
surge in the Canadian dollar vs the US dollar can you recommend any strategy that can
offset further decreases in the value of my holdings in Canadian dollar terms in the short or medium term? I am 71 this year and I will have to convert to a RIF by the end of this year. Given the current geopolitical environment and extreme weather in the southern US the likelihood of any US dollar appreciation or strength appears dim in the near term. Would holding gold or gold producers help to hedge my US position?
Thank you for your advice.
Read Answer Asked by Oleh on September 07, 2017
Q: Hi team, what is an income investor to do in a rising rate environment? What are the sectors and equities that will be most impacted and what are the best sectors to invest in? Do you have any specific stock recommendations for income? I currently have many of the canadian banks, utilities and telcoms which have all taken a hit.
As always thanks for you advice.
Nancy
Read Answer Asked by Nancy on September 07, 2017
Q: Hi, This question is also triggered by the sharp rise in Canadian Dollar over past 2 months. Canadian companies which trade on both CDN and US exchanges have seen their share price lag on TSX. Shopify is an example, which has seen a spectacular move in US Dollar terms but not so much in CDN Dollar terms.

This disparity in dual listed stocks was so pronounced on Wednesday after CDN Dollar shot up to 0.82 Cents at 10 AM after BOC Rate hike was announced.

Which are the prominent dual listed stocks that come to your mind which have fair share of trading on US exchanges ? I guess, I am trying to position and manage my expectations for price movements of some of my holdings in this category.

Also I have some US Dollar cash balance. Does it make sense to buy/add these stocks in USD instead of CDN Dollar ?

Thanks


Read Answer Asked by rajeev on September 07, 2017
Q: This may seem like an odd question to some but I would like to make sure I actually understand what is being said rather than assuming I do. On business shows guests say, in different ways, they have increased their cash positions or decreasing their equity exposures. Although such statements might seem rather straight forward, can they actually have different meanings depending on who is saying it? All kinds of guests appear from pure 100% equity fund managers to individuals actually managing diversified portfolios for clients.

Assume one is operating with a vision of a fully invested portfolio having 40% fixed assets which includes their cash portion and 60 % equities.

When guests generally talk of decreasing their equity exposure or increasing cash positions is there a standard meaning? Say someone cut their equity exposure by 10%. Would that typically mean their equity position has decreased to 50% (60%-10%) or does it mean they reduced it by 6% (60% X 10%) to 54%? Conversely, how might one interpret a 10% increase in cash?
Some managers talk of maintaining gold positions. If a balanced portfolio manager referred to a 5% weighting in gold would that generally mean 5% of the total portfolio or the equity portion (60% X 5%=3%)?

Needless to say, substitute a higher number and it would make for meaningful differences depending on how you calculate things? Listening to some business show guests, I get the impression it does not always mean the same thing but no elaborations are ever asked by interviewers.

Could you please clarify what is generally meant? Thank you.

Mike
Read Answer Asked by Michael on September 07, 2017