Investment Q&A

Q: Do you know how to simply purchase a single stock as a gift for a child. Thanks.

Q: Can you please give a brief overview of Modernadvisor and Wealthsimple, the advantages and disadvantages of using them over the do it yourself approach and also perhaps how long they have been in business.

Many thanks!

Q: These are some stocks in my Margin Account that don't pay a dividend . In my RSP, I have BCE , ABT , BPF.UN , and REITS and royalty trusts that pay great dividends .I have a fortune sitting in my RSP that keeps on growing due to dividends but I am 67 years old with a pretty low income . I am thinking that I be rotating these names and increasing my dividend income rather than increasing my RRIF liability in a few years ? I would really appreciate your advice - Thankyou for helping me have such "problems" .

Q: Hello, I would like to "park" some money in a safe dividend paying stock. Your service provides lots of choices/recommendations. However, can you say with any degree of comfort which sector or particular dividend paying stocks therein would be less sensitive to an interest rate hike, and less of a bond proxy. Or, are all stocks paying a reasonable dividend subject to this risk. I was thinking of Enbridge. Thanks very much. Bill.

Q: Not a question but a THANK YOU for the U.S. % breakdown of portfolio stocks as per my previous question. I have been worrying that my VGH/VSP holdings of 5% were insufficient. The information you provided, shows I have another 20% which sounds about right. The 5i team provides a fantastic service !!

Q: Hello 5i team, I know this may have been answered in the past but...is there a reliable public site where company short positions are reported & updated? Am thinking of increasing my position in EIF but as per an answer today, you mention EIF has been shorted. I'll make my own decision to buy or not but would like to see the % of float shorted.

Also, please allow a (short) rant: Re earlier member comment about 5i being responsible for not getting it right on HCG/DH etc: let's remember what 5i is; a reliable (impartial) source for an OPINION and that's all. The decision to pull the buy/sell/hold trigger is all ours. To assign blame:look in the mirror. Keep it up 5i, you guys & gals rock!

Q: For the past couple of years i have been building my Canadian equity portfolio. I have approx 25 names and the portfolio is approx worth 250k with a fairly even 8-10k per name. Up until now when i added new money i just purchased a new position in a company based on sector need. Now that i am at the point of not needing any new positions i am struggling to decide which companies i should be adding my new money too. What in your opinion is the best strategy for adding new money into an established portfolio?

Q: Hi,
Are robo-advisors safe to invest with? Are there any government insurance protections?I am thinking to set up an RESP a/c for my grandson.

Q: Just reading your response today to Brad re his BCE query and your thoughts on analysts recommendations. Could you please provide any additional comments on this as we tend to view these summaries of analysts as a reasonable guide in our thinking when buying or selling, but I'm not not sure how totally prescriptive these are. How much faith should we place in these summaries?
Thx

Q: The first baby boomers aged 71-72 (~1945-65) will begin cashing out their RRSP's or converting them into RRIF's or purchasing an annuity, this year. As will all the major boomer shifts, it is exciting to look at and predict the impact their money will have on government (tax revenues), financial institutions, personal wealth etc. What sectors will benefit; insurance companies like (SLF), banks (BNS), brokerage/ investment firms (FSZ), other. Where will the bulk of this money flow to: fixed income (bonds, debs, gic's, savings acc's) or (pref's and dividend stocks, common stock) or annuities. I welcome your thoughts and predictions on this interesting matter.

Q: My average annual return based on 5i guidance is 13.3% over 8 years. Can't argue with that. Thank you.

Question: XWD, for example, is a global ETF which invests in 5000 companies around the planet, which has returned a very steady (almost a straight line) 13.09% since inception.

So why not sell my 40 stocks and simply buy a combination of:
- XWD (growth)
- CBO (fixed income + security)
- XGD (security)
and call it a day? This would have returned say 11% - 12%.
Pretty close...

Maybe this should be addressed on your ETF site, but I thought it was worth asking here.

As usual, thank you for your sound advice.

Q: Very interesting article. I don't know if you have read it. The World According to a Free-Range Short Seller With Nothing to Lose.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-02-09/the-world-according-to-free-range-short-seller-mark-cohodes

Publish if you wish.

Q: Cohodes said to Bloomberg he is getting ready to announce another company that he's going after. Says "It’s a doozy". I had to look up what that means: unique. It's not EQB, it's another one. I don't think it's CIBC, because it isn't "unique". What are your top 2 guesses for this company? My guess is Genworth, because it's the only mortgage insurer in Canada and so, is "unique" in my opinion. But the carry cost to short it is over 5.5%, so there might be a better choice I have not thought about.

Q: There is a link to an article in today's Globe by Meb Farber that calls into question the generally accepted wisdom that companies that grow their dividends are superior investments. (at least I think it is a generally accepted theory) Is this a theory that you have come across before or do you think that his argument has merit?

http://mebfaber.com/2017/04/26/dividend-growth-myth/

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: Currently I have around 20 percent of my portfolio in US holdings. Given the nervousness of the Canadian markets re NAFTA etc., and the narrow range of Canadian sectors, would it be wise to increase the percentage of my US holdings? Secondly, should I keep the US shares in a sheltered or non-sheltered investment account? Thank you!

Q: With all the activity recently involving stocks that are shorted, it got me to wondering how and why the actual process works. I believe that the shorter borrows the stock with the promise to return the stock at a future date. The shorter is hoping that the stock falls in price so that the stock can be replaced at a lower price and the shorter pockets the difference.

My questions are: who does the shorter borrow the stock from? Is it from the brokerage who holds stocks in nominee name? I can't imagine an individual wanting to lend stock to someone who is going to do their best to drive that share price down. So if it is the brokerage, do they have the unilateral right to lend the stock or do they need my permission? Do all brokerages participate in this activity? Do I (as the actual owner of the stock) get any of the money the brokerage charges for this service? Why would I want to deal with a broker who is working against me in this regard? Finally, is there a time limit at which point the stock must be returned?

Thanks for the help in understanding.

Paul F.

Q: In regards to the comments of another subscriber's about HCG.

The investment thesis made perfect sense: management navigated well through 2008, the greatest financial crisis of the modern era. The company had good capitalization ratios, valuation, and track record. David Baskin, Barry Schwartz, Jason Donville, Martin Ferguson/Jeff Mo thought so, and they have great track records and returns.

Judging the outcome of one company outside of the context of the whole portfolio is not constructive. This company was also dropped from the portfolio before the crash even happened. At the end of the day, 5i has provided market beating returns EVERY year since inception with the BE portfolio. These sort of events happen in the market every now and then and we shouldn't be ignoring the gains on our big winners.

Also, should we criticize Buffet for investing in United Airlines? How was he supposed to predict the self inflicted PR nightmare that the company suddenly got themselves into. Educated estimates based on disclosed information is the best we have.

By the way, I'd rather swing for doubles and triples and average market beating returns than swing for singles with vanilla names to get the market return. No need for soul searching here.

Keep doing your thing.

Elliott

Q: I have made a lot of money by following 5i and avoided losing a heck of a lot more. No one is perfect or bats 100......
A lot of far bigger Advisory Co's got caught in this. I'm a member for life with 5i.
:)

Q: Hello,

I just want to make sure I fully understand the dividend and tax differences amongst different companies. Could you please list where these different scenarios are best held (TFSA, RRSP, Non Registered), how much they are taxed, and any other important tax information (i.e. which dividends need to be reported, eligible dividends, other common scenarios etc.). This question obviously has many parts so dock as many questions as you see fit.

A) US company with US dividend trading on US exchange:

B) US company without dividend trading on US exchange:

C) Canadian company with US dividend on Canadian Exchange:

D) Canadian company with no dividend trading on US exchange:


Thanks in advance!

Alex

Q: Since CIBC is the most sensitive to eventual housing downturn, how secure would be my RRSP and TFSA accounts with CIBC Investor's Edge in case CIBC gets into trouble. Thank you for great service. Milan