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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: My portfolio is a combination of the Balanced and Growth model portfolios. I'm torn between your advice to "let winners run" and your advice on keeping sectors reasonably balanced. Tech is up and energy is down....so in theory, I should be selling some Shopify and Kinaxis and buying more Whitecap and Raging River. SHOP and KXS are not yet over 5% of my portfolio so I don't need to sell them to reduce risk. My instincts tell me to let the winners keep running until I see some life in the energy stocks, even if that means being very light in that sector. Your advice, please. Thanks!

Alan
Read Answer Asked by Alan on May 04, 2017
Q: I am a senior , I am of the view that bonds , preferred shares, fixed income are not as effective an investment device compared to Canadian bank shares. I don't see a lot of risk over the years, but large and consistent yields. Besides liquidity in a bad recession, where else do you see downside by treating bank stocks as fixed ,long term income investments, hence overweight positions in a portfolio.Thanks to a great team for your exceptional service, Jerry
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on May 03, 2017
Q: Dear 5i
My son has $6000 to invest and prefers solid earnings growth companies . He does not need the money anytime soon . What stocks would you suggest at this time .
I suggested no more than 5% in any one stock but this would not be much per stock with this amount of money . How many stocks should he have and what would you consider a full position under this scenario ?
Thanks
Bill C.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on May 03, 2017
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" .
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on May 01, 2017
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.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on May 01, 2017
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!
Read Answer Asked by Harry on May 01, 2017
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?
Read Answer Asked by justin on May 01, 2017
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
Read Answer Asked by Peter on May 01, 2017
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.
Read Answer Asked by LARRY on May 01, 2017
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.
Read Answer Asked by J Carl on May 01, 2017
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.
Read Answer Asked by Matt on April 28, 2017