Investment Q&A

Q: Hello 5i
Would you please offer your opinion of a few individual holdings and other investment vehicles worthy of long-time hold and more importantly dividend reinvestment. I see your a selction of ETF you have been noting are VGG(for USA) and CDZ(for Cad). Is this the top idea or are there other ideas (individually or combination of holdings)?
The goal is to take advantage of the market ride and still feel comfortable with the investments and know more of a good investment is being purchased regularly.

Alternatively, would one just let cash build up and buy shares and units on a quarterly basis instead of utilizing a DRIP?

By example, just bought CAR.UN today. Working to determine whether it makes sense to join the drip; especially with the 5% discount of the Plan.

Thanks for your thoughts
Dave

Q: Enghouse and Allergan have been weak and range bound for some time. Is there a strategy for stocks like this? Does one lower a portfolio weighting once a stock looses momentum? My hesitation has always been that at any time these stocks can report an acquisition and open higher in the double digits. As well, I feel like a hypocrite buying for the long term only to move on when things slow only to look back years later wishing I held. Allergan is a 4% weighting, Enghouse is a 2.5% weighting. Would you consider these core holdings?

Q: Hi 5i Research team , I have now limited capital to invest relative to the size of my overall portfolio. I am a long term investor with long horizon and I am relatively satisfied with the quality of the stocks in my portfolio. I have recently mainly used margin, cash from takeover, overweight reductions, dividends over margin's interest and small personal cash contribution to refund the margin used and to make new investments. I am currently fully invested and, I intend to mainly invest in a prepared in advance short list of companies when there is broad stock market corrections (10%ish) that I expected every sx to ten months. Could you comment on this strategy, its merits and weaknesses? Am I forgetting something? Thank you, Eric

Q: I have read your comments about companies records of meeting/missing/beating estimates. ULTA just raised their guidance and is up over 10% at the moment, but where would I find their record of beating estimates?
Thx as always.

Q: Hi 5i. You periodically answer questions re sector allocation percentages. One of your more recent, discussed the inclusion of Real Estate as the eleventh.
Can you clarify if these suggested percentages would be for the Equities portion of one's portfolio only, and thus would exclude the Fixed / Cash portion. Thanks for clarifying. T.

Q: You have previously recommended in not going above a 50/50 mix in equities and income for a average investor. What can one assume is included in income producing products? Preferred shares, dividend paying stocks, bonds....? What percentage breakdown is recommended for an average investor for a 10 year time frame? Thank you

Q: Understanding the risks involved, how do you feel about holding equal positions in inverse ETFs (10%) and cash (10%) given the potential choppy months ahead for the market?

Q: I just realized that the 5i Research News that I receive by email updating the portfolios and their status is not on the 5i Research website.ie I cannot access those written reports off the website. Am I missing something or is this correct?
I like to print these written reports. I know that I can access the model portfolios from the website.

Q: "Austin

Q: I keep reading about this, but NO ONE can tell me exactly HOW to ENROLl in these DRIP Programs. I even dropped into the office of Agnico eagle around the corner, and they did not know.....telling me to see by broker. I also wrote to someone I respect very much at ROB, but to no avail. Can you please tell me how?"


With many decades in existence & probably the best site in Canada is:

http://www.dripinvesting.org/boards/boards.asp


It is a free, moderated and honest site. I have used it and helped many, many people across Canada with beginning a true DRIP and answering questions for over a decade.

The 2 main stock transfer agents which handle ~90% of all DRIP's in Canada also respond to some questions at this site.


OB, OperaBob, Robert Gibb is the Canada Board moderator. He has been on tv, & quoted & interviewed on some news sites over the years like the Globe & Mail....


There is a board for exchanging shares also.

http://www.dripinvesting.org/boards/BoardMsgs.asp?BID=8


Hope this is helpful.

Q: I currently hold fts and aqn and down about 8% on both.With a us rate hike possible in Dec. Should I hold or exit my position. Further why would a small .25 increase have such a down effect on these stocks.This increase has been in the news for a year?

Q: Interest rate sensitive sectors are under performing possibly due to a December rate hike from the Fed. Do you think the reaction is overdone? Good entry point on REITs and Utilities?

Thanks,
Jason

Q: There is something I'd like to share with your members. I've been tracking 3 portfolios in detail for the last 18 months. One of them is a "couch potato" self-directed account, one is a mutual fund account while the third is an RBC "wealth management" account. The top performer believe it or not is the self-directed account!
It would seem that the outrageously high portfolio management fees in Canada are indeed not justifiable (based on my limited findings at least).
I am writing this message to add my simple voice to the growing chorus of individuals managing their own financial affairs. It works! I hope this simple message will encourage your members to keep on the path that they're on.
Now for my question - in another response you mentioned that brokers add to their revenue stream by "lending clients equities held in brokerage accounts" to short sellers. What percentage of a typical brokerage firms's revenue would be derived this way?

Q: You have often mentioned that you like to hold some gold in a portfolio as "insurance" but I am wondering how this strategy differs from that of holding a well-constructed portfolio. To me, insurance is something that pays out cash when things go bad. I understand that gold can be that asset that increases in value when things go really "bad" but is the suggestion that you would then sell the gold at that point? If you don't sell then, isn't the value of gold likely go down once things recover and other than a portfolio that stays even on paper, at the end of the cycle you really haven't created any new wealth. My concern with gold and gold mining companies is that these assets don't seem to create long-term wealth and would, therefore, be more appropriate for a person with a trading strategy than an investing strategy.

Thank you and appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: I just read a globe and mail article on line about changes in short positions between the 15th and 30th of September. This article shows a short of 100,000,023 which is over 10% of the o/s shares. One, how is this possible and two, how do I find out whether any of my shares are being loaned out for this purpose?

Q: Hello 5i team, Could you explain what is gold streaming and how revenue is generated and taxed? What is the difference between streaming and royalties? Would you recommend investing in streaming companies such as franco nevada as an alternative to have gold in your portfolio or in conjunction with? Would this be considered in the income portion of a portfolio? If you know of a good source that explains it please post. Thanks in advance

Q: I keep reading about this, but NO ONE can tell me exactly HOW to ENROLl in these DRIP Programs. I even dropped into the office of Agnico eagle around the corner, and they did not know.....telling me to see by broker. I also wrote to someone I respect very much at ROB, but to no avail. Can you please tell me how?

Thanks as always!

Q: Some time ago I asked about this fund TRIMARK GLOBAL ENDEAVOUR FUND. and you mentioned the MER is quite high.If I am thinking of selling this fund and would like to know what stocks or ETF would you replace this fund with?

Thanks
D

Q: This is a general question on IPOs: my son works for a small laser company in the USA - medical lasers used for all kinds of cosmetic procedures that people pay for directly - mostly women. He is in sales and is doing very well. They are going to market with an IPO in the near future. Any general comments on buying IPOs?

Q: Hi Peter and team, If interest rates go up in US but down in Canada what is the likely impact on CPD. Also, in a broad market selloff of greater than 10% how strong is the correlation of CPD to the overall market. Thanks

Q: Good Afternoon
After almost two years should I change my asset allocation? I have 40% of my portfolio in 3 High conviction equity funds, Canadian, U.S., and International. What % would you suggest at this time? Other holdings are mainly income with a few specialty holdings.

Thanks to the team