Investment Q&A

Q: I have learned a lot and benefited greatly from 5i advice, and take particular benefit from your diversified portfolio approach. Would you say it is fair to identify any market analyst, including the 5i group, as having a particular specialization being an area of strength and certain market segments being areas of weakness or minimal depth? For example, analysts who are good at identifying software companies but less aware of details required to be successful in healthcare field. If you agree, which areas would you claim are 5i's areas of strength and which are the segments of less depth of knowledge.
In view of constructing a diversified portfolio, I am looking to draw information from a variety of sources. Your comments would help guide the relative importance to assign to difference sources.
Clearly track record is a primary guide to use, but I would also take your self-assessment as very valuable. I don't mean to be hard on you or anyone for identifying strengths vs weaknesses.
Thank you kindly,
Gary

Q: I was listening to Charles Nenner (Research) on BNN, who you are probably familiar with, although it was a first time for me. Unfortunately while he was talking tops and bottoms I am not really sure I understood his future predictions. It did not help that the BNN reporter was really unable to bring out the issues he was talking about. It seems to me that he was saying TSX,S&P etc would undergo a down cycle in the coming quarter but when that was over we could expect a rise going thru to the end of of 2017. Are you familiar Charles Nenner cyclical philosophy and what can you tell me about it and do you give it credibility. Thank you.

Q: Hello Peter & team, I hold shares of BIP.un in my account and I know that the stock has splitted 3:2 last week. My online broker account reflects the new BIP.un share price but it doesn't show the new number of shares. It actually shows the exact same number of shares that I had before the split. Is it because it takes the online broker some time to make the adjustments? Thanks, Gervais

Q: I submitted this question last Thursday. But I think there maybe system glitches that some questions get lost. This is a resubmitt:

Your balance portfolio has an impressive returns. Mine is way behind. So I searched your QA database, without success, to see if previous questions were submitted regarding a general strategy on how to migrate my stock/mutual funds/etfs holdings to duplicate your balanced portfolio for getting less hands on investing. I hold perhaps 80 stocks and I share perhaps 15 securities with your balanced portfolio and these are obviously to keep within the constraints of asset allocation. I have about 25% holdings in US companies. Your answer, I am sure, would be of great benefit to those members who are like me, are tired of chasing ellusive returns and wish a steady hands-off approach to investing.

So my questions are:

- Is it possible to give a guide line on how to migrate a portfolio to duplicate one of your portfolios? Do you think by adding few of your covered stocks with A/B ratings be a positive or a drage on performance?

-In searching your data base for questions like this one, using a key word like strategy, would I be able to find answer to such a question?
- Allocating assets between Canada and US in general terms, to enhance returns, without consideration to personal circumstances, what percentage allocation should one invest outside Canada?

Your program has helped me tremendously in focusing my portfolio after many years of haphazard approach to investing. So your help is much appreciated by the many members of this community,

Thanks a lot.

Q: Hello 5I
I currently hold these three but they have been a bit of a drag for a year or so. I was thinking of redeploying the capital elsewhere but I looked at TD Waterhouse charts on them and they appear to be gaining a bit in the last month or so. There are good bullish signals on them recently. I know you guys prefer point and figure charts but TD Waterhouse do not have them and I don't understand them. In a nutshell what do point and figure charts say about these stocks?

Thanks Again
Clarence

Q: I am hoping you can further educate me on the workings of the market. Specifically, what exactly is a roll-up company and how does is it different from a company that regularly does acquisitions?

The term "roll-up" seems to be used nowadays by analysts and other media experts as a negative term, perhaps due to the failures of Valiant, Constellation among others. But ATD.B is lauded due to its growth via acquisition. So, is a roll-up strategy inherently negative and if so, how do you spot a roll-up vs a smart acquisitor?

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: what is your outlook on the market for the next three months and also the next year tsx dow jones and nasdaq?

Q: I understand that you will be giving a speech on when to sell stocks. Since I find that selling is much more difficult than buying, would you consider posting the speech on the website after it is given ? Thanks Glenn

Q: What is your outlook on the Canadian dollar for the next three months and also the next year?

Q: I signed up for the Money Show 2016 seminar but missed the presentation and would like to see the webinar, but I cannot seem to be able to download it on the website.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Reference Number: 20343068 (for the Money Show)
Rick

Q: Can you please explain something to me? Why, at least based on what I read in the newspaper, when the economy shows signs of deteriorating putting off risk of an interest rate rise the market goes up. When things look better for the economy and there is talk of raising rates the market goes down. Wouldn’t most legitimate business do better in a better economy? So shouldn’t it really be the other way around? Why are stocks thought to do better in low interest rate environment? And is it true that they do?

Q: I am looking for a term of reference from 5 I on how to decide when to finally get rid of a company, despite that it might be a good one, overall.

In the case of MDA, for instance, you finally threw in the towel because, essentially, it has been dead money for some time even though there's nothing much wrong with it.

Would it not be the same case, then for Airboss? I've come back to where I started, at mid-$15s ... and then watched it drop, almost daily until yesterday it whispered by on $13. Is it not time to throw in the towel on this one as well: to acknowledge that though it may be a good business, it's a lousy stock and opportunities are being wasted.

Would it not fall into the same category as Linamar, and Magna, for instance, who are now just treading water as well, due to a lull? Once again, great companies, but it doesn't seem to be the time to own them.

While I am a longer term investor, yes, and take the long view, I think perhaps treading water with Airboss is not a good thing right now.

Your thoughts, please. They are always much appreciated!

Q: Good Morning: I would appreciate your advice in the following situation. I currently hold roughly 15% of my portfolio in a Hi-Yld savings acct. paying 1.5%. The benefit of course is total flexibility in case of a market correction where I see opportunities. The down side is the relatively low return on assets. I have been thinking about transferring some portion of those monies to CBO (or an equivalent if you know of a better option.) However, when I look at the fact sheet for CBO I see the following data: Weighted average yield to maturity is 1.72%; distribution yield is 2.84%, and the trailing 12 month yield is 3.23%. To my relatively novice eyes (esp. in regard to bonds and bond etfs) it doesn't seem that I would be getting that much of a premium, and I would be giving up some flexibility and there is always the risk of a continued decline in the share price (even though it is near its recent lows) thus erasing any gain in yield. There are a lot of issues here that I'm finding it hard to balance out and would appreciate any insight or suggestions you have to offer. Sorry for the length of the question. Don

Q: Do you or other members recommend an app for tracking stock prices. I like the layout of Realtime Stock Tracker, however it doesn't track all symbols, particularly with dots and dashes, such as BAM.A, CCL.B, BEP-UN. Thanks

Q: Hi,

I'm looking for an RRSP investment for my wife. What we have right now is a TD US INDEX fund. Chose this one because it has low MER and tracks the S&P 500. Can you give us other index funds that you can recommend be it US or Canadian with good performance?

Thanks,

Sunday

Q: I have watched this company, without actually buying any of its penny stock, for a few years now, fully expecting it to go under. (Initially its fortunes were closely tied to the mining industry.) However, to my surprise it has found other niches for its technology and trades fairly actively, settling down at around 4 cents. It seems to regularly get "rescued" by private placements, who in turn get warrants with a strike price a few cents higher than the share price. I presume that these private investors would not be putting their money into ADK if they didn't see some promise.

What is your opinion of the viability of this company? Is it a speculative buy?

Thanks!

Q: given the present state of the markets, on a percentage basis how would you invest by sectors 1M including a % in cash . thanks in advance

Q: Hi 5i Research team, I have a long term horizon, and more of a growth oriented investor profile. I prefer to well understand the companies I invest in. The technology sector represents a challenge for me in terms of software products, competition, rapidly changing conditions, obsolescence, variety of software portfolio, etc. So I would like to built a sector exposure based on a few companies instead of using an ETF. Based on reading 5i Research, I am thinking a combination of CSU, KXS, GIB.A, OTC, ESL, DSG, TCS, SYZ,SH. Do you agree with this strategy? Would you include some other companies in this list or replace some? In what order would you rank them in terms of total return potential over long term and overall quality? How many of them would be enough? Would you suggest another weighting than equal weight (2% each)? I also need criteria to manage this group since my understanding won't be up to par. How will I know when to sell, or when to over or underweight in some companies? I would not want to react too strongly to short term events (quarterly results). How would you suggest I implement this strategy (buying strategy)? Thank you, Eric

Q: Hi 5i Research team, what do you think of the idea of not strictly using the official sector classification when calculating sector allocation? Would you agree that I split the sector allocation of some companies when appropriate (an option not available for the official classificator)? For example, would you agree with: SIS (healthcare 75% + industrial 25%), ZCL (industrial 25% + energy 75%), TNC (financial 50% + technology 50%), AF (industrials 25% + consumer discretionary 75%)? Thank you, Eric

Q: I am putting together a portfolio called "Big Dogs"
I broke out the 10 largest stocks by market cap in each of the 10 sectors
I will invest in 3 of those stocks in each sector for a total of 30 stocks.Determining which 3 has been a challenge,looking at the usual--
dividends--eps--p/e-- market cap etc.Also have a bias toward your favourites.
Since I am only looking at the top 10 do you think I will be overlooking some better opportunities?I think perhaps, but I would go
crazy trying to look at the whole sector or even the top 20.I feel my odds of success are better sticking with the "Big Dogs"
Over all I will put 10k in each stock but not until I see a market
pull back which I feel is imminent.Perhaps I could have your thoughts on that as well.
This is not something new---What do you think of my idea and approach?