Investment Q&A

Q: You may have answered this in the past, but: does the 5i team believe that individuals can beat the market? I'm assuming you must think so given your team is essentially in the stock picking business, but how does this align with most studies that suggest the ETF or couch potato approach?

Q: Hi guys,

When analyzing companies with a high debt load model like infrastructure companies or utilities, what is the best metric to analyze the valuation? Should we use a multiple of EBITDA, rather than net income since net income will be heavily influenced be depreciation and interest expense?

Thanks,
Jason

Q: I read with interest Jason's Aug. 24 comment on being allocated some subscription receipts with IPL's recent deal. How does one go about receiving such offers?

Q: Hi 5i team, I would like to get refereed to good websites in order to access market by price ( bid and ask depth) information on TSX listed stocks. I noticed they charge a fee for that service, but could you recommend one or two in particular?

Thanks

Q: I have a lump sum that I received from the sale of a rental property and I'm looking at deploying the capital in the stock market. My question is around portfolio construction or how to deploy a lump sum of money. Do you build half positions in the companies you like and look at adding to the positions on pullbacks or do you initiate full positions if the valuation is reasonable?

Finally, once the portfolio is largely complete, do you recommend only trimming and adding at month-end or once a month? It seems like this would avoid unnecessary trading fees and limit too much trading activity.

Thanks,
Jason

Q: I am in my early 60s. I have 46% of my portfolioin fixed income. All in CBO average cost $19.15. With interest rates in US likely going up a little in Dec. Should I reduce CBO and re-enter TD followig BMO better than expected results.

Q: Monitoring Dividend Stocks: I would appreciate your advice as to how investors can monitor and stay on top of bad news, particularly for smaller, riskier dividend stocks.

Example: I have a small position in GRC/Genville Strategic Royalty Corp. I missed the news of the poor results in May. The stock price dived down, and has stayed down. (As of today, the capital loss 49%.) The dividend was cut 27%. How can one avoid or limit losses in similar situations. Also, do you advocate selling a stock as soon as a dividend cut is announced, or anticipated?

Q: We keep reading about the incessant search for yield but I can't figure out who it is that is searching. The average investor couldn't live on yield alone even at some of the highest levels. Not to say that yield is not an important metric; it is, as 5i points out. But who then is doing all the "searching"?

Q: Hi Peter and Associates!

I recently received a notice from my discount Broker about a class action potential claim for anyone holding shares in Barrick Gold. The class action originates out of the US. Do you have any suggestions for how to handle this piece of information as I have no broker to receive advice from?

Ian

Q: Hi Peter,

I am 43 years old and my portfolio closely tracks your balanced portfolio. I also have exposure to the us and international stock market. I am at a point that I have enough contribution and exposure to the stock market and I do not plan to contribute more. I also have real estate exposure by owning my own home in Toronto. Now, I am looking for new investment vehicles to invest my disposable income. I have 10 year time horizon. Any general suggestion? I am willing to consider alternative ideas ( e.g. willing to buy a property in the US). Thanks for the great service.

Q: I've done quite well since joining 5i and I think most investors have done very well so far in 2016. My main question is whether we should unwind some of our investments and have cash on hand. Do you recommend being fully invested all the time? If not, how much cash should someone have?

Q: Hello Peter et al.

I have a question regarding stock manipulation. I hear people mentioning about brokerage firms selling small lots of 100 shares to try and keep the stock price down. How does this work for the brokerage firm? Are they not losing money unless they are shorting the stock? If they are not shorting the stock would they not want the stock price to rise to make money? How does this theory work?

Thanks but confused,

Brendan

Q: Cleaning up a portfolio: I want to know where I could have ideas on how I go about to clean my portfolio. I have too many stocks (losers and winners) in both registered and non-registered accounts. Obviously, I could sell the less promising losers and winners. But I was wondering what are, if any, some of the guidelines as to how to proceed, how many stocks is optimal for a portfolio (around 20 from what I gather so far). Moreover, I have some losers that amount to few hundreds of dollars and would be costly to sell with the commission of 9,99$ per transaction. So I would appreciate pointers and references (books or website) to help me sort things out.

Thanks to you and to the members that would be kind enough to help.

Jean

Q: In a recent answer to a question on syz, esl and csu you said
" SYZ and ESL have historically always had high multiples. Keep in mind also that both have large cash balances which if excluded would lower earnings valuations ".
Can you clarify how large cash balances affect earnings multiples?
How would this be calculated for example with SYZ? ie how much would their current cash balance lower their P/E?

Thanks, as always, for a great service.

Rob

Q: Hi 5I team, I have learned a lot via your educational investment ideas. For stocks trading at low volume, how many and when to buy and sell? How do institutional funds trade or they just avoid if average volume is less than certain number? This low volume may associate with small market capital. Thanks again.

Q: You often refer to a stock as expensive or as cheap or inexpensive. Can you explain what you mean by that. For example are KXS and SIS cheap or expensive? What about BOS at its current price?

Q: Would you guys ever consider some model ETF portfolios - If not where is the best place to find such a model or tools to develop them

Q: Hi Peter and Associates!

I was reading yesterday a comment by David Rosenberg that the TSX is currently trading at 20X forward earnings which historically is very high. Do you share the view that the Canadian market is overvalued?

Ian

Q: I have a one and a half year time horizon before I need to convert my RRSP to a RRIF. Can you provide and suggestions for some do's and don'ts regarding this process? I have a solid pension and my RRSP is self directed.
Any suggested reading references/articles would also be appreciated.
As always,
Thanks
Paul

Q: Just an aded information regarding the otc market.
Quotes are no longer available neither level 2. Buying is throwing a dart in a tunnel at night.
Your broker may not allow you to trade, and if it does it will only give you (eventually) the bid/ask spread at the time of the quote.
Then there is the problem of selling, some trades are extremly thin.
If you have a portfolio manager, he may be able to acess OTC. Otherwise good luck.