Investment Q&A

Q: Peter; What do you make if the negative interest rate statement by the BOC? Is it a sigh of weakness ( no pun intended) in our economy or just forward planning? Thanks.Rod

Q: hi Peter

Can you give us a few names in sectors outside oil& gas that you would pick up during this tax loss selling season.

Thanks Gord

Q: You folks at i5 are excellent for all things CDN. Could you recommend a similar service like yourselves covering the US markets?

Q: In your recent Canadian Money Saver article about using call options to enhance income in a US portfolio, you gave a few examples of securities that could be considered for this strategy. As someone who invests only in your BE and Income portfolios, are there any names in these that would be the type of company you would consider for the same strategy in Canada?

Thank you.

Q: Don't know what rules various brokers have for same day selling & simultaneous
purchase of same security between US & CDN mkts. but it is not illegal.
Some brokers specialize in this area & are happy to make a few pennies on a trade.
It's really a necessary function to keep things balanced.
Joe

Q: In their most recent 10-Q, I don't understand what's going on in the Cash Flows from Investing Activities for the past 9 months - can you explain what is meant by 'purchases of marketable securities', 'proceeds from maturities of marketable securities', and 'proceeds from sales of marketable securities'?

Q: This is a comment on Joe technique for currency conversion. Last time I called TD discount broker to do a similar transaction, I was told that security regulation wouldn't allow me to own two positions one short and the other one long for the same security. The trade could be cancelled if I do it. Don't know if this is a security regulation or TD regulation?

Q: You have XHY in the Income Portfolio. It has not performed well overall. I did a graphical comparison with ZWH and ZWH looks far superior. ZWH has increased in the last year whereas XHY has gone south.

I'm thinking of selling XHY and buying ZWH. May I have your thoughts on this move?

Thanks ... Ron

Q: Re converting US to CDN $'s. Last time, I used Barrick, Sold short in my US a/c.
10 min. later bot in my CDN a/c. Called broker on the CDN. value date & had them tfr. to my US a/c. You're welcome.

Joe

Q: I noticed a little price increase today but I did not see any news out on the company. Do you have anything new today? I also wanted to ask how much each of the metrics you use to grade a company influence the final grade. This company has only one C- but is graded a C+, obviously not every valuation carries the same weight but what is most important to yourselves when evaluating and can I assume that the grade is based on a long term hold in every case? Can you please give the answer as a percentage of each area of the scorecard.
Thank you
Jeremy

Q: Just a note concerning Marios’ question about converting TD shares into US dollars. I am also with TD and their Buy/Sell spread for US dollars is about 1.5%. So in the end if you convert Cad dollars to purchase a US stock and then go back to Cad dollars when you sell the foreign currency exchange alone will set you back 3%. I consider this extortion! I typically use “Norbert’s gambit” with shares of the biggest Canadian bank (RY) to avoid these foreign conversion fees. One of the problems however, is that when purchasing shares in my Canadian account, TD makes me wait 3 days for the settlement until they can be moved over to my US account for sale there. Hence you end up with 3 days holding risk and price movements can either work for you or against you. I would appreciate if you could open this up to members to see if anyone has ever found a way to get around the 3 day holding period.

Q: Peter; I'm not sure how to phrase this but here goes. Since being a member since 2012 I have bought,sold and held various 5i suggestions. Some went up - some went down but overall I am so far ahead that I can only " suggest" to some of the more impatient members to try and remember that if they owned a mutual fund or ETF they would not have the opportunities available to them at 5i by sending in questions or queries etc . If you weren't pleased by a mutual fund or ETF's performance you can sell it. I guess at 5i you could just drop your membership. This is one of the reasons that I don't think a Forum is a good idea. Post if you wish. Rod

Q: Recently you endorsed selling options in a TFSA. I am wondering whether there are any drawbacks with selling options for U.S. companies in a TFSA? thanks for the great service
claire

Q: When looking at 'insider trading', the following appears. Can you explain what it means?

38 - Redemption, retraction, cancellation, repurchase -

thanks

Q: Hi 5i,

I have held ZWA in our RRIF,s for income for a couple of years. Recently added some ZWH which has a higher yield. Both are doing fine. What would you think of using just ZWH for the higher yield? These ETF,s do not represent total US exposure. Most US is held in other accounts.
Best regards, and thanks for your service.
Ted

Q: I saw on Canadianinsider.com that the chairman of TII just unloaded 450,000 shares in a "disposition by gift". What would this typically mean (ie transferring shares to a family member maybe)?
Generally insiders have been buying shares in the open market and adding to their positions in this company so I just wanted to clarify what this means and if I should be worried.

Q: Every time there is a quarterly reporting, there are a flurry of questions seeking your opinion of them.

While there may be annoying aspects to this, I do find it useful.

Whenever I read a companies PR release on earnings, everything seems fantastic to me (until I look at market reaction and see negativity where I thought all was roses)

Could you give a short (3-5?) list of the most important figures to look for in order of importance in your opinion so that I can do a realistic down and dirty evaluation on my own immediately?

Q: I will likely be retiring within a year, and plan to regularly draw a small amount of income from my investments to supplement my needs. I am slowly transitioning my holdings from a mostly equity oriented portfolio to include a moderate income portion. I am looking for buy and forget type of investments that pay a safe 4% or so dividend with an important caveat – capital protection. I am of the view that a 5-7% dividend has little meaning if you lose 20-40% of the principal investment amount in a short year or two. I understand that with greater safety comes limited upside potential which I am willing to accept. What would be your 5 top picks that best fit this requirement. I am willing to consider whatever investment type you feel is best suited between common shares, preferreds, REITs, income funds and corporate bonds or debentures. I already own T, BNS, AW.UN, BEP.UN, HR.UN, CSU.DB, XHY, CVD, CPD in case you were considering naming any of these so please try to select a few others (from any sector).

Q: Hi, Peter
You may be interested sharing and commenting this story with the 5I members in your Blog.
All the best,
Claude
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/help-my-short-position-got-crushed-and-now-i-owe-e-trade-10644556-2015-11-19

Q: Just want to say thanks to Julian for the info on the Yahoo Finance web site details.
There is a wealth of info there. Plan to put it in my favourites.
https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=DH.TO