Investment Q&A

Q: I am a senior with RRIFs and TFSAs. I am not currently living off these but could in the future. I read questions in this space about income producing products such as XHY. These look good but, frankly, I have a great deal of difficulty investing in a product with a total return of just 21.08% over the past five years, or just 4.2% average per year, when I can invest in XST (Canadian Consumer Staples) with a return over the same five year period of 168.8%. Yes, XHY has a great yield but almost no capital gain. And yes, XHY is less volatile but am I wrong, at my age, to be more interested in total return than just yield? I am not afraid of some volatility and am not a believer in the old outdated dictum of holding bonds in proportion to your age. And the total of my investable assets could not produce adequate income if I relied on yield. The standard deviation of the Consumer Staples ETF is still quite low at 0.35 to 1.2 and it has been by far, the best performing Canadian sector of the past 14 years. No, I don't currently own either of these products but may in the near future.

Q: I have a Scotia rrsp tirade account. I am looking to purchase some US stocks in this account. What are the advantages and disadvantages of purchasing these stocks with Canadian vs US dollars. At present my account only allows Canadian dollar purchase, I would have to open a US dollar account at $30/quarter.

Q: This is in regard to all the posts about the new "Bail-In" laws for Canadian Banks.

A little off track, but a very interesting story of how Iceland dealt with the 2008 financial crisis.
Do a search on Youtube for: "Iceland's President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson Radio Interview". It's about 27 minutes long and starts off slow, but he eventually goes into heavy detail of what happened, what steps were taken, and the reaction of the West when he allowed the private banks to fail. He and the Citizens went through a very hard time, but were the first to come out of the crisis and lead the way in growth.

Paul

Q: Good evening Peter,

I am looking for a list of Canadian stocks that have increased their dividends & had share buy backs in the last 12 months that you could recommend ?

Thank you for your help.

Gordon...

Q: Peter and His Wonder Team
Just spent too much time writing my question and got stopped out...so I will be brief. In the event of a global financial collapse... because we are drowning in debt... who will survive? How can we prepare...own hard assets like land, gold or silver coins, the minings stocks, be debt free with no mortgage? Are there any sectors which would benefit? Your thoughts please...so I can sleep better! Ha! Ha!
With respect...
Dr.Ernest Rivait

Q: In a question asked by Steve on Mar. 21, there was the mention of "subscription receipts". What are they? Do they benefit the Advisor selling them more than the investor? I recall a former Advisor phoning me and offering them to me.

Q: Hi Peter and Staff,

If I bought a stock, and never added to the position, but later sold it to generate a tax loss, am I correct in assuming that the Adjusted Cost Base (ACB) and the Book Value are one and the same? My broker supplied only book values. (I'm assuming that CRA considers ACB and Book Value to be different when an investor continues to add to a position, either through trading, or when enrolled in a DRIP program.) Am I correct? Is this why some advisors recommend that in order to simplify your tax return, you shouldn't enroll in a DRIP in a non-registered account? Or is calculating ACB when you DRIP easier than these advisors suggest?

Thanks as always for the valued advice.

Q: Help! I'm not an analyst or an accountant and I'm trying to do the calculations for EV/DACF on my oil stocks. I have added preferred shares to my EV less working capital(just added this recently). DACF= CFO+financing costs + exploration expences. Income tax and interest expences are already included in CFO so I'm not sure if I should be adding them in again? Would it work just to add financing activities and investing activities to CFO to get DACF. My head is swirling but i am determined to get it right. Need your help badly. Thank you for your service.

Q: There is a report of existing home sales in the U.S. falling sharply in Feb. Do you see some negative impact for TCN or the market in general ?

Q: With reference to Scott's comments on your interview on Market Masters, how do I gain access to it. Thanks, Catherine

Q: Today's volume of 680,620,000 shares is a record dating back since 2006. Is this record volume, in a down market, significant? Does it foretell the fact that the current rally since the beginning of February 2016 is a dead cat's bounce?
Thank you as always for your insight.

Q: If you need the sector for a stock, it's listed on Bloomberg.com/quote. Using that source, we can increase the 5i time for more interesting questions.

Q: I am looking to eventually replicate one of your portfolios. I plan on eventually using my tfsa for this portfolio (growth probably ). I do not have a lot of capital in my tfsa yet. I started contributing $225 biweekly. I do have roughly $6000 in it now with roughly equal holdings of aya, gud, and yfi. How should I proceed with my contributions? Should I start contributing to a d series mutual fund to build up capital or should I save $1000-$2000 and then pick a stock from your portfolio? If going the mutual fund route, would there be a low cost option you would suggest? I'm 38 with time on my side. Thanks as always.

Q: The stronger canadian dollar seems to be having a negative effect on USA or Global mutual funds invested in Canadian even when market upticks.Could you explain this. /

Q: In light of the expected infrastructure spending in the upcoming federal budget, which of Aecon, SNC Lavelin, or WSP Global is best positioned to benefit? Are there other companies that you would prefer?

Q: What sectors would you be overweight in these days?

Q: I'm following your sector suggestions for my income portfolio.
I have all sectors bought but Telcos and Cons staples. The Telcos are trading high right now so I'll buy them lower. I'm puzzled with the 15% Consumer Staples for an income portfolio. Except for NWC the average yield is in the 1.30% range and they are trading high in their range. I'm considering omitting the Staples and replacing them with another sector or increasing another sector. The sectors you suggested with their percentages are as follows. Utility 15% Industrial 10% Con Disc 10% Energy 5% Financial 20% Materials 5% Info Tech 5% Health 10% Telco 10% unfilled.

Please provide your comments. Thanks.

Q: Do you,or any of your staff attend any agm I find it very informative a few years ago I attended the agm of PBh and I expanded my position as a result
Just a comment
Regards Stan

Q: Peter; I thought this was very interesting - particularly the performance number. Publish if you wish .RodThere are interesting items from a JP Morgan report on concentrated stock ownership called The Agony and the Ecstasy: Since 1980, 320 of the S&P 500 companies have been deleted for business distress reasons, 40 percent of all stocks have suffered a permanent 70 percent plus decline from their peak value, the median stock in the Russell 3000 index was down 54 percent, and two thirds of all stocks underperformed versus the Russell 3000 Index and for 40 percent, their absolute returns were negative. Those are tough statistics. Further, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, and reported by Barron’s, just 18 percent of large-cap managers have outperformed the S&P 500 over the past 10 years.

Q: I would like a clearer understanding of what the VIX is and when an investor would buy or sell it. THANKYOU!