Investment Q&A

Q: I know 5i prefers not to hedge and considers it diversification. However, I consider foreign exchange to be a commodity and fluctuates without much warning and therefore consider it to be high risk. Diversification of a portfolio makes a lot of sense, however, if you look at the US CDN dollar rate fluctuations over the past 10 years, the US dollar has been as high as 1.65 then dropped below the value of the CDN dollar and is now trading around 1.35. Hindsight is wonderful, but I do not think any person can predict what will happen with foreign exchange. Short term perhaps, but unlike the stock market where you can buy and hold good companies with the expectation that they will go up in value, I prefer not to hedge.

Stephen

Q: At what point is it feasible to allocate a percentage value to stocks in a portfolio, as opposed to a dollar value? For instance, if an investor starts out with $100,000 in cash, it's easy to pick 20 stocks and allocate 5% to each to come up with a nicely rounded, well diversified portfolio. But, if an investor is starting out with only $50,000, or $25,000, does the same principle apply? Or should one arbitrarily assign a dollar value -- perhaps min. of $5000 per stock, and build from there ... so that a $25K portfolio might only have 5 good stocks in different sectors? Would that be enough protection/diversity?

I'm asking this to set the course for a few young adults in my family (nieces, nephews) who are starting out on their investment life, and are inheriting some funds.

As a follow up to that thought, would you structure this amount of cash differently for a 25 year old than you might for a 45 year old, with the same amount of cash?

Thanks for your help and insight, as always.

Q: Looking into Husky and noticed on a website it is in the top 10 of shorted stocks in the Toronto exchange, does this ever influence your opinion of a stock when others are betting on a falling share price?

Q: Just like the last time you increased your prices, you have been very fair with current members. I know I totally appreciate that, as many others do. You are providing a very unique, yet wonderful service! Thank you!!!

It's your discretion whether to publish this, but when I read the notification, it sounded like if I renew for two years I'll pay the "old" price of $119.95 for the first year, but $119.95 less 10% for the second year. However, just re-reading now, it seems this was intentional as you consider the Two year membership as a package, not two one year memberships.

Honestly, I'd pay even more for this service as it has reaped returns far superior to what I would get on my own, or with ANY advisor.

Q: Dewflation--it may sound weird but my greatest feat is an outbreak of deflation, perhaps world-wide.

In deflation, I know to avoid commodities but what else to avoid and what to invest in ---how do you handle investments in deflation.

Bryon in Elmira

Q: I have just recently tried to find value stocks to invest in and am currently watching about 40 stocks and I would be interested to know what you consider to be the main value indicators to watch such as P/E ratio, debt to cash flow ratios, state of balance sheet etc. I would also be interested to know what indices you consider important before making a decision to buy a particular stock. For example, a P/E ratio below 20.. You may well have been asked this question before and if so please refer me to your response. Thanks

.

Q: Can you comment on the fact that BNN Market Call takes place during the trading day and not all of us can be watching while we are at work. I have frequently come home to see their picks and I an interested in a stock, but find it has traded up 10% or more just after the pick is announced on the television. This seems unfair for those who cannot watch. Do you have any pull with the BNN producers. Maybe we can get them to air it at 1:00 after the market has closed. Do you have any advice for other than to wait to see if the stock trades down to a reasonable level before buying?

Q: Hi, Maybe an odd question but wondering about your thoughts on using Beneish m-score and Altman z-score in the stock screening process for a long term investor.

Q: Can you explain how you calculate ROE, using as examples a couple of the companies for which you have written reports?

Q: With respect to Shyam's query Aug 27 regarding resources for fixed income/bond investing I found a book by Hank Cunningham entitled "In Your Best Interest: The Ultimate Guide to the Canadian Bond Market" to be quite informative. Mr. Cunningham used to be a frequent guest on BNN and I believe is well respected.

Q: I'd love to find out what you guys think about the Zero Hedge Financial Blog?

Some of it may seem fairly insightful but then you'll come across 15 tweets or articles in a row that sound reactionary, doom and gloom, zombie apocalypse is upon us and that immediately get disproven the next day. I'm having a tough time getting a handle on these guys. From my perspective, it seems like their moments of clarity and genuine insight is later ruined by pandering to an audience who is waiting for the markets to go to zero. Its weird, cuz Catherine Murray follows them on twitter and she strikes me as being very conservative (I guess though just because you follow someone on twitter doesn't mean you agree with their viewpoint).

Anyway, your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

John

Q: I use the Bloomberg app on my iphone to track my portfolio. You can set up watchlists for your holdings and in the summary tab you get a breakdown by industry, asset type and location.

Q: Good Morning Peter, Ryan, and Team,
This is regarding a question that another 5i Member asked about portfolio allocation tracking websites or apps. I just recently switched from TD Direct Investing to BMO Investorline. I discovered that BMO Investorline cleverly takes your account holdings and automatically generates a portfolio sector allocation pie chart and also shows the accompanying list with the percentage allocated to each sector. This is displayed at: Home / My Portfolio / Allocation Charts. This is not a plug for BMO Investorline (although I do really like it) but it is clever and saves valuable time. Hope this is helpful. DL

Q: Hi guys,
Do you know a good app or website that I can use to track my portfolio and sector allocation? I used to subscribe to GlobeinvestorGold and they had a nice portfolio analyzer that I found handy.
Thank you,
Brent

Q: I have bumped into to two fund managers/portfolio advisors in the last week, and I talked to both about their investing styles. Both said they were sitting on a lot of a cash that they have built up over the last couple months.

One also said they were selling there winners ex/ ATD.B and planning to pick it back up at a lower price.

Do these fund managers know something that retail investors don't?
It seems like professionals sometimes say buy and hold, meanwhile they are selling.

Or are they taking a guess and going for it?

I am very patient long term holder and don't trade very often, but I am curious who is doing all the selling in market down turns?

Cheers, Colin

Q: Recently you had quoted in this volatile market, you put in stink bids. If the future is pointing to a lower opening, would it be better to put the bids in before the market open?

With all of the people selling recently, if I was a seller, I would have sold a third of my portfolio for less than I had paid for it. Are a lot of people selling at losses?

Are a lot of these people being forced to sell because they are on margin?

Thanks,
Dennis

Q: When I see the futures market way down like it was going into Monday's open and there is a stock I am hoping to scoop up at a lower cost am I better to put an order in at the "market" price or to enter an actual dollar amount before the market opens?

Q: is it possible you can explain more on algorithms which are very complex computer programs to buy and sell stocks that kick in when certain parameters are reached.and how they work against a retail investor like myself. I think there was a lot of this yesterday. dave

Q: What do you think about having a stop-loss in place? Many investment gurus say to use them but most, if not all, of my stocks would have been taken out today with the drop in the market. And while most recovered to where they are marginally down, if they hadn't I would have been wishing I had put the stop-loss in!

Your thoughts?

Q: Woukd like to add to John's comment regarding trades not going through CIBC investor's edge. I have accounts at both TD and Scotia discount brokerages.
At 8:45am Monday morning I could see the carnage about to happen and I put in "market orders" for CCL.B, CNR and EMA at both brokerages. I would have been very happy just to buy at the opening prices. The Scotia trades were "rejected" and at 9:40 am I got emails saying the trades could not go through. The TD orders just sat there, not being executed. At 10:00am they were still marked as "open". I had to cancel all the orders and reissue them just after 10:00 am. This time all the orders were filled instantly. I am frustrated with this to say the least, as I left thousands of dollars on the table in that 40 min or so that my trades would not go through. CCL.B in particular had a big swing in price. Is there any recourse for me? Any way to avoid this in the future?