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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Hi folks,can u please clarify when u have to buy a stock to collect it's dividend,I always thought as long as u bought on ex-div date,u would collect.I bought penn west on ex-div date of 29 December,thinking I would collect .14 div,am I right or wrong,thanks for help,jb
Read Answer Asked by John on December 31, 2014
Q: When calculating sector weightings, in a scenario where say you set your oil and gas weighting at 14% a year ago and its fallin to say 7%,today , would it not be wise to always use your book value when calculating weightings instead of current price weightings to avoid getting to sector heavy.
Thanks Gord
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on December 31, 2014
Q: Hi Peter,
Recently you had a link to Jim Richards spiel "The Death of Money", what is your take of what he said?
Read Answer Asked by kenneth on December 29, 2014
Q: Hi 5i team,
I would like to have your thoughts on the use of leverage when investing (the use of margin in accounts other than TFSA and RRSP). Clearly I am thinking of someone mostly invested in stocks (no bonds). I understand the danger margin call, and opportunity cost of not having cash available to invest after a market correction. On the other hand, I believe there is some seasonality in companies results and in investing (tax loss selling season and January effect, October to April versus May to October), great investment ideas/opportunities are rarely synchronized with selling an investment, leverage has a good impact on return when return on asset is higher then financing cost, financing cost of margin is low.
Do you see other advantages and disadvantages? What % of available margin would you recommend not crossing?
Thank you for your help, Eric
Read Answer Asked by Eric on December 29, 2014
Q: Hello

What is the difference between ATD.A and ATD.B? Why is there a price difference between the two and is purchasing one over the other preferable?

How could I identify what shares with similar tickers but a different suffix are? Another example: CCL.A and CCL.B.

Thanks in advance.
Read Answer Asked by Vee on December 29, 2014
Q: Hi! I would like to make sure my equity (this portfolio is 100% equities) portfolio is properly diversified by allocation and sector diversification. I can get confused under which sector particular companies belong. Is there a tool (preferably free) that you can recommend that will analyze my portfolio and make recommendations. Or do how do I go about this? Hope I am not repeating an often asked question.
Read Answer Asked by David on December 25, 2014
Q: Do you think that 10 stocks are enough for a diversified equity portfolio?

Thanks,
Hans
Read Answer Asked by Hans on December 25, 2014
Q: 5i Team,

Happy Holidays. I ask this question every other quarter, whenever I am repositioning my portfolio and deploying new cash. Given what has gone on in the energy space, what would be your ideal target sector weightings for a portfolio going into 2015 using these 5i recommended sector classifications, assuming a blank slate:

Capital Goods / Industrials
Consumer Cyclical
Consumer Staples
Retail
Energy
Financials
Health Care
Information Technology
Internet / Software
Materials (Gold, Silver etc.)
Materials (Paper, Chemical, Steels, etc._
Real Estate
Telecommunication Services
Transportation
Utilities
TOTAL = 100%

Risk tolerance is 7.5 out of 10. Assume a market cap portfolio mix of approx. 15%-20% small cap, 35-40% mid cap, 45% large cap.

Thanks and Happy Holidays!
Read Answer Asked by Ray on December 24, 2014
Q: Do you have any BNN Market Call or Market Call Tonight Guests that you consider your favourites? I do not always tune in to the shows but I believe I would watch the people you recommend. Could I also extend that question to include anyone who appears on the station? Thank You and Merry Christmas
Read Answer Asked by Jeremy on December 22, 2014
Q: I was looking to pick up some Crescent Point but I noticed this morning that the CEO Scott Saxberg disposed of 603,462 shares. (disposed of by private transaction) This seems concerning to
me or is it something to do for tax purposes.
Read Answer Asked by James on December 22, 2014
Q: Peter,
This is the latest (Dec19) expected consensus earnings (in %) for 2015 S&P (all revised down from the last one by the way except financials)
Financials +17.6
Cons. discretionary +16.8
Materials +14.8
Tech +11.3
Health +10.8
Industrials +9.7
Cons staples +6.8
Energy -20.4

My question: I have not been able to find the same info for Canada ( a recurring problem for me) but could this US info be used as a proxy for Canada. (my take? not for all)
Thanks for that
Read Answer Asked by claude on December 22, 2014
Q: Peter and His Wonder Team
Thank you for your comments on Lake Shore Gold...however I notice that ASR traded 32M and HMY traded 66M. These are huge numbers...please comment on these stocks also...
Thank you!
Dr. Ernest Rivait
Read Answer Asked by Ernest on December 21, 2014
Q: Dear 5i; There's something I'm still not clear about regarding superficial losses. When selling an unregistered stock for the capital loss, must the whole position be sold, or could you dispose of half a position if that's all you need for tax purposes, and keep the rest?

I've read the definition of superficial loss in the Income Tax Act and the explanation in CRA's Capital Gains Guide. From these, it is my understanding that there is a superficial loss if I (a) aquire a substituted/identical property during the 30-day-before-and-after-disposition period, and (b) I own the substituted property at the end of that period.

Since the half-position that's been kept was not aquired during that 30-day period, I would assume that it would not be considered substituted property. And therefore the half-position that's been sold would constitute an actual capital loss.

Am I correct in my line of thinking, or am I way off the mark?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by chris on December 21, 2014
Q: I wanted to take a gain in Dhx to offset capital losses in this taxation year.I purchased an equal amount of Dhx in a non taxable account 1 week prior to my selling of DHX in my taxable account.Will there be an issue with CRA using this strategy.
Read Answer Asked by Randy on December 21, 2014
Q: Thank you for answering my question on Lakeshore gold and the 47 Million shares that went across at the last second of trading of Friday. Just so I am clear about what you are saying is that Portfolio managers decide to adjust and re-balance so they either sell or buy and in this case they sold. In this case (if I understand correctly) it was decided to sell off 47 Million shares and that happened at the last minute. In effect it didn't drive the stock down more than 5%. Obviously. Also there were enough buyers to absorb 47 Million shares. Is this correct and if so does it not speak to the strength of this stock. One would think that this off loading of 47 Million share would cause the price to plunge by a lot more than 5%. This was 30 times more than the daily average. Thanks You.
Read Answer Asked by roland on December 21, 2014
Q: On Friday at the bell 48M shares were traded. I read it was rebalancing. Not sure what this means or what transpired. Can you explain the process and explain.

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by roland on December 21, 2014
Q: Hi Peter & 5i Team,

In your response to Andrew re BNN, you said "... 'chasing' anything, be it a sector or a stock is not a wise investment move."

I am confused because, at other times I have read that you prefer to buy on strength rather than weakness as well as to average up rather than down. Isn't this strategy similar to chasing a hot stock or sector? Could you please clarify your thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

Francis
Read Answer Asked by Francis on December 19, 2014
Q: Hello Peter & Co:
I saw David Burrows on BNN the other day and he was saying to get out of the oil sector entirely. Essentially he was encouraging people to chase the hot sectors. Although, I like DB, I was surprised at what he was saying and thought that it was kind of irresponsible of him to tell people to do that. He's a pro who looks at it all day everyday, but the average BNN viewer isn't and telling folks to chase hot sectors to me is just bad advice period and works against the concept of diversification. I mean who knows which sector is going to be hot in the future? So you sell all your oil related stocks and 6 months from now oil goes on a tear and you miss out or wind up buying into it late and miss most of it. What are your thoughts on this?

As always, thanks so much for all you do and I hope you and your staff have a fantastic Christmas. cheers
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on December 19, 2014
Q: Hi 5i,
This is not a question but merely an observation. As I go on the "budget" (read: free) Globeinvestor website to check my stock holdings I have noticed what I believe is an anomaly. Out of 19 stocks I hold, when I access the stock page, the data page shows 3 windows, one of which is entitled "Profit". As I just checked today, out of my 19 stocks 5 had N/A while the other 14 were all deemed to be "Less Effective" "than other companies in its industry in turning revenue into profit". Just a note, my holdings include such names as AD, AYA, BAD, BCE, BEP.UN, BNS, CGX, DH, ESL, RUS, KEY, etc., etc.
I guess my point would be that either my stock selection really sucks or this site might not be as accurate as one might think since I believe statistically these results to be an anomaly. I would be curious if others have noted anything similar or if this is indeed accurate and reflects where my holdings stand in the scheme of things. Sorry for the lengthy missive!!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Read Answer Asked by Mike on December 19, 2014