Investment Q&A

Q: You have mentioned in the past that it is best to wait at least an hour from the market opening before you start trading in order to get an more accurate read on the market. I was wondering, in the same vein, if the overseas markets give any indication as to the direction the North American markets will take. Do the overseas ones "follow" North America, lead North America or not have any connection at all. For all the reliance analysts put on what happens in China, it seems to me there is almost no connection to what their markets do and the North American ones do.

Thanks.

Paul F.

Q: Hi Peter, as asked by Gordon today I use an app on my iPad called Real Time stock tracker downloaded from the App Store for $9.99. It has many good features to follow your portfolio, the market, has a stock screener and many other good features to give an overview of the market. The main news portion is slanted towards the USA but news for each Canadian stock you enter is specific to that stock. I use it daily to follow the market as an adjunct to my bank investment info and 5i research info. Please note that I do not know how it works or if it is available for other tablets. Stay healthy and keep the cadence high!

Q: Hi 5i team,

I am working on getting a more diversified portfolio in my non-registered accounts when I add new money. According to RBC Direct Investing I have 0% utilities, 0% industrials, and 45.1% in energy.

It seems that you consider ENB, IPL, and PPL as utilities. Is that correct? If that is the case then utilities make up 22.9% of my portfolio, and energy is 22.2%. Still too high I suppose.

I would like to add some dividend paying industrial stocks that would make up around 5% of my portfolio. What industrial stocks do you recommend at this time? [I guess STN and BAD] Is there a seasonally good time to buy industrial stocks? I can wait if there is.

Note: If I recall you classify BAD as an industrial stock, yet TMX lists it in the energy sector. Sometimes it's difficult to figure out sector allocation when some stocks get classified differently depending on the site you use.

Paul

Q: What is the advantage of in kind transfers from a non registered account to a TFSA if one is charged capital gains anyway, and can't claim capital loss--which presumably you COULD claim if you sold the stock and transferred the $? Is it that the transfer is done without a transaction fee?

Q: Are you aware of any website that publishes a listing of companies that are starting to pay their first ever dividend?
Thank you.

Q: If I wanted to start building my own portfolio, what is your recommended mix in regards to sector and industry? What is the mix of your model portfolio?

Q: Hi Peter,

Could you provide a Stock Screening web site or program that you would recommend for a retail investor ?

Thank you Peter...

Q: BIP.UN/TFSA

Hello,
We hold BIP.UN in a (joint) non-registered account and currently have no contribution room in our TFSA's. Come January I would like to transfer BIP.UN "in kind" into one or both of our TFSA's (the value will likely exceed the limit for any one account). From reading previous posts, I understand this can be done with certain caveats or conditions. I could not find any details on the Service Canada TFSA webpage. Would you be able to elaborate on how and "in-kind" transfer is done and what conditions need to be satisfied? Should it make any difference, we use RBC Action Direct - with whom I have not yet spoken about this issue.
If there is a "standard" procedure or set of guidelines to this process, perhaps a post or blog or something would benefit others who may not be familiar with such a process - I know I am completely unfamiliar with it....
Thanks!!
Cheers,
Mike

Q: This question was too long to publish, but related to the fact that investors, according to some, should own NO bonds due to higher risk levels due to potentially rising rates.

Q: Hi guys,

I am a small business owner and the incorporation has access to a little bit of cash (100k). I have been selecting stock for a portfolio but I am wary of pulling the trigger because of talk of the infamous correction. Would you suggest to wait for a market pullback to start buying the positions or go ahead in this highly valuated market? I am in no hurry and comfortable waiting up to 6 months with cash on hand.

Here is the stock in the portefolio:

US: MCD, GOOG, WFC, XOM, BRK, Qualcom, Deere, WMT, Air Lease, Cognizant

CA: THI, BCE, T, BEP.Un, Superior plus, Power Corp, Linamar, Surge, Sylogist, DHX Media

Thanks for the awesome service,

Richard

Q: Hi 5i: Just a comment relating to your recent mention of Bankers Petroleum (BNK) as maybe riskier than oil producers with primarily Canadian operations. Your point makes sense from a political perspective but I've been thinking about whether having some diversification away from the North American (WTI) commodity market may help to smooth things out for people with oil production exposure. It seems like some pundits are forecasting periods of much lower WTI pricing as the NA oil glut develops over the next few years. I think Brent oil pricing has some history of maintaining higher levels while WTI has dipped. Thanks.

Q: How do you figure out if a company is earning enough to pay its dividend? Is the earnings per share value after the dividend is paid out? I am not talking about a oil/gas stock but just a regular equity. STB specifically.

Q: When one speaks of a stock being 10% of a portfolio, should one be considering just the "equity" portion of the portfolio or should one consider one's overall investment portfolio that includes bonds and cash? Thanks.

Q: Blog. On July 14 question from Cam - you mentioned posted a blog on corrections in the blog section. Where is the blog section?

Dennis

Q: Hello Peter and Team,

At the end of this year, I'll have to convert my RRSP to a RRIF. Since my spouse is younger than me, I understand that I can use her age to determine the withdrawal rate, which I hope is correct. Since I won't need all of this extra cash, I read that one can make an in-kind transfer to an unregistered account, while paying taxes on the amount transferred, of course (!) Our TFSA's are maxed out, so these surplus funds can't go there. Is this a good strategy? If so, how can I determine which stocks (mainly from your model portfolios (thank you, thank you, thank you!) to transfer to an unregistered account? Alternatively, if there's an article describing this strategy in the Canadian Money Saver, I'd appreciate learning the issue(s) to look at. I attempted a search on the CMS website, but couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for.

As usual, I really appreciate your truly valuable service and timely advice.

Q: Hello Peter

You said "Our IT guys have indicated MS Office has an option when you are saving to save in the older Excel format. This is all they have offered so far. We are unsure if you have tried this yet."

This morning I downloaded the latest version of Apache Open Office 4.1.0 and your .xlsx files open perfectly.

Many thanks....... Paul K

Q: Hi Peter. I have been hearing rumors of a severe correction or even a crash of the markets. Last year in May, a friend of mine panicked and cashed in all his stocks and funds because of the same rumors at that time. It was obviously a huge mistake, given what the market has done in the past year. I know that no one can time the market with any real accuracy. However, I am getting a little nervous. Is it a good time to have more cash in my portfolio. In other words would you recommend selling stocks that have done really well in the last year in order to have the security of cash? Thanks for your great insight. Cam

Q: Hello to all ... in your most recent survey you asked some questions regarding paying a side bar fee to have you or Ryan comment on personnel portfolios. I am retiring in September and am relying on the 5i portfolios to generate a healthy income. RIF, LIF, TFSA and Cash accounts will comprise of my overall direction. Although my questions are basic, should I be asking my questions via Investment and Company Q's or should I send Q's off camera for you 2 to comment on? As always TY.

Q: Good afternoon...I have $100,000 that I keep in cash and will not need to touch for 1 to 1.5 years...ideally would like make some interest/income....I would not want risk but will to take conservative risk....what options would you recommend...I have other investments full invested in the market...

Thanks

Matt

Q: Hi there, I was wondering if a product like "TD Inv Sav Acct TDB8150" would be considered a "deposit" in the event of a bank bail in? Is it covered under the $100,000 bank deposit insurance provision? If it would be taken in a bail in, where else can one hide cash?
Thanks