Investment Q&A

Q: On the 5i-Research-Summary-Dec-13-Excel document:
It shows around 80 stocks listed.
Is that roughly the total number of stocks tracked at any one time ?
When stocks are deleted are they marked or shown anyplace ?
Thanks

Q: I have seen a trend in Agnico Eagle. It appears to hit a high of $30. then retreat to $27. Do you think the next time it is close to the top, I should sel out and re-enter at $27. ?

Q: Is there advantage to buying td before it spilt thank you

Q: Hi Peter and Crew,

I am a totally pleased member and have just early-extended my member ship for another 2 years. I am also a low-volume question submitter and gleen my information from the questions of others and the model portfolio and reports.

My question is a general one. 5I has made excellent recommendations (companies, funds) and strategies (inaugural and then increasing dividends) and provided great supporting information ... in a Bull market. I think I can express the feelings of many of us that the results have been very good and that we might be feeling a bit bullet-proof.

This bull will end - they all do. Might be gradual, might be abrupt.

Can you offer any insight, at this time, as to how you might change recommendations, approaches and/or the model portfolio as we enter and pass through a bear market.

Thanks again for your great service.

Q: I am baffled at your response to a question on TFSA investments where you suggested some higher risk stocks from your model portfolio . My approach has been to minimize risk in my TFSA and RSP because I can't claim the loss . Please discuss your strategy .

Q: Hello 5i Team,

My children's RESP contain the following:
ALPS Alerian MLP ETF NYSE: AMLP, First Trust Dow Jones Global Select Dividend Index Fund NYSE:FGD
and a Canadian bank RBC, for a total value of $17,000. Its about five years till the kids will use the money. My question is, what should I invest in to make this better, I’m thinking some growth stocks.

As always your opinion is valued.

Q: Thanks so much for your great service and all the best for 2014 as you gain momentum which is the theme of my question. I have noticed that you often mention your appreciation for 'momentum' and I wonder how one identifies this quality in a timely way. For example, I missed out on BAD since I was waiting for a pullback that never came, and I have some Y and Y.WT arising from a bad investment in a preferred of the old Yellow Pages, and these have had tremendous momentum recently (8.66 on May1 to 21 now). Again, I didn't add to my meagre holdings, but it would have been wise to do so, in retrospect. In short, I wonder if there are ideas on how to assess this fairly common phenomenon of watching a stock continue to rise, knowing, of course, that it will end sometime. Perhaps the short answer is that i should ask you as soon as I notice such movement! But I wonder if you have particular guidelines that you follow is assessing whether it is 'a bit late' to join the party, or not too late. Thanks.

Bob.

Q: Hi 5i - thanks for everything in 2013, success to you and all members in 2014.
Sorry if this is repetitive - maybe need more links for these categories - What are ur best 5 stock picks for growth and 5 best for dividend in 2014.
Tks.

Q: My daughter is 20 years old and is just starting to invest over the next 45 years .I have convinced her to open up a TFSA She is starting with $ 4,000 .I would love some advice on getting her started

She is still a university student and has very limited income

Thank you for this great service

Paul

Q: Team

In a recent response, you mentioned that you felt Tech, Industrials and Energy will be the sectors that lead the way in 2014. A couple of months ago you responded to my question relating to ideal sector weights (using 5i sectors) as:

Capital Goods / Industrials 15%
Consumer Cyclical 10%
Consumer Staples 5%
Energy 5%
Financials 10%
Health Care (CDN) 3%
Health Care (US) 5%
Information Technology 10%
Internet / Software 10%
Materials (Gold) 5%
Materials 3%
Real Estate 3%
Retail 4%
Telecommunication Services 5%
Transportation 5%
Utilities 2%
TOTAL 100%

Is this still your ideal breakdown for investors (profile = young + risk on), if not, what would your ideal current weights be given a blank slate today (ie. higher in energy weight)? I know there is fluidity in all of this, but I am about to deploy more capital and am trying to determine what sector to put it in so I can be as close to the 5i recommended weights as possible, thank you.

Q: Hi! If you were looking at your 5i Model Portfolio for the first time, which 4 stocks would pick to take a position in today? Thank you!!!

Q: Cam asked, on a post yesterday, about a symbol "PSN". I can find no "PSN" listed anywhere - there are two Poseidons listed in the US but none with "PSN". Out of curiosity, I wanted to see if there was any technical indication of a big one day drop. Can you tell me where to find it?

Q: I am 68 years old and retired. I would like to start building positions in your model portfolio. Considering which sectors you believe will do the best in 2014, would you name those sectors and suggest 2 of the stocks in your model portfolio that you would buy now in each chosen sector.

As always, thanks for your guidance.

Q: Peter and 5iResearch Team,
Can you please provide advice regarding the # of stocks to hold in a portfolio, assuming one would have a cash, RRSP and TFSA and that we are referring to the equity allocation of the portfolio. I have understood that 20-25 names would provide good diversification, yet one of your members recently confirmed he added 15 names to a $35K TFSA portfolio and you suggested he might want to add one more name? You have 20 names in your model portfolio of $135K. Can you clarify??

Q: Are you still planning on developing two model portfolios, one with a growth focus and one with an income focus? If so, when do you think you will be posting it? Thanks!

Q: Hi Peter and Crew, I have set up a 15 stock portfolio with a 5% weighting and a $31400 investment in my TFSA. Could you please tell me if I am diversified enough and if there is anything you would change for something better.My picks are:- ACQ,AVO,BEP.UN,BAD,CVL,ESL,FSV,G,GC,GIL,STN,SYZ,SLF,WPK & BNS Thanks, I do appreciate your input.

Q: Happy New Year Peter,
Some of the recent questions about making new investments to match your model portfolio, have raised my interest regarding this portfolio and whether it would represent the best investments for new money. Many of the holdings have done very well last year, and you may still like them (per your ratings), but there may some that could be holds because of the recent run ups, and other stocks which you have rated, that currently would be of better value for new money. Would it make sense to add a column to your MP, indicating whether any of the positions would be more of a "hold" versus "continue to buy"? Or would it be possible to periodically get a “new money top 10” list"? As an illustration of this, your answer to Rory earlier , you suggested CGX, ACQ, VET, STN, KBL, and T for a $35K TFSA initial allocation; interestingly neither ACQ or VET are in your model portfolio; curious why you chose VET over IPL (which is in your MP) for example? Your service is awesome!! Thx!

Q: Hello,

I have a portion of my savings sitting in savings accounts at Ing direct, would you suggest leaving it there or are there better alternatives which give better returns. Is it always better to have some cash liquidity or can I use my line of credit to replace that? Thanks very much. Shyam

Q: You recommend if allocating a large amount to the 5i model portfolio to do it over time, if its 4 separate purchases of all 20 stock the trading fee would be $800.00 over time at $9.99 per trade instead of $200 one time only. Do you consider this larger amount worth it for dollar cost averaging and is it really worth it over only 4 weeks. Maybe you have another rationale.
Would you suggest parking cash until March when the portfolio is reviewed or if jumping in now is acceptable?

Q: In one of the FAQs today (asked by Cam) he mentioned "I posted this on comments, but then realized you likely don't comment on comments." What are these comments? Where are they on the site? Thank You.