Investment Q&A

Q: Hi Peter!

If you we're putting together the Model Portfolio today what changes would you consider making to the list? I am looking to use the portfolio myself for a portion of my portfolio however several stocks have had significant gains.

Ian Johnson

Q: Hi Peter: Could you let me know what percentage of a portfolio should be allocated to each market sector - I am using the 10 TSX sectors. Many thanks.

Q: Peter; This is just a comment for those who like insider buying should check the latest EFN filings. Looks like they have confidence in their company.

Rod

Q: Is there more risk with low volume stocks? SYZ

Q: Hi Peter. I posted this on comments, but then realized you likely don't comment on comments. I lost 15K almost over night with Poseidon. Were there signs of this coming that I missed, or was it unavoidable?
Thanks.
Cam

Q: Gentlemen.
The I5R Summary, I like it very much.
Thank You very much
Best Regards

Q: Happy new year and best wishes to the entire team of 5i.

For the benefit of all the members, Virtual Brokers now offers penny commissions for all US and CDN shares. So if you buy one share your commission is going to be one penny. The minimum commission is 1 penny and the max is 9.99 (Disclosure: I am not being paid by them and only have a small account with them right now)

In the light of this, I have a question. If I want to build a portfolio by accumulating smaller quantities of good companies/ETF's like buying say 1 share of IWO or similar companies every month, would this be a good strategy. Also, what if in this approach I end up buying many more companies than the prudent 20 like say 50 or 60. Would it be too many to manage?

Q: Hello team,
I just recently subscribed to 5i and have been very impressed with your service. I am new to selecting stocks and a couple questions have arisen. I have about $35,000 in my TFSA that I would like to dedicate to growth stocks. My two questions are:
1) Given the small balance (and limited to adding only $5500 new money each year), what would you suggest to be an appropriate number of stocks to purchase? I would like to have some diversification but also think the fees of buying and re-balancing 20 stocks like in your model portfolio would be too costly.
2) Based on the number of stocks you think appropriate for my situation, do you have specific stock recommendations I should consider for purchase in 2014?
Thanks in advance,

Q: Hi Team
I am in the process of trying to replicate you model portfolio this week. I am in the fortunate position of having about 200,000. dollars to allocate. Would you recommend simply increasing the % to 10 for each stock or diversifying more or increasing the weight in certain stocks.

Thanks
Mike

Q: I will retire in 2014 and am looking to structure my RRSP and non registered investment account to generate monthly income. I'm looking to achieve approximately 6 percent return. Would you provide some suggestions as to dividend stocks and also a 25 to 30 percent of the portfolio in growth stocks with a moderate amount of risk

Thank you for this great service and I wish the team a very successful 2014

Q: In our portfolio all of our US allocation is 25% in in one etf - XSP, also 23% allocation is international, again one ETF - XIN Would you suggest an alternate or is XSP and XIN ok in you opinion?

FYI our portfolio is 27% bonds - CBO, 25% US, 23% international,
15% Canadian using 5i portfolio, 5% emg mkts - VWO, 5% cash.
Please give us your opinion and suggest any tweeks or recommendations.

Since becoming a member I have had great benefit and enjoyed this web site, hence the above questions on whether my allocation which I am comfortable with is using the correct product.

Wishing you all a happy and successful new year.

Q: Happy New Year to all!

This is just a general question on "behind the scenes" action at 5i. Over the course of the year, I've come to enjoy, and trust, Peter's recommendations on BNN -- and that was the catalyst for becoming a member here. (Very happy I did -- I just renewed for another 2 years.)

I'm interested in knowing how questions are answered. Given the volume of questions pouring in daily, I can pretty well assume that Peter is not answering all of them, so, what is the team's approach to evaluating companies and providing answers and advice to members? Is there a specific formula, for instance, that applies to everything? I see that the answers come in fast and furious, ... and so there must be some sort of proscribed method that all team members apply to the questions, as they come in, to be able to answer them so quickly.

I'm also noting that you've mentioned, a few times, that new employees will be coming on board in 2014, and was just curious to know the methodology behind choosing those who work from Peter's way of thinking. It is certainly different from "the street consensus" , which is a very good thing, but am wondering what new employees will do to the team dynamic, and if the analysis will continue in the same vein.

I;m only curious, and hopefully you don't feel it's an impertinent question, for it certainly isn't meant to be.

Feel free to respond privately, or publicly, at your discretion. (For better or worse, I'm always the one pulling the curtain, to see what Oz looks like behind the scenes.)

Thanks so much for your great service!

Q: Happy New Year 5I Team. Would you give some insight into how the US ecomony may fair this coming year? Do you see the Canadian Dollar losing strength against the US Dollar?

Q: Hi,
what's a good amount of $$$ to invest in a stock split like TD?

Do you have an opinion on
1) AXX
2) PPY

Q: I am a brand new member (Canada) and would like to open a self-directed TFSA account. Can I choose my own investment combination (eg. pick my own stocks)?
Many thanks.

Q: Hello,

I have the following portfolio in my TFSA account (about $13000 worth): Canadian Oil Sands (COS), Manulife Financial (MFC), Whitecap Petroleum (WCP), Intel Corp (INTC) and Templeton Global Income fund (GIM).
I also have the following stocks in an investment account (about $10000): Imperial Oil (IMO) and Sun Life (SLF)
In my RSP account so far I have only one ETF (CEW) about $5500 worth
Can you give me suggestions to improve my portfolio considering the long term, some good divident paying stocks/etfs which have long term growth prospects. Please also let me know which of the existing stocks I should sell.

Also is there any particular good time of the year to buy/sell stock. In my limited knowledge my general observation is I see are that stocks tend to dip in the month for March to May . I am not sure why. . So it seems that Jan Feb may be a good time to sell the ones which I should sell. Does this logic make sense? Thanks

Q: I am holding 3 pipelines:
ENB - 7% of portfolio
IPL - 6.4% of portfolio
PPL - 5.7% of portfolio
Balance of portfolio is very diversified.

In your opinion (which I value greatly) am I OK with these 3 pipelines of is it over weight. If I were to trim 1 pipeline which one should go.

Thank You as always.

Q: You have mentioned that we should pay attention to companies that start paying a dividend. Where can we find that information for TSX or S&P companies? And secondly, I would like to thank 5i for setting a new era of investing advice in Canada!

Q: Congratulations to the 5i team. This morning's Financial Post lists the five best performers in 2013. Two of them - VRX and MGA - are in the portfolio.

I have been a member for only a short while and already I have a lot more confidence - I had a great December. Thank you for that, too

I very much like STN and intend to buy as soon as the distribution phase works itself out.

Q: Can you recommend a conflict-free research firm like yours that specializes in U.S. stocks?