Investment Q&A

Q: Kelly and Scot, re: CIBC fees for trading. Much appreciated. I called and did get the lower rate + a refund back to July for trades done w/higher rate. Thank you ! Paul

Q: As much as I appreciate the importance of diversification and investing outside of Canada, the low Canadian dollar is making it very expensive to buy into the US. Is it still wise to invest in the US or would it be best to wait for the dollar to rebound to maybe the mid 90 cent range?

Thanks and as always, appreciate the great advice.

Paul

Q: Re question by Vicki re not having MS Office to open reports (or anyone else) I have been using Apache Open Office for years. It's free and works well on PC or Mac. http://www.openoffice.org/
It may work for others as well.

Q: I have three td mutual funds from my wife's estate. Can blue chip,can mo.inc and. Div. inc. These have considerable duplication in their large holdings.all have increased by 50%+since the sell off in 2008/9. I realize that a diversified hold ing of efts might give me a better return at lower fees .However at my age 89I am reluctant to pay the capital gains tax about $15,000. These I investments and others are a supplement to my defined pension plan. Is there a formula for considering tax in relation to potential gain?

Q: I am unable to open your Jan. 4th and Jan. 3rd Reports as I do not have MS Office. Can you do it in another format i.e. PDF? Thanks.

Q: This may not be within your scope, but I would appreciate your opinion on the general reputation (for delivery of results) and past performance of issuers of Flow-Through LP's. I.E. their NAV at the time of the Mutual Fund Rollover approx 2 years down the road. In checking the 'New Issues' available from TD/Waterhouse for instance the following are listed right now...
Brompton,CMP,Front Street,MRF,NCE,NORREP & Sprott.

I welcome your insight!

Thanks

Q: Could you give as crisp as possible definition of the "industrial sector"?

Q: hi , so lets say that you knew gold was going down too $1000 oz and oil down too $60 a barrel , and bottomed there , what would you want to purchase if you had a couple hundred thousand to spend in the T.S.X. and how would you divvy it up? thanks , look forward to your answer.

Q: Hi 5i team,

Couple of beginner questions: I've recently graduated, and am starting to build a portfolio for longer term savings. At the moment, I have 500 shares of Power Corp (POW), and another ~$10 000 cash that I'm looking to invest. First, how concerned with diversity should I be right off the bat? - that is, would you recommend taking a larger (say $5K) stake in 2 companies, or several smaller stakes in a number of companies? Would it be worth selling some of my stake in POW and invest in other sectors for more balance?

Q: Apologies if you have already explained this: Will you be starting a new model portfolio in March or continuing with the same one? Thanks.

Q: would you recomend sitting on some cash at the present time?
At the turn of the year most experts seemed positive on both the Canadian and U.S. markets. Now there is a significant number of the same people calling for a general, large, pullback. Self fulfilling prophecy, perhaps?

Q: I am trying to rebalance my spouse's RRIF with either income stocks or ETFs.We are seniors. What strategy could I use in juggling $ 120,000.00 to get the best bang for the buck?

Thanks very much.

Q: Hi Team: A general question on securitization: why do finance companies not just keep the receivables and collect the interest themselves? I suppose there is an advantage to selling off the assets and redeploying the capital again? Does this reduce their risk profile and make it easier to borrow? thanks

Q: I have a lot of GIC's and am considering starting an equity portfolio with the following. Security of income and capital is the only requirement.

COS BCE SLF CTY
ENF T ZWB CSW
VET IDR.UN
MIC
NWC
What would you add, delete, substitute or comment?

Thanks Tim.....

Q: Hi 5I,
What are your thoughts on having "stop loss" parameters on our holdings. There has been a lot of chatter lately about this. We have a lot of gains on some of our holdings especially the growth part of our portfolio[ thanks to 5I] , and even our large caps , and TD e funds, are doing well. We've never used stop loss before . We're not sure how to do it . We monitor our holdings daily [except when we're away on vacation] and we're thinking of putting the parameter on a 10 or 20 % drop. Some fund managers admit that they have been stopped out and the holding continued to climb.
thanks for your insight

Q: Kelly & Paul,
Below are the requirements to receive the $6.95 Trade Fee, but with all the accounts that can be included in the $100,000+ in total Household Assets it might not be too difficult to breach this limit. The other way is to be a Frequent Trader.

LOYALTY PRICING
$6.95 per equity trade

To enrol, call 1 800 567-3343

At CIBC Investor’s Edge, your business matters. That’s why we’re rewarding your loyalty to CIBC with our most competitive pricing — $6.95 per online or mobile equity trade.

You qualify for our Loyalty Pricing when you and members of your household1 maintain a $100,000 balance in any CIBC accounts or products, including accounts with CIBC Investor’s Edge, CIBC Imperial Investor Services, CIBC Wood Gundy or any affiliate2 within the CIBC group of companies:

Mortgage
Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GIC)
Line of Credit
Chequing and savings accounts
Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA)
Registered and non-registered accounts

Q: For Paul and Scot on trading prices at CIBC. If you are already paying 6.95 a trade at CIBC, sometimes just a phone call to them and they will give you 'relationship' pricing on your total accounts. So as long as the accounts are linked, they will give you the 6.95 per trade on all your accounts. Worth a call.
Cheers

Cheers

Q: Thank you Scot !!

Q: Re Paul's request for recommendations for a discount broker. RBC Direct Investing just recently came out with $9.95 Flat per trade for ALL online investors (no minimum balance,no trade activity required & no expiry date...i.e. it's not a limited time offer).
Even TD/Waterhouse offers a $9.99 Flat fee with total "Household Assets of $50,000 +".
Either of the above would be better (from a fee perspective) than Paul's CIBC fees as the value of all accounts (in TD/Waterhouse's case) count towards the $50,000.

Q: Peter, do you have a preferred discount broker for individuals to use from a fee and service perspective ? I use CIBC w/$9 trades for my bigger account and $29 for the smaller ones. My niece's resp is w/TD and its $29 every trade. It all adds up. Thank you, Paul