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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: Why do some companies announce their latest quarterly earnings (eg., AGU today) after the close of markets? Is this an indicator of impending poor results?
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on November 05, 2013
Q: David's question about profit & DRIP's.
I faced the same question - within RRSP - and have decided - for now - to take profit & reinvest profit into other dividend stock I do not currently own thereby increasing diversity while keeping up the share count.
Read Answer Asked by Craig on November 05, 2013
Q: Hello Peter:
First in a very short duration of membership, I am very impressed with the response and quality of advice provided. I have listened to you for long time on BNN from your stint in Sprott onward and I like your investment style.

I would very much like to learn how you assign rating on a stock and rationale for weighting within portfolio. For example you changed weighting on AYA.

I try to segment portfolio two ways; as the type of investment (Foundational, cyclical, opportunistic) and according to 13 TSX groups (Discretionary, Staples, Energy, Materials …). Segmentation is to have diversification. Each position is not more than 5%. Bond segment is outside this portfolio. Am I on the right track? Finding which TSX group the stock belongs is sometime difficult so I use my judgment. Any insight on portfolio creation and maintenance will be appreciated. Thanking you.
Read Answer Asked by Shah on November 05, 2013
Q: 5i Team,

Can you provide a couple of your favourite consumer cylical names please? I own autocanada and magna but have more cash to deploy in order to get to my 10% sector target. I would prefer a couple of US names... perhaps a large cap and small cap for balance. As always, your opinion is GREATLY appreciated.

THANK YOU.


Read Answer Asked by Ray on November 05, 2013
Q: I have been advised to safeguard my recent portfolio increases, which have been substantial, by selling shares equal to my profits, leaving only my original investment amounts. While an attractive idea, I am a dividend drip investor and removing the profits will reduce the "multiplier" effect they should have in a bull market. What would you advise?
David
PS: And of course keep up the good work!
Read Answer Asked by David on November 04, 2013
Q: Would you consider offering a "top picks" of 5 or so companies, that get updated every quarter or half year?.
Read Answer Asked by william on November 04, 2013
Q: hi team- allow me to apologize if you've answered this ? already.
here goes, will 5i be creating a 2014 model portfolio as well. thanks jane
Read Answer Asked by jane on November 04, 2013
Q: OK, here's one out of left field for ya! Bitcoin. As a speculative long term investment. It still seems quite shady to me, but there are others who feel it's destined to be the "next big thing."
I know it really doesn't have much to do with what 5i is all about but never the less I'm curious what your guys thoughts are.
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on November 04, 2013
Q: I was curious about your recent response to the 'screaming buy' opportunity. I've read a few of your responses about potential 'up and coming' companies that people have inquired about. They don't fit your requirement for a full recommendation but they probably peak your interest as a 'company to watch closely'. Maybe you can a category named in that way....ones on your 'watch List'. That way we know you have an interest in them but you are not giving a 'recommendation'. It would fit all those young companies that have some promising statistics. Just a though. Such a great service ....thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Graham on November 04, 2013
Q: I have become a member recently and want to create an additional portfolio to my investments. Although the model portfolio was created a while ago, can i consider it as a model portfolio to start with if i were to invest today? And if so, do the ratings for each stock reflect the potential as of now, or should I pare them based on the YTD gains?
Read Answer Asked by Rajiv on November 04, 2013
Q: We've talked in the past about screaming buys and it begs the question, how would you disseminate word to the members if you came across any stock that was, for one reason or another, a compelling buy. Indeed, would you even tell the members?
Read Answer Asked by Gerald on November 03, 2013
Q: Hello to all.
OK so this is the first adjustment in the model portfolio (AYA) ... I thought any moves would be much more dramatic,my allotment is not as precise as yours due to re-buying my dividends into Goldcorp and also I had DRIP which also has taken me away from exactley 5% holdings. Should a fella just stay where I am at or drop some Amaya. TY and thanks for the 28% !!!
Read Answer Asked by Alan on November 03, 2013
Q: When I analyze the 5i Model Portfolio and the assignment of securities to sectors I see that some stocks get tagged with "Services" which could just as easily be tagged with something else. For instance AYA and CSU ("Services") are ones I would tag "Technology" along with ESL and SYZ and if they were thus tagged it would make Tech a 20% portfolio weighting based on cost and 23% based on current value (Sept.30). If you agree with this assumption would it be an indication that 5i highly favours the Tech sector over others, even though Tech is less than 2% of the TSX Composite? There's no doubt the performance of the 5i portfolio going forward is going to be vastly different than the TSX where 72% of the composite is Financials, Energy and Materials.
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on November 03, 2013
Q: I really appreciate your service guys.

I have a few stocks that I have made very good gains on this year. RFC.V, CSU.TO, STN.TO are all up by more than 45%. I see more upside for all of them. I was wondering from your guy’s point of view would you sell a portion of these to insure your gains or do you also see good upside on these stocks and would you hold on for now.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Jon on November 03, 2013
Q: Cross Trades: - - could you please explain to me why a specific house cross trades LARGE amounts of shares to itself? Why is it done and what are the consequences? Are they covering a short position or another scenario? Thanks in advance.
Read Answer Asked by orion on November 02, 2013
Q: This is a response to Lotar's question. The fund would be prohibited from charging duplicative management fees. However, while a 2.3% MER might be in line for a Canadian equity fund, it is excessive for a Canadian bond fund, which is where the mutual fund on top has most of its funds - given the current interest rate situation, it may be almost impossible to make any money on the bond portion of the portfolio with that high an MER. Generally the higher the MER, the more that gets kicked back to the adviser, possibly the biggest conflict in the investment industry, one that has been banned in some countries and the Canadian regulators are considering banning as well on the basis that disclosure has been ineffective. With a 2.3% MER, probably 1% per year gets kicked back to the adviser (that would be disclosed in the mutual fund prospectus). For the adviser to put the money into a "balanced fund" like that rather than allocate the money between an equity fund and a bond fund most likely indicates incompetence or lack of integrity on the part of the adviser.
Read Answer Asked by Ralph on November 02, 2013
Q: What would you recommend as a first time investment for a young teanager that has about $1,000 of savings to invest?

I want my kids, who are in their early teens, to have some direct experience with investing; note that they are interested in this idea.

My goal is have them learn of the benefits, and risks, through some direct experience.

Also, what investment learning resources you would recommend?

Regards, Craig.
Read Answer Asked by Robert on November 02, 2013
Q: ETF Short List question asked by Orion on Nov 1/13:

Horizons Funds has a seasonal ETF fund HAC.TO which came out about 3 years ago at $10 and it is now $13.59. The managers use seasonal and technical analysis to enter/exit positions. The managers (Brooke Thackery, Don Vialoux, and Jon Vialoux) appear regularly on BNN.CA video interviews. Thackery authors an annual manual on seasonal investing and has a free monthly letter and mid-month videos promoting the funds activities. Don Vialoux publishes a daily free letter at www.timingthemarket.ca where other ETF/seasonal articles exist. Also check out the structural differences between ETF's and ETN's. Yahoo finance has a components link to assess an ETF's components and weights. Trading volume of an ETF might also assist in determining 'best in class'.
Read Answer Asked by Russ on November 02, 2013
Q: I have a mutual fund question, about a specific fund but more from an investment understanding perspective than picking on that fund. I know you're not fans of them, and the more I learn, the more I understand why (which is why I'm in the process of weaning myself away from our "advisor").

Our advisor has about 75% of my wife's $90k RRSP in a specific mutual fund, let's just call it Fund A from Company XYZ. This fund's investment objective & strategy is to "generate income and long-term capital growth by investing primarily in a diversified portfolio of Canadian dollar denominated fixed income securities". The funds top 30 holdings -- in fact, its top TWO holdings!, are 62% Company XYZ's (i.e. the fund company's) Bond Fund, and 37% Company XYZ's Cdn Dividend Fund, leaving 1% for everything else (unspecified).

Does this mean I'm paying the MER twice, once at the level of the fund itself, and again at the level of the constituent funds?

Would this situation, in isolation, be enough to get me out of this fund?

The funds MER is 2.3%, and its total return since the advisor bought it in July 2012 is 1.1%.

That certainly sounds like a good reason to get out of this fund especially and in particular.

Thanks again for all your investment advice, we beginning investors really appreciate it!
Read Answer Asked by Lotar on November 02, 2013