Investment Q&A

Q: Good Day
When these companies like BNS announce share buybacks. What determines when they buy back shares and how many total buybacks they exercise. Would the buybacks by Google be done the same way or are the rules in the US different?

Q: The great team, how is an increase in interest rate can lower inflation?

Q: Hello to the great 5i team,

Any website where i can verify how many shares are repruchased by a company ? Thanks !

Q: I am confused and would appreciate some of your knowledge on the mechanics of the type of transaction Mr Musk is doing in buying Twitter.

a) I thought that stockholders were the owners, so that buyout would mean everyone's shares were being purchased. Is this the case?

b) Then Musk said that the Board were refusing to consider his offer and they weren't aligned to Twitter's performance because they weren't big stock holders. Can a Board actually block a takeover? The press seemed to think so. Isn't there going to be a vote by shareholders on the offer?

c) Then there's the purchase price. If it's going to remain a public company, then that $49B goes where, into whose pockers?

Thanks for your guidance on these questions.

Q: Hi Peter

Is it possible to share the link to your asset allocation article that Steve mentioned yesterday?

Thanks

Q: Hello!

I'm fully invested in the market (just turned 30) and have a small cash cushion on the side. I'm making 6 figures and have all my RRSPs in indexes and TFSA in growth stocks. Went from $100,000 to $65,000 in the last few months in that acct. I wont be using any of the money I'm investing for 10+ years and I'm not really bothered by the drops. My plan is to keep investing monthly in indexes and your picks for my TFSA and non registered account. I will not be selling. Is this a good plan ? Anything else high-level I should be aware of. PS I have no debt and can save half my income and my job is very secure!

Q: I follow your balanced portfolio and only have vgg for us exposure. I was reading about CRD s and wondering is this an easy way to buy some us stocks. How are they different? Would it be better to use tfsa account for these investments.

Q: Just a compliment on the recent 5iR article on Asset Allocation. I am fanatical when it comes to asset allocation. I learned decades ago that the biggest impact on your overall returns is from asset allocation, not stock selection. I had never heard/read the differences between Strategic AA vs Tactical AA....nicely laid out.

Every trade I do, whether it is a new purchase, a complete sale or my usual adds + trims is only done once I review the impact on my overall AA, both by sector weighting and individual stock weighting. I rarely adjust my AA, although I did make a tweak roughly 6 months ago...raising my Energy weighting while reducing my Technology weighting. I guess I got lucky...or...just maybe I was doing a little Tactical AA adjustment.

Again, thanks for the great article....Steve

Q: Good morning, I kept almost all my growth stocks thinking I'll ride it down as usual but it's a bit worst than I thought, instead should have trimmed more to the like of NVDA and SHOP and a few others. Down over 12.6% from high so far. Everything seems to being priced for recession. Panic selling has not started yet just a slow drift down. Market could go down considerably more from here. Like 10 to 20% and we won't hear the bell.
Starting to get jittery. Your view on this assumption please?
Thanks for the great service!

Q: Will I get a dividend if the Ex-Div date is Apr. 27 and I buy a stock today? How the Settlement date of Apr. 29 will affect this transaction for the purpose of receiving the dividend?

Q: Hello, I saw your answer to Stanley: “Bonds may look better next year, and may look better if the market weakens further.” We are expecting rates to climb, which will affect the bonds value. Normally, rates would already be higher at this stage of the economic cycle, and I would understand. I just don’t see the benefits of keeping bonds in ETFs with the current situation. We might as well hold cash or at least ST bond (held to maturity) for market protection. Could you help me understand? I am thinking about changing a portion of my portfolio (VBAL, XBAL MAW104) for a stock ETF / individual bond strategy.

Q: This is something I would rather discuss rather than post, but thats not doable.

So here goes. I've been a subscriber almost since your beginnings and more or less understand how you operate and the type of investments you would reccommend in your portfolios.

There is something that really puzzles me, especially given your experience, and know how.

Take SHOP as an example. About 5 months ago it hit a high of $2230. Today it is $595.

In between the highs and the low you have waxed eloquently about the market conditions and risks involved in the Q&A section, almost on a daily basis. You've talked about increasing rates, the aggressive fed, how high value stocks react very poorly to these conditions etc etc.

In the balanced portfolio it was purchased at approx $1200 and so it has gone from a 100% gainer to a 50% loser.

To me that is a very very large opportunity loss.

My question to you guys is this.

Given client sentiment and emotional well being (given people hate to lose more than they enjoy winning) why does 5i not adopt a strategy to prevent this from happening.

For instance, a widely adopted strategy that once a position doubles half is sold to ensure that there are no losses on the position. That would make a lot of people very happy.

OR, I know you resist this, but using LIVE trailing stop loss orders. Imagine if 5i adopted a trailing stop loss order, where there is no emotional involvement, just a limit to how much you allow the stock to retreat before selling it. Imagine if there had been a 20% TSL on SHOP. And you know what, if we are stopped out then 5i can reccomend in one of its monthly updates a repurchase if they deem it ok. How much can you miss out if you are out of a position a month or less?

Most would certainly say darn, we missed a few points, rather than saying darn, what am I going to do now?

I do subscribe to other services that have perfected these techniques and they can work very favorably , especially in horrific markets like we are experiencing now. For most subscribers it can certainly give Peace of Mind.

Food for thought

Sheldon

Q: Dear 5i,
I just renewed my annual membership. I have been a happy member since you launched your service. I just wanted to email my gratitude for providing timely and unbiased objective information. I am a basic subscriber but I like the other options you provide and the continual improvements. Thanks and stay well!

Q: Thoughts on how to stomach all the volatility. Since I know you are not a fan of stop losses does one just grin and bear it. It's nice when some sectors are working but what does one do when all sectors potentially stop working? It seems there are so many unknowns which the market doesn't like. In your experience, what is it like to go through a bear market and what advice you you have for nervous retail investors. Your wisdom appreciated!

Q: Just following up on your perspective relative to market sentiment. I find that the Indices are misleading, in a very LARGE way. In fact the divergence between them and the overall breadth and performance of mid/small caps is incredibly large. What references should/could be used outside of the indices in order to gain a true reflection of overall stock performance.

Q: I use CIBC Investors Edge and when I search GOOG it includes on the canadian exchange "GOOG: Aequitas NEO-L" and trades at around $22.
Is this still an investment in Google ?
Thanks
John

Q: What are the best sites for free conference call transcripts that you know of ? I already know seeking alpha (not free) and sometimes yahoo finance. Do you know of better ones ?
Thanks !

Q: Wanting to add some large cap growth stocks to my large cap utility, bank, pipeline,infrastructure, portfolio as new money becomes available. Growth seems to be out of favour so am seeing this as a time to buy with a 2 year window.

You often advise waiting for a declining stock to show some strength, or at least to start building a base before stepping in. I find this difficult on 2 aspects. Technically, how do I determine when to buy a declining stock in this market ? Psychologically, I hold off on buying when the stock declines further, thinking the decline will continue, and if the stock moves upward I get get frustrated believing that I missed the boat . Do former “ favourites “ such as the 2 above lose their shine even when the markets recover ? Which of these would you purchase first ?
Thanks. Derek

Q: Hello Peter, Could you tell me which sectors are doing well in Canada and the USA and how long will they be in favor ie:- 3 months, 6 months 1 year etc.
Thanks.
Ivan

Q: Hello, for a 5-year holding period and $400k, in terms of currency costs, is it better to buy CDRs and let the CIBC handle currency hedging as a % or buy US$ and actual US stocks from a discount broker (without accounting for currency fluctuation after 5 years)? Would a breakeven holding period have to be longer than 5 years? Thanks.