Investment Q&A

Q: Lightspeed
In regard to Clayton‘s question this morning on your profile page there is a bar chart that shows institutional buying and selling, how often is that updated?
Would you give that chart any consideration when buying or selling a stock

Q: Good morning 5i
and the best of the season to you all. I hope you all have a great rest and relaxation time this season. You have earned it, if you listen to most of the commentators on the site, who seem to be very happy with your service, And that includes me.

I was just wondering about options. I had a number of options expiring last Friday and I am planning on rolling them over for another month. It is a fairly down day in the market today and I was wondering whether I would b e better to wait a day or two, or a week, to see if the sentiment changes. Perhpas the option premiums would be higher at that time. so, that is the quesion, is there any profit in waiting out a down day before selling call options?
thanks

Q: hello 5i:
You receive a few kudo's at this time of year (though maybe not enough). It's a wonderful service and I say that having been a subscriber for about 8 years. But one thing I've always noticed: you have some very astute investors in your base. Not just the ones that catch mistakes, or the ones that ask detailed questions, but some that ask very simple and direct questions/comments. So, to you and to your membership, a very Merry Christmas
Paul L

Q: Good morning, my daughter has $600,000 to invest for a two year period. She is looking for relative safety of principal, but a better return than GIC's or daily interest accounts, thanks?

Q: Everyone.
I am looking for the current number of shares held by institutions and insiders. I can find data to the end of September or some in October. When does insiders and institutions report the number of shares they hold on LSPD?
Clayton

Q: Charitable Donations. We checked our cash account at Questrade on Friday regarding charitable donations of a Canadian security made to charities. We discovered that a fee of $25 per donation had been charged. We contacted the broker to complain and the first agent and supervisor both said that it couldn't be waived although we were offered one free trade for each donation. We then followed up with an email to the CEO of Questrade, Edward Kholodenko to complain about the fee and cc'd Rob Carrick, John Heinzl and Tim Cestnick of the Globe and Jamie Golombek of the Financial Post. Jamie Golombek got back to us to indicate that CIBC did not charge a fee for the same donation.

Post only if you think others would be interested.

Q: Peter and Co.,

I simply want to wish Peter and all his staff a wonderful Christmas season. We, members are very fortunate to be able to learn on a daily basis from people who's knowledge is off the charts and who really care about our personal financial situation.

Paul

Q: Regarding the answer to my question with respect to Nortel and the tech decline received Saturday @ 3:49 a.m., my family held stock in Nortel and I am very appreciative with respect to the detailed and quality of the answer to my question. Myself and probably many others had concerns with the Nasdaq doing what it has been doing lately and your perfectly explained answer made me feel a lot more comfortable. I guess you were working late due to the timing of the answer. Thanks again,

Q: Where on the website do I find the short sellers report? Ie. stocks subject to short selling which should recover strongly in January.

Q: Everyone. When there is a downturn in the market I look for positives. This year I am still up more than 11%. In the last 10 years my house value has increased by a factor of 3 and my investments have increased by a factor of 12. Yes the stock market has gone down recently but in the long term - I am significantly better off. Have a great holiday season. Clayton

Q: Good morning,

I have recently discovered CDR's and would like to hear 5i's opinion of them. I am sure someone would have already asked so feel free to post a link to any answer you've already provided.

A few specific questions I have though, would include a) what benefit does CIBC get for creating these (e.g. seems like the kind of product that would have a mangement fee somewhere, but they don't....) b) is the NEO exchange a legit (e.g. acceredited, safe) exchange - I imagine it is but just want to hear it from you c) do you think they are liquid enough?

Thanks in advance. - Jeff

Q: I was wondering if 5i would see a benefit from helping establish regional diy investment groups. I have had on my to-do list to get a face to face investment group going in Ottawa. Meeting other 5i members in Ottawa would be of value. Your forums don't really get enough traffic for me to post there....

Q: I am wondering whether I should purchase some MSFT stock or the new canadian depository receipt MSFT for one or more of the grandchildrens RESPs that I have set up. What are the nuances that I might be missing between the alternatives. I have no other US stocks in any of the RESP's Thank you for your thoughts.

Q: Hello,

In reply to Berry's question to drip or reinvest dividends back into ETF's or stocks.
You have to advice BMO investorline to reinvest dividends. It is not automatic.
PS, they only drip full shares.
Hope this helps

Q: They say history doesn’t repeat but it rhymes. Well the last time we had a PM named Trudeau, we had supply shocks, monetary expansion, and runaway inflation, which was followed by double digit interest rates and much pain. Now I just saw a headline that a senate staffer leaked estimate of 35% inflation increase next year. What would your general advice be to investors in the event that this plays out this time as it did back then?

Q: Wondering when looking at asset allocation, not every sector can do well in all environments. As we see, growth stocks are under pressure as are utilities, renewables, emerging markets, and gold hasn't been doing too well either. Some fund managers brag that they are only in sectors rising and doing well--a reason to invest in their funds/expertise. In a reflationary environment the sectors I listed are not going to do well. However, my problem with holding only a couple sectors is that this can change at any time. So.... what are your thoughts on having this diversification where some things go up and others go down. My experience is that you never know when things will switch. And, isn't a good company that was recommended three months ago still a good company today, just facing other headwinds. OR..... is it foolish to own utilities and these growth stocks in a reflationary environment. Would it make sense to add to utilities/growth stocks as they go down?? Thank you for your insight.

Q: Hi! I have BMO shares in Investorline, but they do not have the option to reinvest dividends.

Can you advice me some ETF where dividends are automatically reinvested?
Thank you!

Q: Hi 5i
I thought I had a handle on the Mutual Fund Changes occurring currently but seems not.

Talking about the availability of some mutual Funds...........Banks preferring to not make available products from other firms..........so Advisors don't have to learn about them as KYC Rules require.

Here's the thing. I just tried to buy (add to current) BMO Small Cap Fund (BMO31136) through BMO Investorline and find I am no longer able to do so because of these changes.

I am getting the sense there are changes going on that are not positive for investors despite the desire of the Regulator.

Can you point me to an article/ information or tell me what's going on with Mutual Fund availability? As I try to deploy capital today and cannot, it does not feel positive to this investor.

Thanks
Dave

Q: Main question: Is there a sense of roughly how long it will take 'clear' the class action suits being brought against LSPD?

Also:
- Do you have a sense of what a defense would cost? 5-10 million?
- Are these lawsuits enough of a distraction to *impact performance* or will they simply be an exercise for accounting and a few of lawyers?
- Lastly, what is the success rate of these sorts of lawsuits in extracting compensation?

Thanks!

Q: You didn't really answer Ian's question about how brokers make money.


When I started trading the commissions were 3% with a minimum of $50. They have slowly made their way to zero with some brokers up here in Canada. How are these brokers making their money?