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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: loss aversion-when the pain of a loss is greater than the satisfaction from a win.
many of your members suffer from it and its a retail investors greatest sin
using xbc and mrs as examples you seem to be encouraging your readers. to hold on even though you say they are on a short lease-WHY!
take the loss use it at tax time, so many great companies to buy-aritzia, gsy, lspd, nvei -i could go on and. on.
and why do you keep insisting you have to give a company 3-5 years-where did that come from.?

dave
Read Answer Asked by david on October 21, 2021
Q: Good morning,

Some information for James I think. I have had a LIRA with BMO Investorline since 2011. I have a pretty much 50/50 split with Canadian stocks and US stocks. I do the conversion once and then the cash stays in that currency. If I sell a US stock I settle in US dollars, If I sell a cdn stock I settle in CAD dollars. The dividends all get collected in the appropriate currency as well. For example Starbucks pays me in US cash and Altagas pays me in CAD dollars.

Hopefully this helps

Jimmy
Read Answer Asked by Jimmy on October 21, 2021
Q: Re James Qtrade USD LIRA issue, a while back I asked Qtrade the same thing about USD spousal RRSP and they said not available too. I asked why, they said there was not the customer demand for it. Perhaps as a smaller broker they just do what they feel they have to in order to keep most customers happy.
Read Answer Asked by Christopher on October 21, 2021
Q: Public Feature Request: Could you add a filter to focus on Favourites for a given ticker?

This would allow a quick view (and reminder) of the answers I find most useful for a given stock.

Cheers / Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Robert on October 20, 2021
Q: Hello Peter & Team,

As per Bob Dylan... "The times they are a changin"

I have some new money to deploy and I am a little confused right now regarding where I should put it and how much cash I should leave out!

With what's going on in China, supply chain issues combined with pent up demand and lots of cash on hand, increasing energy costs, and the shortage of labor, I think everyone can agree we are about to/are in and inflationary period which could last for a few years.

I don't think it's a bad thing. And I don't think the markets are going to be (long term) adversely effected. But I do think there are companies/sectors which will do better than others in an inflationary environment. As an example... financials should do well. Inevitable rate hikes plus their ability to pass along added costs to the customer makes sense for them to be able to continue generating good cash flow.

My questions
1. We have all done very well in tech thanks to your guidance. How do you see this sector performing over the coming 1 - 3 years? It would be a shame for the 5i family to see all the capital gains we've recently enjoyed be depleted.
2. Which sectors and specifically which companies do you think will do well in this environment moving forward?
3. With respect to the 5i portfolios which many of us follow closely, what plans/changes are you considering keeping in mind the increasing cost-of-business landscape?

Thanks for all you do.

gm
Read Answer Asked by Gord on October 20, 2021
Q: For my kids RESP's I buy low cost TD index funds "e-series" to keep things simple. However I notice they added a disclaimer which didn't used to be there when buying this last time, it says "A short-term trading fee of up to 2%, payable to the fund, may apply to all units of TD Mutual Funds (except money market funds". What does this mean? Short term makes it sound like I get the money back? But if not, f they are adding 2% to the purchase of low cost index funds, those are no longer low cost. Thoughts?
Read Answer Asked by Adam on October 20, 2021
Q: Hi Peter and Team, I am hoping you or perhaps other members can help me here.
I have a rather large pension entitlement which, upon my recent retirement, I can move to a LIRA. While attempting to open a LIRA account with Qtrade, I was told that its LIRA accounts are available only in Cdn dollar - but no USD - this despite the fact that its RRSP accounts are available in combined CAD and USD and despite the fact that a LIRA, as you know, is simply an RRSP with an overlay of pension-law restrictions which 'lock in' the funds. The Qtrade rep had no explanation for this, except "maybe it's a regulatory issue or CRA needs to approve". That makes no sense to me.
My concern is that a CAD-only account will either limit me to Canadian investments or I will constantly be paying currency conversion fees to Qtrade every time I want to buy or sell USD securities or receive USD dividends.
As best I recall, most brokers moved to providing combined CAD-USD accounts over a decade ago. Am I missing something that might be preventing Qtrade from providing the service I need or is it just a decade behind its competitors?
Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by James on October 20, 2021
Q: Hello 5i,

Can you please explain to me the difference between the following selling techniques:

Stop market, stop limit, trailing stop market and trailing stop limit. I am a new investor and would appreciate some concrete examples. Also feel free to supplement your explanations with links to any good videos. I find this tricky...I hate being stuck holding a stock for years before it bounces back.
Read Answer Asked by Adrian on October 18, 2021
Q: I think Will Rogers advise was "Buy a stock and if it goes up sell it. If it doesn"t go up don't buy it."
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on October 18, 2021
Q: Hi 5i,
Regarding Robert’s inquiry on journaling ENB or MG and the BMO Investorline answer, I journal stocks all the time when I want to increase my U.S. exposure. This is an option in lieu of Norbert’s gambit. With TD, the stocks are moved to the U.S. side. I sell them and have more U.S. currency for new purchases. There is no point in holding the stocks on the CDN side in U.S. dollars as when one sells them, you are hit with FX conversion charges, and end up with CDN cash not U.S. cash. Perhaps there was just some confusion by the Investorline service rep.
Dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 18, 2021
Q: Hi
I use BMOInvestorline as my brokerage account. I have a CDN and a US dollar side.

I'm overweight Canada and wanted to increase my US holdings. I thought that one easy way to do that was to journal my Enbridge and Magna positions from the CDN to the US side of my account.

I think I misunderstood what this meant. I had thought that it meant that my existing shares in ENB and MG on the TSE would be exchanged for ENB and MG shares traded on the NYSE. But the fellow at BMOInvestorline said that it's just changing the currency and the shares will continue to trade on the TSE.

Is there a way to take an existing position on the TSE and exchange it for the same shares being traded on the NYSE?

I'm not sure I really diversified my holdings. I just changed the currency.

Thanks,
Robert
Read Answer Asked by Robert on October 18, 2021
Q: RE: Profit Taking -- Asked by Rob on October 15, 2021

Perfect question. Perfect answer. Investors: Keep & read this gem often!
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 18, 2021
Q: Is "Profit taking" just investment speak for "the price is falling and I don't have a clue why, but because I'm supposed to know I need a term that is very vague and makes sense to the masses"?

It's a term you hear all the time but what does it mean?

It seems strait forward enough. Investors bought lower and are now selling and taking their profits. Good for them; Isn't that what you are supposed to do? According to Will Rogers; "Don't gamble with your money, just buy some good stocks and when they go up, sell them" Take Profit!!!

Who is taking profits?

Is this the so called smart money?

What do these guys know that we don't?

If we are holding a stock that has started to go down because of profit taking, should we be concerned?

At what point does a decline stop being profit taking?
Read Answer Asked by Rob on October 15, 2021
Q: In my portfolio 10 top equities (stocks or ETFs) comprise 30.8 % of the total. In your opinion is this an appropriate weighting? Or there is some rule to it? None of the stocks is over 5% in its weighting and one global EFT is slightly over 5 %.
Thank you as always for your advice and recommendations
Miroslaw
Read Answer Asked by Miroslaw on October 15, 2021
Q: How do you confirm positive momentum has been re-established in a stock, to the point of making it buyable?
Read Answer Asked by Peter on October 14, 2021
Q: I have $10K to invest. Is it better to buy Apple shares directly or should I buy Canadian Depositary Receipts (CDRs). If the stock moves up 10% will CDR also move up by the same %. Apple pays dividends will I also get dividends if holding CDR. Is it safe to buy CDR what happens if it gets delisted?

Thanks for the great service
Read Answer Asked by Hector on October 14, 2021