Investment Q&A

Q: What kind of an impact do you think Intl. crypto currency growth will have on Canadian Banks - short, medium & long term?

Q: Where you see evidence of a sell iceberg order for a micro or small cap, should a shareholder be concerned that maybe the seller knows something that I don't. Right now, I see that with Geodrill. On the surface the shares look quite undervalued, yet the iceberg sell is in place.

Q: Question about insider activity. Does activity in warrants, rights and options indicate a postive or negative outlook on company performance.
Tx in advance. Ken

Q: Hi Peter and the 5 I Team.

This is just a comment.

I just wanted to thank you for the excellent service over the years. My portfolio has never looked better and my confidence has greatly improved.
I would recommend your services 100% , anytime, anyplace.

Thanks a lot,

Q: Do you know what the average portfolio turnover rate is for retail investors and how that compares to actively managed funds? My sense is that lots of individuals feel that they are long term investors but that in reality there is much more "swapping" and trading within individual accounts than would be expected.
Thanks
Marc

Q: How does criteria to be added to the TSX composite and additions/removals to the index work? I have a hand full of stocks I would've guessed would be on it but aren't (SIS, TIXT, CTS, WELL, DRM, PLC). Then, I noticed REAL is on it - would it be up for possible removal due to its decline and smaller market cap? Thanks for sharing.

Besides the above I mentioned, what other stocks might be added to the index over the next few years that you would recommend? GDI stands out as one I would guess? Any others?

Q: Sometimes when I place an order with TD webbroker they say the order is under review. For example, I placed an order for Bombardier today. ( I know you guys are not recommending the stock). Any reason for the review? It holds up the purchase.

Q: Recently, I've become interested in the delta between the market price and the fair value of a stock position. There are a number of investment websites that provide such "data", like Morning Star, CFRA on iTrade, StockCalc via the Globe & Mail and then Simply Wall Street. I'm keen to get your take on the value of such "data" and if there is one site that is more dependable than others. Any other insights would be appreciated.......Tom

Q: Hi 5-i:
Not a question,but rather a comment. I notice today that some members have written in about the results of what they have received from offering their IPL shares to Brookfield. I had 40,618 IPL shares times .250 = 10,154 exchangeable units, however, RBC direct investing showed in the activity section of my account 40,618 times .24974626 = 10,144 brookfield units. I am short 10 units times an approximate value of $ 71.00 = $ 710.00. Brookfield is using the .24974626 factor instead of the .250 that they offered. I am waiting on a resolution to the matter, but encourage others to check their account, and with their broker, and if so to express their discontent to Brookfield. They will save millions by using the incorrect multiplier. I experienced a similar problem when they spun out the BEPC shares. The announcement stated that all allocations would be rounded up, but when it didn't happen, I checked with my broker and they said that they were not allocated enough shares to do that. I recall that 5-i had some questions concerning that issue.
Thanks,
Ben.

Q: Hi,
What are your favourite criteria to evaluate a company? for example, PE ratio, quick ratio, etc.
Also, could you rank your criteria by most important to least important?

Thank you!

Q: Payment for order flow . Is such practice is permitted in Canada?
What happens if an order is directed for US stocks or US based foreign depository? Is PFOF permitted in US stock exchanges.
Thanks. Miroslaw

Q: Hi 5i Team

When investing monies into a diversified ETF, such as SPY or QQQ, which investment approach provides the best risk-return profile? More specifically, how would you rank the following investment approaches: lump-sum, dollar cost averaging, (DCA) and augmented DCA?

Augmented DCA is a modified version of DCA where the investment strategy is more aggressive if the economy is expanding and more conservative if the economy is contracting. Macroeconomic factors are employed to determine if the economy is expanding or contracting (e.g., market volatility, unemployment rate, and capacity utilization).

If an investor chooses DCA or augmented DCA, over what investment period would be reasonable? Is it 6 months? 9 months? 12 months? 15 months?

Thanks

George

Q: BNN has adopted a new policy of only having money managers on Market Call which seems a bit much given 5i’s excellent record. I’ve created a New Topic in Forums suggesting we send BNN objections to this. Rod

Q: Please explain where a bought deal is announced by a Company with a broker at a discount to the share price at the time of announcement, where the institution then "shorts' the stock to cover the PP. Rookie question, but the only dumb question is the one not asked.

Q: I am familiar with norberts gambit to move Canadian dollars to the US but what is the best way to convert US dollars to Canadian currency?

Q: NEO-L
Duane recently had a question about Amazon being available to purchase on NEO-L. I don't understand what is involved here; can you pls describe how such CDRs work. I do not know even where / how to purchase them. Also, I am concerned with liquidity; on their website they state "CDRs will reference highly liquid global shares that trade on major exchanges around the world. Generally speaking, where the underlying shares has a high trading volume, the corresponding CDR is expected to have a high degree of liquidity.".
Will shares (units?) be easy to sell if one wants to dispose of a position? I believe these will make otherwise high priced stocks available to small investors. Can you think other advantages or disadvantages to buying? Last any other source of info you can point me to? Many thanks for your excellent service

Q: The National Bank of Canada has recently introduced online trading for $0/stock trades and $1.25/contract for option trades. Their trading platform is free if you do a minimum 15 trades/month. I calculate saving about $350/month if I switch from the TD. Do you see any downside?

Q: Hi
Before I posted this question, I went through CMS archives and searched the questions bank here as well. As I didn't get any "hits" I thought of asking you folks.

I was recently told that establishing a Joint Partner Trust is a good way to go if one

a. wants to avoid probate fee even for the primary residence
b. to shelter probate and other fees for assets held in a private corporation
c. transfer wealth to future generations with certain amount of protection.
d. Arguably the best way to go forward if one's adult kids are in the US (through a Dynasty Trust)
Any thoughts about JPT? Especially for professionals who own a private holding company/corporation. If you think JPT is not the way to go, what would you suggest?

An article is begging to be written in CMS!
Many thanks.
Mano.

Q: I appreciate this is not a US/Cdn stock, but curious what your thoughts would be. The space they are in seems to be hot these days, but they are trading at almost a 12 month low. Results are supposed to be out in a few days, wondering if market is expecting mediocre?

Q: Could you please some insights into the relationship between the number of analysts covering a company and the number of institutions holding that investment? For example, I was surprised to hear that TOI only has one analyst, while Yahoo shows 109 institutions holding shares. Is this simply because they were "given" shares from CSU? If that wasn't the case, how many institutions would you expect to be holding shares (roughly)? I'm trying to get a sense of what high vs low institutional interest looks like. Thanks
Marc