Investment Q&A

Q: To all members,

If you are low on question credits I am offering to donate some of my credits.
If interested please head to the forums "non investment topics"

Happy Holidays to everyone

Q: While my question involves SBB, it is really more of a general interest question. On Friday Dec. 18, SBB traded over 22 million shares and 20 million of those shares were traded in the last 15 minutes of trading. The 50-day average volume is 764K.

So I went looking for an answer to this anomalous trading and found the following on Sabina's website:

"Sabina is pleased to announce that effective at market close on December 18, 2020, the Company will be added to the GDXJ.

Qualifying for addition to the GDXJ is another benchmark of how Sabina’s successes have translated into share performance and liquidity. Inclusion on this index provides an increased level of validation of the Company to a broader base of institutional investors, bringing additional trading flexibility and value to our Company.

The index initial position in Sabina is estimated at approximately 17M shares."

Clearly, Friday's sky-high volume and SBB's inclusion in GDXJ are related. However, SBB's announcement states it only becomes part of GDXJ AFTER the market closed on Friday. Can you help me to understand how so much trading occurred BEFORE market closing on Friday? Who is coughing up 20 million shares in the last 15 minutes of trading when the entire float is only 326 million shares? Does Van Eck purchase the shares outright or is a middleman involved?

Thank you.

Q: What time of day and days of the week are normally best for individuals to buy and sell stocks?

Q: BEP's recent share split announcement indicated, if I read it correctly, that any fractional shares resulting from the split would be rounded up to the nearest whole share. I owned, pre-split, an odd number of shares. My broker rounded down, and I think I've been cheated out of a share. Is my understanding correct and do I have grounds to go after the broker? Not a huge amount on an individual basis, but if a broker does it to hundreds or even thousands of investors . . .

Q: With Peter now managing a fund, will he still be spending most of his time with 5i answering questions, etc.? I see people wanting changes by way of having a separate advisory for US securities instead of them being combined as they are now. I had a paid subscription with another advisory and which were not combined and they had for example, small cap, large cap, income, US small, US large, etc. so you would be subscribing to half a dozen of their programs to get all of the information. I see now I receive emails from them and they are reaching out with another more inexpensive program where like Amazon - pick the program and put it in a cart. Your subscription is far superior to what I am aware of. Awaiting your response. Thank you.

Q: Today ,when I turned on my computer the above stocks each had matching bid ask for millions of shares at much lower than their closing price yesterday. Any idea what is happening?

Q: Could you provide brief summary to I'm sure a complicated question?

How is it that some analysts, including 5i, are able to predict companies will be taken over (like People was recently?).

It sounds like sometimes companies can seek it as a long-term plan (eg is that Well's plan?), I know sometimes they're hostile, and sometimes just seem advantageous for all. What are the usual qualities? Eg undervalued, but growing profits? Usually small-cap?

What companies would you not be surprised to see bought out over the next year?

Q: I am pleased to say that with your advice I have enjoyed outstanding results and my portfolio is now at a level where I would like to protect against a significant market correction.
Reading your Q&A's there is references to puts and calls. From what I ascertain puts/calls can be a tool to protect and also enhance returns. Can you recommend resources for someone like me who is interested in learning more about this strategy.
Thanks
John

Q: I have a margin account at TD. I receive 50% margin on CNQ, GSY AND SJ. On SIS, a much smaller company I receive 70% margin. This does not make sense. Could you explain how trading companies like TD determine margin?

Q: If a member asks a multi part question & then states the number of credits that you should take, does that have any bearing on the number of credits taken? Please take one credit!
Thanks

Q: Goodmorning 5i,
Best of the season to you all. And I concur with previous writers who have lauded your advice. I have profited as a result of your expertise and generosity in sharing it, as well. My question has to do with options. I believe that you sell call options. In his book, "Money for Nothing", I believe Derek Foster said that he only sells puts, as he doesn't want to have the stocks he bought at low prices, because of put options, called away. I have been selling call options and note that they are not often called away. And sometimes when they are, I do a simple calculation to see whether I would be better to buy them back, if I think they are going to continue rising. I have worried from time to time, though, about being called away. Especially when there are high capital gains in a non registered account. I suspect you also have higher capital gains possible on many of the stocks you sell call options on, as well. I was wondering what your take is on this question.=?

Q: Bitcoin
I am just exploring investing in Bitcoin and moving up the learning curve regarding Bitcoin Wallets, Companies, ETF's etc. This is for a small "1/2%" position to aid my overall understanding and determine if this is something of interest. My initial thoughts after doing some reading that this is a risky "commodity" to enter into.
1: Currently, I only have a rudimentary feel for potential gains and / or pitfalls. I have heard promoters say it could potentially be $300,000+ in a few years, perhaps $50,000 within a year. Do you have any comments you could offer on Risk/Reward aspects?
2: What is the best way to invest in Bitcoin? WealthSimple has trading in Bitcoin on their App (Similar to PayPal I assume, which we cannot access her in Canada.), there are several "Bitcoin Wallets" out there, ETF's as well. I hear fees to make transactions are not always transparent. WealthSimple trades for Bitcoin are funded by the spread quoted.
The bottom line is, for very small speculative positions, I am unsure if Bitcoin should be a consideration or if I should stick to small growth stocks? What advice would you offer me?

Thanks

Q: This is a comment and not a question, I have been very happy with the service since I joined, your insights and comments have been invaluable. I highly recommend the service to my friends and family when we are discussing the stock market. .
I enjoy reading the questions on all companies regardless of the country. I have gleamed knowledge on other markets and would be very disappointed if you were to separate the question databases by countries.
If a question is on a company or country that I do not have or want in my portfolio I will just scan and go on to the next question, I think separate databases are not needed.

thanks again for the valuable knowledge you pass on .

Q: With regards to Air Canada's new $850 millions public offering, is there a financial or strategic difference between the "overnight marketed offering" and a regular offering / bought deal.

Q: Like to echo Chris's comment "thank you both for the incredible service you have provided over the years"...and saying investment like terms, the annual subscription fee for 5iR is undervalued relative to the investment returns generated by 5I R for happy subscribers like me. 5IR is phenomenal!!!......Tom
P.S. Santa certainly won't be leaving a lump of coal in 5iR's stocking.....hahahaha

Q: Peter and Ryan. First off I want to thank you both for the incredible service you have provided over the years. You have been instrumental in the success of a lot of my investments. 5 years from retiring and my portfolio looks awesome. Just wanted to provide some feedback and where you see5I going forward. When I first joined many years ago the question forum was very Canadian focused. It allowed us to hear about some amazing small mid cap Canadian companies. More recently (as I suspect membership has grown) many of the questions are around US companies. As much as I enjoyed hearing about the odd interesting US stock it makes for a very busy and unfocused question forum. Wondering if you would consider.
1. Two separate question forums. One for CDN and one for US
2. Creat a US based model portfolios. Income, balanced and growth

I for one would be happy to pay for a separate US based 5I membership fee. Im not sure if this will conflict with your new position Hedge Fund management role. Please do not take this as criticism, only feedback as I greatly value your opinions

Many thanks. Chris

Q: Hi 5i,
I had seen a report you produce earlier this year listing the companies that cut their dividends. I thought you were going to update it regularly. I am having difficulty locating it in the website. Would you please provide the path to it. Thanks

Q: Yesterday I noticed my book value of BEPC had dropped by about 30%. This morning my online self directed platform still hadn’t adjusted my shares owned to reflect a 3 for 2 split. How long should it take for my brokerage firm to show the correct number of shares owned and why would a company do a 3 for 2 split in the first place?

Q: I was wondering if you have any recommendations for some Jan'21 bounce back stocks after late 2020 tax loss selling?

Q: What is your opinion regarding a general cash percentage allocation in a portfolio? If you had some would you suggest an alternative vehicle for a cash holding like an EFT or a mutual fund to hold a cash instead of banks which offer a dismal rates for straight cash holdings.
Thank you for your service. It has been always very valuable for me.