Investment Q&A

Q: Warren Buffett says when it comes to investing there are two questions to answer: what company and what price? When I watch the financial media the 'experts' always have a ton of stocks to buy, and give their crystal ball reasons why, but never give the intrinsic value of the stock, or talk about the margin of safety. Do the 'experts' just believe all their stock picks will go up? :)

Q: I am setting up a long term portfolio for my 35 year old daughter. She will have 480,000 to invest. On a previous question, re the top picks from your portfolios in 2017, and your top picks presently, you now suggested ATZ, BAM ,BYD, GSY, KXS, LNF, LSPD, MG, REAL, SHOP, WEll. XBC. I am thinking to buy equal weightings of 40,000. Any advice?

Q: Re: Dustin's question today on a good place to park some cash - Tangerine Bank (a subsidiary of BNS) is still offering 2.1% for 5 months if you open up a savings and checking account (Max is $1 mln). I am building a house and have and set up accounts in October - very easy to do and transferring cash back and forth (to RBC in may case) is very easy. Only small issue I have encountered is the $50,000 daily max for transferring funds back to RBC.

Q: In a response to a question asked on Friday you said “ For direct bitcoin exposure, we prefer the current Trusts that have been set up, such as GBTC and QBTC.”
What do you think of Wealthsimple as a way to buy cryptocurrency? They offer Bitcoin and Ethereum . I do not know what kind of fees they take.

Q: I don't have a US dollar trading account, but BMO Investorline allows me to buy and settle in US dollars in my RRSP account. I have some US dollars built up now and intend to buy/settle US Companies in $US. Do you see any problems arises from this?

thanks,

Paul

Q: Hi there, regarding the EV space, yes the frenzy continues, however, do you see it with more legs to run in the near term, say three to six months? Will stimulus spending continue to assist the EV space, considering the new US administrations go green policies to come?
Considering your previous experiences, can you see the EV space cooling off in the short term with profit taking, or do you see it still running hard for now, based on what you see in the markets today?
Any favorites today? Any you like that still look as though they have some value left in them?
Thanks!

Q: Quite a few subscribers mention that they want to increase their fixed income percentage in their portfolio. Yet they ask for your advice on bonds. In my experience, they are not the same. I think of fixed income as a GIC. Your thoughts?

Q: Peter;
Closed Funds (CEFs).
Intrigued by your recent articles on DIY investor’s advantages and becoming a fund manager again, I re-read a couple of my books on hedge funds by Seabastian Mallaby, Edward O. Thorp, and Simon Lack’s “The Hedge Fund Mirage: The illusion of big money and why it’s too good to be true”.
In the latter 2012 book Simon Lack argues large hedge funds and most institutions ignore closed funds which leaves good opportunities for small hedge funds and sophisticated investors of which there are very few in his opinion. In Lack’s opinion the CEF space is dominated by individual retail investors who chase yield that is mis-stated (CEFs publish a distribution yield rather than the actual yield so are engaging in ROC) and foolishly buy IPOs of CEFs. Lack says numerous articles and books have been written on this subject and how to evaluate CEFs but my research did not produce very much at all. Do you have any views and suggestions on how an individual could or should approach this opportunity if it still exists?
WRS.

Q: When the U.S. market is closed for the day is there any effect on the Canadian market as to volume or shorting of positions or anything? Also vice versa when the Canadian market is closed?

Q: Your answer to Costa about how to handle GoEasy (or any stock) after a double or triple is one of the reasons why I subscribe to 5i. Thanks for your clarity.

Q: Hi 5i,

I am new in the Canadian market and want to learn more the behavior of Canadian stocks. I found those Canadian stocks both traded in US and Canada behave very good price momentum. KXS is not listed company in US. However, I have found there is a KXSCF (OTC traded in USD), does it usually trade actively for such cases. I have a feeling that the reason it dropped due to the company is not listed in US market. Do you agree that we should invest for those companies traded in both US and Canada market, they will behave much better with more volume transactions and better price momentum. Many thanks and kindly advise.

Q: Effective Monday, Questrade will accept & approve trades starting at 7 AM. What are the benefits & risks of this? Thanks!

Get a headstart on your trading day. Starting Monday, January 18, pre-market trading will open half an hour earlier at 7 am ET.
Here is what this earlier start time means for you:
GTEM orders for U.S. trades can be placed or filled as early as 7 am ET
Day orders may be approved as early as 7 am ET on Canadian or U.S. routes, but will continue to be filled only on market open
Reminder: U.S. markets are closed on Monday, January 18 for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Q: Thanks for all your excellent work. Having recently moved to the US and opted to convert my young-ish Nova Scotia pension account to an RRSP and a LIRA, I’m looking to invest the ~100k in these accounts. Horizon: at least 5 years, but probably much more (I’m 40). Having narrowed down a tentative list of names (see below – tech-heavy, I realize), and with a focus on growth, I’m hoping to sort out the best buying strategy. Specifically: (1) At this moment, does the conventional wisdom to buy each stock gradually makes sense to you as good rule of thumb (e.g., over the course of a year, for each stock, adding a quarter of the total intended position once every few months or so)? (2) Also: I’d greatly appreciate seeing a ranked list of, say, which five of these stocks you think it would be especially wise to start with (i.e., buy now, or buy more of sooner) and which five you think I should wait to buy. Feel free to dock me for two questions! Thanks a ton, Chris

CSU, SHOP, LSPD, XBC, SYZ, BEP.UN, PHO, KXS, ENGH, WELL, GUD, EGT, SJ, BNS, WSP, STC, ATZ, LAC, BYD, REAL

Q: How does a Canadian investor become part of a new US issue. POSH IPO investors were able to garner over 100% return on the first day of trading but I'm not aware how to become part of a US IPO.

Thanks!
Adam

Q: I would like a definition of a few words that are in the Asset Allocation & Other Statistics section of your portfolios, namely:
Active, upside capture of 2.40 vs 1, Down Semi-Std Dev. of 1.14% vs .60%.
I read the basic definitions in Investopedia and would like to know the relation between the data.

Q: Markets are very high. Do you anticipate a crash like last year? And how should we position ourselves at this time? Thank You.

Q: Peter, I have finally got organized and opened us accounts for each family members' registered plans - rsp, tfsa, lira. With the current strength of CAD relative to USD, it seems like a good time to increase US equity exposure. I am using Norbert's gambit to transfer funds from CAD to USD accounts. I have a couple general questions:

- do you see this as a good time to increase us equity exposure both from a currency and market perspective?
- would it be best to concentrate us holdings in the rsp accounts to avoid/defer us withholding taxes (or does this matter)? I will be holding some equities (tech, biotech) and some index funds (e.g. ARK)
- on a related note, is there any disadvantage to holding ARK etfs over their Canadian counterparts offered by Emerge (apart from the latter's higher MERs)?

Thanks in advance and also thanks for your great service.

Best wishes,

David

Q: Re Nizar's question about using USD as a deposit for TFSA. I did this last year. NEVER again. I use TD WebBroker. I had called for help and told the cash would be converted to Money market funds and deposited in the TFSA. Problem was the conversion was miscalculated and too large for annual deposit. Covid was happening at the time, and TD reduced Help line hours. I had to scramble to send CRA an explanation for the overpayment. It took many weeks calling the Help line before the extra cash was withdrawn.

Q: In your experience, how do underwriters of new issues "support" the price of a stock once trading has commenced; and what kind of under-standings do parties agree to regarding the timing and other aspects
of this activity? Thank you.

Q: Hello Peter,
In general, what does one do if a stock that was doing very well all of a sudden goes in a downward spiral without any news? I am using Nuvei as an example, but the question applies to other stocks that may experience similar investor sentiment.. Also, what is the best site to get earnings release dates as wells as latest news releases? Thanks very much