Investment Q&A

Q: Countering inflation, can you recommend your favourite 6 companies in Canada and the US with pricing power (dividend payers would be appreciated) Thanks!

Q: Hello Peter,
I think of your investment style as growth oriented long-term investor. But at the same time, you have been a portfolio manager and adjusted portfolios to manage yearly returns as well. You have experienced and managed similar downturns as they go through corrections in a rising rate environment. I would appreciate your opinion on how to adjust the portfolio in the current environment.
With the US (and Canada) central bank expected to raise rates about 4 times, the dollar index should be strong? That should not be good for commodities, particularly for gold and silver. But then inflation is going to be high too. What does it mean for gold/silver stocks and how would you adjust the portfolio weight as of now; and the bias between large (AEM, FNV,PAAS) and small caps such as KRR, MMX and WDO.
And the growth stocks, in particular technology stocks- FAANNGS (including NVDA) and other very high valued stocks such as AFRM,UPST,CRWD, DOCU,ROKU,TTD etc. I feel they will rebound but not much. Would you hold them through to the year end or rotate into traditional financials, commodities, and cyclicals in the near term. If rotating, would you do it immediately? Would be grateful if you could include your suggestion for the individual stocks too.
Finally, the persistent downward drift of ATVI – am I missing something? Did we learn anything from the microsoft call yesterday?
I know this has multiple questions and you deduct credits accordingly. I am very interested in learning from you - how you would go about portfolio adjustments and beat the market come December 2022.
Regards
Rajiv

Q: I never bought a REIT because I own another investment condo in Toronto. Would you factor that to your entire portfolio or add another REIT unrelated to residential like MPW, AMT or something industrial? If you would add regardless of having another income property, what would you add?
The condo rent has positive cash flow and the equity is about 3 percent of my overall portfolio. Analytics suggests a 4 percent REIT holding.

Q: What are you thoughts on the FED meeting today? It sounded like the Interest rate path has not been decided yet, and would be revisited at the next meeting.

Do you think they can continue to kick the can down the road, and what are the implication if they keep doing so?

Q: Hi Team,

On a scale of 1 (nothing alike) to 10 (identical) how do you rate the similarity to this tech meltdown with the late 2018 version?

Thanks

Q: when the stock market drops like it has during January 2022, I wonder who is selling???


is it dominated by traders, aka those jumping ship for future positions down the road, or retail folks bailing out of an ETFs in great numbers or institutional investors like pension plans which would surprise me?

what is your take?......I ask this as it is a head scratcher for me, especially as it isn't like other declining sessions in the 2000 era but rather about
expected rate increases and, to some extent, inflation in the short term

..........thanks for your insight.....Tom

Q: Hi there,

I am seeing an increasing number of questions from people looking to exit their technology holdings and wonder (as I read your banner at the top of the page about doing nothing) if now is perhaps too late to be exiting. I understand that people may look for safer havens but I would like your opinion on whether or not people with a 5-10 year horizon and an appetite for risk should be scaling into many of the higher quality names rather than selling at what appears to be nearing a bottom. I can't help but think of so many who bailed out of oil stocks when things appeared dire and then didn't get back in for the massive rise.

Q: What do you think will happen to the Canadian dollar vs the US dollar when the Bank of Canada eventually raises interest rates?

Do you think there are any other short-term factors that might significantly affect the Canadian dollar vs the US dollar?

Q: Hi there, your comment is very true regarding the following;

All views should be considered and taken into account but this group has been quite bearish for probably a decade now, so eventually they will be right. We have a hard time imagining a 50% market crash. For context, the S&P 500 trades at about 20 times forward earnings, so a 50% drop would lead to the S&P 500 trading at 10X. Of course, earnings could also drop but we are not sure we see a high probability scenario where across the broad spectrum earnings/profits get cut by such a large degree.

However, your last sentence is what intrigued me the most! And looking forward, as the markets always do, maybe the markets foresee three quarters ahead for this year, and revenues/earnings/profits won't be as robust as they were for growth companies now that covid is really in the rearview mirror, with vaccines establishing normalcy (the new normalcy that is) going forward once again!

Thoughts looking forward six to nine months ahead for growth companies?

PS: Growth Companies will no longer get an easy pass any longer (as they have during these crazy Covid times), they are going to have to truly prove themselves as being relevant going forward, earning a buck or two or three..., in a cut throat world competing against one another! Everyone is done with Covid... and its time to move on with normalcy once again, as best as we all can, including the markets! :))

Q: Gentlemen: With Gold, Bonds, Money market funds, CDs, Emerging markets and cash all paying less than inflation, diversifying a portfolio to say 50% non equity as advised with aging, is a joke…. Where do you recommend looking for 2022?

Q: Do you think we are near capitulation yet, today Monday? Markets are really down!

Q: How do you see these companies perform in a rising interest rate environment?

Q: Is there a reason for the selloff today.
PB

Q: When higher interest rates eventually actually happen in the US, what do you think the initial reaction will be for semiconductor stocks? Will the first reaction be a dip, or perhaps they might move higher?

Are there any other events, such as an invasion of Ukraine, that you think would significantly impact the semiconductor stocks in the short term?

Q: Hi guys: If stagnation did appear later this year, what would be your top 5 U.S. and Canadian stocks?

Q: Hi Everyone at 5i! Me again. With your crystal ball on the table , how do you anticipate our Canadian dollar doing over the next few years?
Cheers, Tamara

Q: Hi All at 5i! Was the market run up in 2021 in anticipation of the pandemic being over, now contracting because the recovery is dragging on? Cheers, Tamara

Q: Hi Peter/Ryan as an investor and not a gambler who's tried to make a buck over the years doing what's right, investing in good companies having a properly balanced portfolio to not risk loosing it all, what chance do we have when this Jeremy Grantham comes out and makes a statement about the stocks collapsing. That alone can cause people to panic and sell, no? Thanks, Nick

Q: Re your response to John, January 17th, you answered "it's hard to beat a single great company that compounds year after year".
Could you please recommend 5 Canadian and 5 US companies that fit into said catagory that have declined recently due to the tech sell off, and represent a good buy/nibble point,
Please include a mix of larger e.g CSU and Google, along with more recent up and comers e.g. Shop and Roku, which seem to be among your most obvious favourites.
Thanks Peter.

Q: I read a lot about the Market online and through the media and I am seeing numerous who have claimed to have predicted such downturns as the 2008 and 2020 and who are saying that this one will be 30% plus before the end.

There have been a lot of downgrades lately and most recently being AMD and XPI. What is your take on this?

Thanks so much and hoping to get some insight into what is going on now.