Investment Q&A

Q: What are your top 5 recommended stocks (in order of preference) that would do the survive the best through a recession?

Q: Preferred Shares: How to evaluate risk? How have blue chip preferred shares behaved during previous massive downturns such as 1987 and 2008? Have they gone down as much as regular shares? Thank you for your fine service.

Q: In the past, when asked what the optimal geographic allocation is for the 'typical' Canadian investor with a long time horizon, 5i has variably replied 50/30/20 Cdn/US/Intl and 50/40/10 Cdn/US/Intl. Does this answer change if one considers the Canadian 'dividend-focused' investor, where the dividend tax credit would be a significant consideration? For this type of investor, would a higher allocation to Canadian equities be acceptable/preferable? If so, what would you consider to be a prudent 'upper limit' (percentage-wise) for the Canadian portion of one's total equity exposure? How would you allocate the balance between US and Intl. equities? Thank you.

Q: It has been often suggested that an easy way to create a portfolio is to select the top 2 highest market cap stocks in each sector on the TSX and
hold them. What is your opinion of the performance of such a portfolio? Joe

Q: Russia has sold most of its US Treasuries and is buying gold hand over fist. Putin is not a nice guy, not stupid either.
Trump is making everything more expensive for people in America with his trade war, and other countries are retaliating, could this is help drive inflation?
The stagflation every one was on about did not materialize because our consumer oriented economies responded to the central banks band aid.
Inflation did not happen as it "should" have after the 2008 crash because interest rates are artificially held down and "money" was printed like it was going out of style.
I feel like the past ten years of bull market maybe be the mother of all "dead cat bounces" and the piper is yet to be paid.
I also wonder if the inflation numbers are artificially low/lagging?
Makes me think I should sell the investment properties and buy more gold or gold mining stocks that would normally be acceptable.
Opinion?
Please take as many questions as you see fit.

Q: Hi guys,
Given the strong suggestions Trump will carry through with his threat for a 25% tariff on Canadian autos next month, and the rock solid guarantee this would lead to a huge drop in the Canadian markets, would you delay new investments in Canadian companies for a bit?

Q: A lot of forecasters are saying that we in the later stages of the rally. Is the Materials index usually stronger in the latter part?

Q: Not all that long ago this stock was in the mid 60's and just falls everyday, sometimes as much as 5% in one day. Do you still like this stock? Have you any idea what the problem is with it? On the Canadian side, seems like pretty well all of the Canadian stocks are falling. BBD.B went from $550 to $450 then back up to $525 and then back down to $445. Is this going to do what it did in the past, causing people who got involved with it to lose a bundle? Thanks, Dennis

Q: I have listed a few comapnies that I believe are in the, let's call it "Tariff Penalty Box". My thinking is as follows:
1) They have already been hurt by the threat of tariffs.
2) If the tariffs do not come, they will 'pop'.
3) If the tariffs do come, they will also move up as the clarity of actual tariffs should ease concerns compared to the threat of nebullous, potential tariffs.

Does this seem reasonable to you? And do you agree that these four should all be on this list and are there others you would add to it?

Thank-you very much.

Q: Please comment on Turkey's financial crisis and how would it affect US ,Canada and China stocks price. How should we prepare for the impact. Thanks a lot

Q: Good morning 5i,

Can you please provide me with your top 10 Canadian growth companies regardless of sector or market cap?

Q: Hi,
Im young (33) with good income and savings for investment for the long term. Im thinking of putting my portfolio 50% into etfs for long growth and 50% into equities for faster growth. I like the etfs since it has been shown time and time again that it is rare to beat the market long term with just selecting individual companies. With the 50% in individual equities, I would rebalance probably once per year (unless large bumps in price happen) to take profits and move them to the etfs to maintain the 50% split for a while and protect against losses. Do you think this is good approach? What basket of etfs would you recommend for this approach? Or would you look at something all in one like VGRO? If a basket of etfs is recommended would you prefer hedged or unhedged? I have read/heard a lot about a coming recession and potential dive in the US dollar (from people like Peter Schiff), so Im not really sure how to protect against that (other than growing my cash reserves also to be ready to purchase on a large drop). Or would you use a combination of ETFS and gold somehow? Thanks for putting up with my rambling here, please deduct what you need to for credits.

Thanks

Q: Hi Peter and Team,

My question is about what is the best strategy and behavior during a downturn in the markets?

From my reading of previous answered questions and on other posts on the internet, the advice seems to be, do not sell while the market is dropping. How can one be disciplined enough not to do it? What if one stock in our portfolio is dropping more that the rest during a downturn in the markets? At what point while the market is dropping, should we consider buying more quality stocks?

Thanks again for your good work.

Marvin

Q: Hi,
Have inflationary pressures become real due to the tarrifs? Do you expect this to start having impact on prices and therefore on the stock market? I suspect Trump might back pedal once these tariffs start impacting markets. What are your thoughts? Thanks.

Shyam

Q: Hi group I am taking a bath on tech stock both in US and Canada . Looking like market is going to value on these stock as opposed to growth. I also am losing a lot on financials like Visa + PayPal. What strategy should I use going fwd . Preserve capitol or wait out what happening or? . I know that this info is scattered info but generally what is your thoughts going fwd Thanks for your guidance

Q: Hello 5i, This is about re balancing my non registered portfolio by region. I currently have a my portfolio at 20% fixed income and 10% balanced. Now for my growth portion, what mixture would you be balancing your portfolio. US, European, Emerging markets and Canadian. It seems that over the next couple years the growth will be from the US and Emerging markets but would like your assessment for the regions and then what sectors. Thanks

Q: Hello 5i I haven't seen a sector percentage recommendation since last Dec. Could you please provide some guidance based on our current political and economic situation.
Thanks T.

Q: I've been waiting for a significant market correction for awhile. I blew it with a 3x U.S. bear ETF at the beginning of 2017. I'm getting itchy again. What U.S. market strategy would you suggest if you felt that a downturn is overdue? I'm not as liquid with my Canadian holdings so I'm only focusing on the U.S. for the time being.

Q: Hello 5i: Is there and indicator (or set) to help identify an eminent bear
market, and if it happens what would be the best step to take to minimize
the downturn of a portfolio
thanks
F

Q: I recently saw Phil Davis suggest that the stock market reacted very negatively during Nixon's presidency when members of his inner circle were indited and that this was a good time to go to mostly cash. Can you please comment on whether you think this is good advice for investors and if it is historically accurate. Any other opinions you have with regard to Trump's presidency affecting the market would also be appreciated. Use as many credits as you think appropriate.