Investment Q&A

Q: Google has held up pretty well through the market turmoil. Would you ever sell it to buy something that has been hit hard? For example, would you sell GOOG and buy TTD?

Q: Hi 5i
Can you provide me with one or two Stocks or ETFs. for the following sectors: real estate, financials, materials, industrial
I'm retiring in a year. To be held in RRSP.
Thanks

Q: Hi group watching these high growth/high valuation stocks going down..down....down. Is it time to cash out and lock in what profits I have left usually do nothing is the best strategy but i am struggling to make any sense of that as the present environment feels different - your thought on sell or hold would be appreciated

Q: With lots of chatter in the business press about reflation, how likely are we to see a rise in interest rates? Governments worldwide are cranking up their spending and this is adding to their debt burdens. If the central banks are the ones who set interest rates, why would they willingly increase the interest rates since this would have a perhaps catastrophic effect on the ability of governments to repay their debt? Or can interest rates jump simply because lenders demand higher rates because of the risks of default. I can certainly see that in the municipal and provincial /state borrowing. I suppose the answer to my question may require an article rather than just a reply reply, (hint, hint).

Q: In this time of rising yield where is is safest place to find income in a RRIF. I assume corporate bonds better than government, short term better than long. What about preferred and senior loans. Equity sectors negatively affected would be real estate trusts, utilities, consumer discretionary and tech. Financial, industrials and energy are positively affected. What about telecoms? Thanks for your help. Stay safe.

Q: To me, inflation is a super irritating economic phase, it's the neighbours calling the police because everyone was having too much fun at your party. Trillions of (COVID) dollars have been injected into the global economy with more on it's way, rising interest rates are on the distant horizon, I don't want to be caught off guard. What's the best way to position my portfolio to reduce the negative effects of this trend?

Q: Hi Everyone at 5i!! Peter, I would like to thank you for your article in the National Post this weekend! It gave me quite a bit to think about. I am stepping into retirement next month with a very comfortable nest egg. 60/40 stocks and GICs. Stocks are diversified dividend players and growth. It seems though, that any direction you turn, if the stock market develops one kind of an issue or other, we are getting hit. If inflation goes up( which anyone who does the grocery shopping will tell you, it is happening at a goodly pace), and interest payments do not, there goes the purchasing power of your money. Gold could be a portfolio holding...but how much of the stuff is effective to protect the portfolio ? Dividend players may not offer much protection....well there goes that idea. GICs pay piddly amounts. Bitcoin? How could something that technically is based on nothing have so much value??? Real Estate? Stupidly expensive...So, I have a come to two conclusions: 1) start a small hobby farm in my backyard and grow my own vegetables, should things really go egg shaped. 2) Ask for a 5i article, which outlines specific portfolio protection advice considering the times we are living in. Right now, like you, I am trying to stay optimistic,, though sometimes it is hard, and I am staying the course. Thank you for all you do! Cheers, Tamara

Q: Starting last august I was convinced by my financial advisor to put 50% of my non registered portfolio into bonds so that I would have money available to invest into equities if there was a down turn. (the dry powder part) The funds used for this allocation were:
HAB 46% allocation of bonds at present time.
FID5732 Multi sector bond fund. 30%
HAF. 12%
XBB. 12%
Of these the XBB has fallen quite a bit
The FID5732 is falling now.
No income is needed from this portfolio for five years.

My question is this a good strategy for the dry powder of the portfolio?
Is there a better suggestion for the bond mix? or is cash better?

Your help is greatly appreciated.
By the way during this time period no mention of using any of these funds to reallocate to equities has been made.


Please note that this part of the portfolio has now fallen to be 30% of the portfolio total.
Victoria

Q: Hello

Our US holdings are up 36.25%, where as our Canadian holdings are only up 17.22%.
The five mentioned above are our only real shining stars at this point.
Is one better to have all US holdings and forget Canada?
Thank you
Mike

Q: Hi Peter,
from your article in the Financial Post, could you elaborate on the effects of inflation or deflation on a portfolio?
Thank you.

Q: Hi,
This is more a big picture question.
For several decades the concept of "Inter-market Analysis" had high "currency" value. Simplistically summarized thus: Stocks go up and bonds go down. Inflation goes up so does Gold. US goes down and Emerging markets go up etc.,
That idea seems to be dead now. It appears that having a long and short position even within sectors seems to be popular. Or the correlation exists still but with different asset classes. For eg., inflation and Bitcoin are now linearly correlated!
Or Bitcoin and Gold are negatively correlated! (Bitcoin hit another record today>50 k and Gold went down below 1800$!!)
Should one really forget about fundamentals and enroll in classes for Options trading strategy?

Q: The CEO of Brookfield made the following comments in recent Letter to Shareholders: "With no meaningful inflation on the horizon and high unemployment numbers, there is an expectation that interest rates will stay low and that stocks that were not bolstered by the pandemic trade will recover....Low interest rates will continue to drive demand for alternative investments. Interest rates appear to be set to stay in a lowish band for several years".

Any thoughts on the low inflation comments? Thanks
Robert

Q: I need some help determining if/when I should sell some of my winners. I've more than doubled the money I invested in the above names and so I feel inclined to sell enough shares to recoup all/some of my initial investment. I'm worried that may be overly cautious though and I should hang onto the winners to see larger gains.

Can you outline some of the things I should be considering to help me make this call?
Is the better option to stay 'dispassionate' and just sell if any of these holdings rise well above a full position?
Given the price increases, I currently have a half-position in each of LSPD, WELL, PBX and a full position in each in SKYY and IGV.
Thanks for all the help, you have been really great guidance
Michael

Q: Hi Guys
How do you think Mawer International fund will perform going out 5 or 10 years, or would you choose Emerging Markets instead, Would China be a risk ?
Geographic Allocation
45.9% Europe Ex. U.K.
20.0% United Kingdom
14.2% Asia Pacific Ex. Japan
10.7% Japan
5.3% United States
3.9% Cash & Cash Equivalents
0.0% Middle East/Africa
0.0% Latin America
0.0% Canada

Q: I keep hearing the equity market will move down when the Fed begins to indicate rate increases are on the way, when that occurs where would one go as Bonds will also fall when rates rise? I'm just looking for safety with a modest yield, say 4%.

Q: I bought ZEC, ZEM & XSU Dec. 24 . They have all done very well & amount to about 7.5% of my portfolio. I wanted to add XAW &/or XMC. Should I replace XSU with XMC or keep both? Will there be too much duplication with these ETF funds? I'd appreciate your comments on these changes.Thanks ,as always. Really enjoyed your "battle of the ETF funds".
Dave

Q: I am looking for suggested sector weighting’s for a senior (75 plus), mostly conservative, investor.
Much appreciated as usual - ram

Q: Hello 5i Team,
Recently my sister and brother-in-law sold their restaurant business. They are both in their early 50's. They've been working hard for 30 years and don't have many investments other than a few mutual funds. They would be conservative investors, so, mostly dividend growers. If you were recommending someone starting a portfolio of 15-20 names to build a foundation on; which companies would they be?

Thank you very much,
Brent

Q: Good afternoon, I am starting to get nervous.... hearing lots of predictions on BNN from different sources of market being in dangerous territory and tech bubble about to burst. What is your advice?

Q: Hello -
I have a concern about the grossing up of Canadian dividends (non registered account) affecting my OAS when I reach 71. By that time I will be forced to RRIF, I'll have my CPP, and I also have a company pension that I will be drawing from prior to that.

I know you are not tax experts, but wondered if you see anything wrong with my thinking here. I am leaning more towards lower paying dividend paying blue chips in that non-registered account. I already have ATD.B and CNR. Are there any other quality Canadian companies that you are comfortable with in this "lower dividend" category?

Alternatively I was thinking I could "swap" some investments. i.e. have more Canadian dividend payers in my RRSP and have my emerging market ETF's - ZID and VEE - in my non-registered account. Do you think this is worth considering?
At least those dividends would not be grossed up. Although the trade-off is that you lose the dividend credit.......sigh.