Investment Q&A

Q: Having 150K in cash that will want to investment.

1. how many stocks should be in the portfolio?
2. based on the number stocks, then that establishes what a full position or half ?
3. how many sector should be included?

any other items to consider?

Thank Ed

Q: Good morning,
I'm 70 years old and with yet a new year upon us and a review of the holdings in my non reg equity portfolio, I'm concerned that my $650K non reg equity portfolio has slowly grown into a "hodge podge" of miscellaneous holdings that need to be trimmed, better concentrated (minimum 5% per holding) along with the addition of a few additional names in sectors that are not currently represented. My current holdings are as follows:
AQN (3.3%),BCE (11.6%)BAM.A(3.8%),CU (4.5%),DIV(2.8%),EMA (2.4%),KEY(2.2%),XIU(5.2%),XIC (33.2%),XDV(18.4%),SLF(3.6%),T(2.9%),T(2.9%),MAW120(3.1%)MAW102(3%).
I would very much appreciate your suggestions on how to best to adjust my current non reg equity portfolio to make it easier to manage and follow. I'm open to adding an appropriate mix of ETFs or Mawer equity funds as need be. My RRSP and TFSA are pretty much all populated with a mix of relatively low MER Mawer equity funds which have performed well over the years. I thank you in advance and look forward to hearing your sage advice and recommendations.
Francesco

Q: Good morning and HNY
My wife and I have several investment accounts ( two individual, one joint, one RIF, one RRSP, one LIRA, two TFSA). We recently retired and transferred from an advisor to self managing. My first question is how to allocate both sector and type of investment ( equity, prefs, bonds etc) given the different types of accounts. Should we look at the aggregates or each account individually. Second question. We have roughly 20% of our total worth in GIC’s, largely held in our RRSP/RIF/LIRA. Safe, for sure, but it seems we are just parking our money which is galling in retrospect as our advisor charged his normal fee for said parking. Are we better off with pref shares versus GIC’s. Our prefs have suffered recently with the interest rate increases and they are more “risky” than GIC’s, but having so much money parked is concerning. I would appreciate your suggestions. BTW, we have followed your service for the past year to gain confidence as has our neighbour.Thanks for providing an integrous platform.

Q: Hi Group - assuming this market stays choppy and unpredictable it appears the the tech sector may be a good start to generating some cash (I have profits in CSU + DSG + a loss in FB - My question is do I sell now hoping to buy back later a lower price - presently I only have 5% cash in a portfolio worth $1.2 million and am feeling very vulnerable to losing more (presently I am down 18% overall. Is it too late to preserve cash or?

Q: Happy New Year!
Q: Please tell me what is the correct sector allocation for a Canadian Investor in 2019?
Thank you.

Q: Hello Team. It seems the level of negative sentiment in the sector has not diminished since Dec although it has only been two days. Every day there is some new big issue to fret about like Apple today and U.S. growth yesterday. Does the VIX adequately reflect this negative sentiment? Are we still waiting for the "spike"? Would your advice be that, rather than try to adjust equity holdings to conditions, just sit tight and wait it out ?
Clarence

Q: Realizing everyone's situation is different, generally what percentage do you think one should have in bonds? Thanks, Bill

Q: It feels like the end of 2018 was simply a perfect storm of conditions suited to create an impressive (and painful) but not overly unusual pull back on the TSX. Yet there is talk of recession and looming bear markets (I suppose there always is).

What's your take on this? Would you be buying the many apparent opportunities (like mx, cnr, ctc.a) or would you be cautious still?

Q: I believe the Canadian dollar is linked to the price of oil. Is that is true we’re do you see the Canadian dollar vs the US dollar this year. If the dollar is not linked to the price of oil were do you see the Canadian dollar this year.
Clayton

Q: Now that tax losses over would be wise to hold the stocks even though most of them are in loss
specially TSE stocks mentioned in our portfolios.
Some how it apears to me that TSE stocks are much lower comparatively to US stocks. possibly better return,your opinion?

Q: Hi 5i team,
With the maximum pessimism prevailing in the market, it is the ideal time to invest now at the beaten down price. My question is how an average Joe with limited resources can take advantage of this stock sale. Unless one had sold all holdings to raise cash prior to the big drop, now is too late to cash in and bet the stock market to drop further. So what will you do without going into debt to raise cash to buy? What steps would be advisable?
Let’s take the Growth and Balance portfolios, and let’s ignore the tax consequences and tax loss selling. If I hold most of these two portfolios, should I sell those names that drop the least and buy those that drop the most? Should I sell those that drop the most? Should I sell those that are unlikely to advance in the next half year, and buy the stocks that will most likely have a big rebound? Which are the candidates from the two portfolios that will fit the last approach for sell and for buy? Thanks and merry Xmas to your team.

Q: Thank you for the thousands of questions you've answered this past year on hundreds of different companies. You have been most helpful in providing sound advice and guidance.
My question is of a general nature and so feel free to deduct as many points as necessary.
In your recent 'Market Update Report' you make reference to the recent chatter about a pending bear market, which may or may not occur.
I'm rather confused. With the S&P down approx. 18%, the DOW down 17%, and the TSX down 15%, aren't we pretty much in a bear market right now? If we do go into a bear market/recession does that mean we can expect to go down another 15-20%? As is, I'm down an average of 22%. I don't want to bail at this point, but if going into a bear market means going down another 15+%, then I will be in a bad position. There are those who say, "It's too late to sell at this stage", but surely it's not if going into a bear market means going down another 15-20%.
Some guidance at this point would be appreciated. Thanks,
Jake

Q: Hi there, it seems like the VIX is creeping up over the last few weeks. At one point in the VIX do you think will signal a reversal? Thanks!

Q: On the losing end of these 3 - V down 12%, SQ down 35% and TEAM down 6% - thinking of selling before year end to capture the tax losses and then re-purchasing after the 30 days - question - is this a good idea ? OR should I just cut my losses on these 3 and look for something else that might be more in line with a possible "recession" on the horizon.
thanks

Q: As an experienced portfolio manager and you see :

1)The worst monthly performance on the markets since 1929 (December).
2)Brexit problems.
3)Fed perceived raising interest rate problems.
4)Escalating tensions in the Far East and the Middle East
5)Trade wars with a very uncertain but potentially lethal impact.
6)An economy which is projected to be slowing
7)Slowing corporate earnings with probably revised downward forward looking estimates
8)Very successful investors like Tepper and Cooperman saying cash will outperform over the next year or two.
9)Corporations are leveraged up to the hilt with debt and many are in danger of being downgraded or worse.

What would you do? To be transparent I am currently in 25% cash and fully hedged on the balance of my portfolio.

Please share your thoughts/strategies.

Sheldon

Q: there was an interesting fast money halftime on cnbc today which i watch daily, mike wilson chief equity strategist was on and he was the only analyst period of all of them out there he predicted this correction back in january and he said now is not the time to be selling, we are bottoming but this process could take 3-4 months not weeks because of the damage done,furthermore he likes energy and banks and then they had a segment with lee cooperman and a guy from the sec talking about quants algorithms and computors causing this extreme volatility, and some feel until the vix hits at least 30 maybe even 40 this is not over, and there is tons of value in the market now but you still have to pick your spots slowly.i think you agree with some of this, just wondering your opinion which i value because lets be honest we all missed the severity of this. i think this is as bad as 2008. and everyone was in complete agreement that jerome powell was and is an idiot who cannot communicate properly. and how much is etf selling which causes the underlying stocks to be sold sonething we never had to contend with in 2008 or not as much. dave

Q: Continuation of my previous question.

After reading your response my understanding is that 5i portfolios will not build the cash position higher for any major downside risks that the market may have in next few years. What about any new money available for investing Do we hold on to buying any stocks in this kind of unpredictable volatile markets until a clear bottom or direction is indicated by the markets ? MLP are not a good option for canadians because of tax implications. What is your opinion about US CEF (closed end funds) and do they have similar tax impact like MLPs ?

Thanks
Ninad

Q: Regarding your answer to Chris on Dec 19 re the market pessimism is not all that justified: I agree with your comments re all the current positives. However, what bugs me is Quantitative Easing with its subsequent Quantitative Tightening. This was and is huge. And unprecedented. I'll admit I don't understand all its in and outs. But the unwinding of QE 'spooks' me a bit. Could we get your thoughts on the consequences of QE and QT? Thanks.

Q: Could you please provide me with your opinion on the importance of global diversification within a portfolio. How comfortable are you with a heavy weighting in Canadian stocks for a couple in their mid 60's. The way I see it - we live in Canada, spend in Canada and am wondering if having exposure to US and/ or global equities exposes us to currency risk.

Q: Jeffery Gundlach ... in an interview Monday made a couple of key points: ( and might have been promoting his own business at the same time).
1. (In his opinion) A recession is coming and it will likely be "longer" ... did not say how long.

2. 2019 #1 priority should be capital preservation.

3. The key to capital preservation is to build a high quality bond portfolio.

I f one subscribes to his position/suggestion, what would the components of such a portfolio contain?

Thanks.