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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: What would you consider appropriate overall portfolio percentage holding ranges for stocks vs ETFs? From reading questions I get the impression that a minimum of 2% for individual stocks, 5% for individual ETFs. Maximum (although personal decision) might be 5% for stocks and 10% to 15% for ETFs. Would this be reasonable goal to provide diversification and potentially minimize large fluctuations in income?
Read Answer Asked by Betty on February 20, 2020
Q: I have a larger cash account with a 10+ year horizon and would like generate capital gains only and no significant dividends. I like the Horizon TRI funds but would also like to invest in some individual stocks. Could you recommend some good stock (or other ETFs) that pay out little or no dividends.
Thanks!
Grant
Read Answer Asked by Grant on February 19, 2020
Q: Here is a simple question for you. When determining an amount that a particular equity has for the percentage of my portfolio, do I use the total value of my portfolio including the fixed income part, or just the equity part? For example, if the total portfolio is $100,000 including fixed income and I have a 60/40 split of equity /fixed, is a 5% position $5,000 or $3,000?
Thank you for your excellent service.
Read Answer Asked by Leonard on February 14, 2020
Q: We own DSG in a non-registered account.
We own ENGH in an RRSP account.
(Both are relatively equally in weight.)
We'd like to sell one of these, and subsequently rebalance the overall portfolio by adding a Consumer Cyclical in the corresponding account. With a long term view in mind, risk is not a consideration.

Q1: Which of these would you currently recommend to sell?
Q2: What would you consider your top 3 Consumer Staples to purchase?

Thanks in advance.
Read Answer Asked by Stan on February 14, 2020
Q: I hold the above equities. I have additional funds to allocate. Your suggestions please. Take this opportunity to thank Peter for a great job, very reliable.
I would not want to add to my positions in ECN.PR.A , ENB, PNG ,& LSPD because of weighting’s and/or risk.
Read Answer Asked by Roy on February 12, 2020
Q: What would you include in a "hard asset" strategy to offset global currency devaluation? Obviously gold is a hedge, but what other sectors would you include - metals, materials (all commodities?), REITs, real estate, infrastructure holdings, maybe even utillities? Please include a few names to consider. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Benjamin on February 12, 2020
Q: In answer to Nick on Feb 7 about the topic of "company share splitting", I thought the practice in the past had to do with a lower share price making it easier for the small investor to buy 50 or 100 share "board lots". Now with the ease and ability of buying even 1 share, the board lot issue has all but disappeared. Not sure...just my recollection....Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on February 11, 2020
Q: What are a couple of your favorite Consumer Cyclical & Defensive stocks on the Canadian and US markets.
thanks
Joe
Read Answer Asked by joe on February 10, 2020
Q: Hi Peter / Ryan, do you know what reasons companies use to determine stock splits. I've heard the price of the share is to high so to allow more people access to it they split the shares. Now a lot of shares are over 500 dollars but they don't split, which shoots that reason out and some split more often than others, for example ATD.B gets to about 90 and they split, its happened twice since I've owned them. Banks used to split more often now they don't. Last time RY split it was around 90 now it's over 100 and still no split. Thanks, Nick
Read Answer Asked by Nick on February 07, 2020
Q: On Feb. 3, a member wrote on the question board that "TD Waterhouse stopped coverage on GSY only because their analyst quit." Would a brokerage as large as TD completely drop coverage of a company if an analyst left their organization, or would they simply transfer coverage of the company to another analyst which they employed (or perhaps hire another analyst if the company in question could not be evaluated by analysts within their employ)? I would figure that any brokerage which offers analysis of publicly traded companies would not drop evaluation of a given company altogether due to one of their own analysts seeking employment elsewhere. I am curious to know your thoughts on this question. Thanks so much!
Read Answer Asked by Domenic on February 04, 2020
Q: Hello all,
My portfolio is largely based on your balanced portfolio with some stocks from your growth portfolio. I'm reviewing asset allocation in my portfolio and recognize that some stocks represent too much of my portfolio e.g., GSY which is currently almost 22% and is now a 4 bagger for me. I've always let winners run, but I recognize that this increases my risk. I've seen, in the past, that you typically do sell stocks to reduce allocation to a certain level. Is this a strict rule you follow or do you ever let a stock go until there's a concrete reason to sell it? Thank you as always for your great service.
Read Answer Asked by jeff on February 03, 2020
Q: As concerns withholding tax on foreign-but-non-US dividends in registered accounts: the member's concerns are certainly valid, but it bears mention that a great number of ADRs also give holders the option of receiving dividends either as shares, or as shares converted immediately (by the issuer) to cash, neither of which option involves withholding taxes.

To be sure, this exposes you to risk as concerns the share price at the time shares are sold, but for corporations with liquid shares, this is unlikely to cause significant losses, and, certainly, should not cause losses anywhere near the tax hit.

The complication in this arrangement is that not all ADRs offer the most-tax-efficient option by default, i.e., for such ADRs you would need to give instructions to your broker prior to some cut-off date. This sort of information falls under the general heading of 'Corporate actions', i.e.: supposing you trade online, you would need to check your inbox for a corporate action notice re: the ADR in question.
Read Answer Asked by John on February 03, 2020
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