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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: I've recently got a large bonus from work which will represent about 15% of my total portfolio. I am building up my U.S. exposure to get to my target level so all funds will be invested in a S&P 500 index fund. Since we are looking at all time highs how would you suggest to deploy the cash. Normally I would not try to time the market but with such a large part of my portfolio I'm wondering if I should hold off for a while or deploy it in three trades over the course of the next 6 months or so.
Read Answer Asked by justin on March 22, 2017
Q: I need some education please. I understand the stock markets opening and closing at set times each day. I believe that anybody can trade stocks during this time period. I do not know how " after hours " trading works. Please explain a few questions on this subject. Who can do this? Where do they do it? What exchanges are involved (simply to North America if it makes sense? How does thins work with IPO's?
Thank you,
Doug
Read Answer Asked by Douglas on March 21, 2017
Q: Hi,

I have four questions.

1) How do you decide on what is the optimal level of EV/EBITDA and debt to equity ratio for different industries (such as high tech, consumer discretionary, financial, industrial, small growth companies)?

2) Can you please recommend some reading material on analyzing company fundamentals?

3) What is your opinion on Adobe Systems (ADBE)?

4) What is your opinion on Amphenol Corp (APH)?

Thank you,
Lai
Read Answer Asked by Lai Kuen on March 21, 2017
Q: Could you please give me your take HWD's 4th quarter results and their outlook for 2017. they do talk about the possible ramifications of possible or probable Trump trade changes as a headwind but with most of their product and biz still in the USA the future still looks good to me here.I hold about a 2-3% position in my tfsa and rrsp (up about 15% on hwd). Do you consider this worth holding or maybe moving on.I have a well diversified portfolio holding many of 5i's recommendations. I'm not sure how the market will react to the results on Monday, if it dives I am considering adding a bit and if it spikes I may trim a bit. I do like the fact that it is not widely followed and very few shares out and I do plan on holding it for at least a couple of years. Looking forward to your take on it.

thanks Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on March 21, 2017
Q: Market timing is generally frowned upon by professionals including 5I.I find myself selling a number of my positions because of valuations and good profitable outcomes. I also find that I am not redeploying that cash because of valuations! I firmly believe in taking profit and some of the greatest mistakes I have made are in regards to holding positions to long. To many times in my early investment life (the round trip) occurred. After a number of years I relized that you are investing 2 commodities "dollars and time" and I could not continue to keep exposing my dollars and losing time. So if I sell my winners and do not redeploy my cash in a timely fashion then I would seem to be guilty of "market timing".

Why am I so wrong!

Randy
Read Answer Asked by Randy on March 21, 2017
Q: My question is about portfolio balance. Right now I am very overweight in technology (30%) But it isn't all the same kind of technology. For example , Facebook, Shopify and Google are not the same sort of business as Avago and Texas Instruments. And they, in turn, are different from Constellation Software and Kinaxis (also different countries). These are the companies I own. So would you recommend I reduce my tech weighting, and to how much?
Read Answer Asked by John on March 20, 2017
Q: I am relatively new to managing my own investments and understand the importance to position sizing etc. I am 62 with of course the need for solid income portfolio in a few years. However as I review my portfolio and determine forward tactics I wonder if I am getting to heavy in sector sizing. For instance when I look at income I have 27% in financials, 20% in utilities, 14% in real estate etc.. Or for growth 8% in hi tech.

What strategic advice can you offer on sector position sizing?

Thank you


Steve

Read Answer Asked by Stephen on March 20, 2017
Q: On Friday Helen suggested an innovative solution re avoiding potential duty but even if it was feasible the solution would not restrict supply which is the goal for the US players.

The softwood lumber trade dispute is not so much about finished lumber crossing the border as it is about land management. In recent years, the largest CDN domiciled companies have purchased 30-40 mills in the US because buying US mills is more profitable than investing in CDN mills. That is evidence against the US claim that gov't subsides make it cheaper to produce in Canada. Also, US owners have been bailing out of operating Canadian mills.

Large US companies want the value of their timber land to increase which is mainly why they attempt to restrict supply. For example, the largest US timber holder is WY, (NY). WY owns about 13,000,000 acres of timber currently valued about $1,000 acre. If they can restrict supply, the average value could appreciate to $2,000 - $2500 acre. The "trade" dispute is more about wanting to increase US based inventory values than unfair subsidies for CDN manufacturers.

Phil
Read Answer Asked by thomas philip on March 19, 2017