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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: Wanted to thank Peter and the 5i team for persistently reminding readers that the weed sector is high risk and should be avoided by investors. Looks like most of the suspects in the sector are now down 50% from their highs with no support in sight. Anyone subscribing 5i's service has paid for their subscription 100 times over by avoiding these devastating losses while existing weed shareholders are in panic mode. Well done, 5i, you are worth your weight in gold and platinum.
Read Answer Asked by malcolm on November 22, 2016
Q: Hi Ryan + Group Presently I am over invested in WFP @$2:10 the thought was that the softwood lumber agreement risk was built in. Clearly now @$1:80- $1:90 range I would say it was not. My question is when I sell it (not if but when) what sectors / specific stock would you recommend Presently the market value is approx $200,000 . Thanks for your valued service
Read Answer Asked by Terence on November 22, 2016
Q: Re: Bank exchange fees when investing in U.S. securities, funds, ETF’s.

It is good to see 5I is involved in Financial Literacy Month. I think a valid contribution to your Members could be as follows:

I believe there is a (hopefully small) percentage of Canadian investors of U.S. traded securities that are purchasing and selling within their Cdn. dollar investment account. (As you know, even at par, buying a US security in a Cdn account will cost approx. 2% in bank exchange fees, and selling that security will cost another 2%).
I also believe that these self-directed investors are unaware that most banks will set up a USD investment account, registered or unregistered, for them at no charge allowing any trading and dividends to transact within that account avoiding the bank exchange fee on each transaction. Of course there will be that fee on the initial transfer of funds into that account, (but not if U.S. securities are transferred from the Cdn to the U.S. account).

I recall that Questrade was once advertising on BNN that they had an account to avoid these fees, but it really wasn’t an effective message.

Are you aware of any good method to purchase U.S. dollars at better rates than banks will offer?

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Brian on November 22, 2016
Q: I have about 20% of my total portfolio in U.S. equities. Do you see that amount as reasonable or in lieu of stronger growth predicted in the US should I consider putting any new money into the US instead of Canada.
Would you have any favourite ways to play, for example much is being said about regional us banks, have things gone too far too fast to get in now. Your valuable opinion would be much appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Maureen on November 21, 2016
Q: are these stocks okay to hold as dividend income with possible capital appreciation or which ones would you recommend selling and what would you replace them with?
Read Answer Asked by Gary on November 21, 2016
Q: A member question regarding "Forever" stocks prompted me to backtest to 1999 a 30 stock portfolio (20 Canadian, 10 USA) that, even then, probably looked like "Forevers". I used the Globe Investor Gold service for this purpose.

This "Forever Portfolio" started at $1.3M and today is worth $10.2M - not a bad endorsement of buy and hold.

2 Questions:
1. I could not find stock symbols for a number of companies, such as Apple, Google, CP
or Constellation Software and Cineplex. Can you recommend a source that could help
in this regard?

2. A few companies seemed to have surprisingly low total returns over this 17 year period - namely BCE flat; FFH -10%; AT&T -2%; KO-N 22%; GE -8%, and VZ-N -8%.
Does this seem reasonable to you or might there be glitch in the system that produced inaccurate total results for these stocks.

Thank you for your help here.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on November 21, 2016
Q: This company currently has 14% subordinated notes (TBL.NT) issued that mature September 1, 2020. Last trade was at 114.5. I reviewed the annual report and noted that almost 53% of these notes are held by insiders. The balance sheet shows negative shareholders' equity but the company reported after tax profit of over 11 million in each of its last two fiscal years. I'm thinking of buying some of these notes in my RSP as fixed income exposure and would appreciate your comments.
Read Answer Asked by MATHEW on November 21, 2016
Q: FFH and ECI have set new lows. Their charts are ghastly and their RSI numbers are in the oversold category, especially FFH. I am now at the point where I am debating adding more funds to these stocks (buy low, right?) or selling them and moving on. Currently they are a small part of my portfolio: FFH 1.2% and ECI 1%. I can see that ECI has fallen with income stocks, but I would appreciate your views on the collapse of FFH stock.
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on November 21, 2016
Q: Between BCE and T, which would be your pick for growth and income, in that order? If I added CGX to the mix (recognizing it is in a different sector), where would it fit in with the other two? Please also include some rationale for your answer.
Thank-you
Read Answer Asked by grant on November 21, 2016