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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 am retired and living on dividend income. 80% of my funds are in my income portfolio, which is focused on dividends and yield (approx. 20 stocks) and meet my income needs.
So I am considering investing the remaining 20% of my funds in your balanced portfolio for more capital appreciation. How would you recommend I go about this? If I also mirror your balanced portfolio, I would have 40+ stocks in my portfolio.
Would you therefore recommend 5 stocks that look most attractive at current valuations and invest equally in each?
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on July 20, 2017
Q: Hi all,

You recently had this Q and A reply:
Q: Could you please provide your opinion on your 2 best stock ideas for the near term {6-12 mths}. Thanks Valter

5i Research Answer:
Short terms are very hard to call.
We would suggest Methanex MX and Photon PHO.

My question is what catalyst you see for each stock that make them your favourite ideas for the next year?
Read Answer Asked by Tim on July 19, 2017
Q: Just a follow-up to the information I posted on Sunday: TDSI Action notes report yesterday, revised their target price from the $10 to $5.50 and calling the stock a HOLD. The analyst (only one) states that the 00740 and 00810 codes are being broken into 5 separate codes. "Although the changes include a mixture of rate cuts and increases, we believe the net effect could be an 8.5% reduction in CRH's realized rates."
"The underlying ASSUMPTION is that the proposed rules are implemented as is on January 1 2018".
He also believes the changes will hamper CRH's M&A activity.
Let's hope this analyst ( Lennox Gibbs) has decided to be ultra conservative after being comfortable on Friday.
Clarence
Read Answer Asked by Clarence on July 19, 2017
Q: Hi 5i,
Just a comment. For anyone looking at historical returns to evaluate the future prospects for a balanced (equity + fixed income) portfolio, it is extremely important to consider that the next 30 years of fixed income returns are virtually guaranteed to be significantly different than the past 30 to 40 years. Bond yields (interest returns) were in a generally declining trend, originally from nosebleed levels, for about 35 years from approximately 1980, during which even government bond yields dropped from double digit peaks to the negligible rates available over the past couple of years. The portfolios of investors who held bonds of significant duration early in that period reaped high interest rate bond returns while they watched the paper value of their bonds increase with each downward tick in interest rates. The fixed income component was potentially a tremendous contributor to very good portfolio returns over much of that extended period of declining interest rates.
Looking out over the next 30 years, the prospect is vastly different. Bonds don’t have anything remotely approaching the same kind of return potential. Current interest rate returns are still very low as rates are recently just beginning to move off what may later be viewed as ‘the bottom.’ The prospect for people who hold bonds of any significant duration while rates rise is that their holdings become less valuable. Low interest instruments may need to be held to maturity in order to avoid a loss of principal. In the meantime, those low interest bond returns will be a drag on any better portfolio returns that may be generated by equity holdings. If you have 50% of your portfolio in bonds that pay 2%, and you hope for an 8% overall portfolio return, you have to generate a return of 14% from your equities. Maybe bond yields will return to levels where they are not so detrimental to significant portfolio returns over the next 5 to 10 years but maybe they won’t. If they do, then holding bonds while the rates are rising can be painful. If they don’t, then they may go through an extended period where the chief value in bonds is the secure return of capital at maturity but the return prospects until maturity are relatively dismal.
The fact that someone buying a 10-year Canada Bond in 1982 got a 16% annual rate of return on it is not an indication of what anyone putting together a bond portfolio or balanced portfolio today can expect it to realize. It is completely irrelevant.
To assess the return prospects of a balanced portfolio today, you need to consider the relevant details and prospects for today's bonds, not the irrelevant details and portfolio contributions of bonds that have long since expired.

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Read Answer Asked by Lance on July 19, 2017
Q: Hi 5i Team:
What are 5 pure Canadian growth companies that you will recommend for TFSA. Risk is not a factor. No need for dividends. 3 to 5 year horizon. Plan to add future contributions to this list in the next few years. Of course I will be reading your reports to see if there are any sudden changes in these companies and adjust accordingly.
Read Answer Asked by Savalai on July 18, 2017