Investment Q&A

Q: Peter, your experience managing a fund is why I am seeking your comments. An account at TD Wealth management is 2/3 invested in the TD private funds and 1/3 in individual Canadian stocks. In 2020 turnover was 100% and I know I personally did a lot of trading last year. 3 days after oil went negative, the oil stocks were sold when I was buying (and made piles!!). I've also noticed that several TD funds were bought during the year and then sold in 1 or 2 months, or less. Sometimes Canadian shares were sold one day and bought back the next day at a higher price. I find it hard to believe that professional money managers would buy a fund (TD China, for example) and sell it one month later for a few cents profit. While the commission on common shares is only about 3 cents per share, my $10/trade works out less on larger orders. Is this normal to trade in funds like this? This happened other years too not just 2020 but trading was higher last year. Overall, performance over 5-6 years has been adequate but not exceptional, mid single digits. Deduct points as you see fit. Appreciate any insight.

Q: Hello 5i Team,
A good friend of mine has all his investments in 2 funds.  

RESP: CIBC Managed Aggressive Growth Portfolio

RRSP: BMO SelectTrust Equity Growth Portfolio - Series A

He has everything in those two funds. Are they worth holding? What do you suggest I advise him?  I've talked to him about ETF's and doing something different than mutual funds.
Thank you for helping out. Brent

Q: I still have $60,000 in a mutual fund with Canada Life with an MER of 3% ($1800) that i want to transfer out to my group pension that has much lower fees. The mutual fund still has a DSC of $1200 until the Maturity date of December 2021. How or when is the MER paid out? Is it more beneficial to me to transfer out now or to wait until the December date, (are there other factors to consider?)? thank you

Q: Is there any advantage to using ETFs rather than mutual funds in our fixed income portfolio? Presently, we have 35% in fixed income with DFA231, DFA 603, PM0 205 & LYS801F.

Q: Would appreciate recommendation on Canadian mutual fund(s) for international (ex NA) exposure, pay a DRIPable dividend and allow couple hundred dollars of monthly contribution without charge?

Please mention if there are ETF(s) which allow monthly contribution without fee,

Thanks

Q: Hi group, I would like to buy dyn3366. In usa$. How would you rate it? Is the div safe? Long term for rrsp . Thanks
Alnoor

Q: My largest bond fund is pmo205. As bond funds go, it is highly rated. The effective (avg?) duration is 3 yrs. In this interest rate environment, would you replace it with short-terms bond funds (hfr, csd)?

Q: Can you please recommend a couple of good Canadian equity mutual funds, like MAWER 106, with a proven track record ? Thank you.

Q: Info about and how do you rate cig50011.

thanks.

Q: Dear 5i team,
I've owned CHO100 since 2006 and I've had approximately a 75% ROI since this time which is in my opinion lackluster. I had high hopes for the is fund and its manager but things have not worked out as well as I would have hoped. That said, recently it has done well compared to pears but still. Do you think it's time to cut to the cord? Any opinions on its future prospects.

I've also owned MAW107 since 2004 and have had phenomenal results of over 500%. So much so that I am wondering if it would be a good time to cash in profits Again, any thoughts on the fund's future prospects? Both are in my RRSP and I have still at least 15 years before I will be needing to draw from it.
Many thanks in advance.

Q: I have been a long-time holder of the CHO100 fund since 2006. The fund has had ok returns but in the past few years has not kept up with the market. That said, recently it's done very well compared to industry peers. After 15 years, I've gained approximately 75% over my initial investment in both appreciation and distribution. I realize you can only comment in general terms but what do you think of its prospects moving forward? Thanks in advance.

Q: These 2 funds look quite attractive, comments, can you suggest anything else?

Q: Hello, In an effort to make my Portfolio Analytics as accurate as possible, can you provide a way to track mutual funds held through Sunlife group company rrsp?
I hold the following BLK Bond Index fund, BLK EAFE Equity Index
BLK Aggressive Balanced, BLK US Equity Index Reg. Thanks

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I have two legacy mutual funds...RBC Canadian Equity Income Fund...series D, with a MER of 1.04% and Sentry Canadian Income Fund with a MER of 2.35%. I have owed each for just over 9 years. My original thesis was to have some professional management look after some of my portfolio with the goal of consistent dividend income and some growth of capital. I have just over 5% of the equity portion of my portfolio in each of them.

Periodically I review their performance....the thinking being that as long as they are meeting my investment goals, then the higher MER may appear worthwhile. Here is my methodology, albeit very simplified...does it make sense to you?

I took my unrealized capital gains directly from RBC Direct Investing and divided it by the holding period to create the average annual return of the capital. Then I took the dividend yield and netted out the average ROC to create a "net dividend yield". Add the two together to create the Total Return.

Example: Sentry = 42.14% unrealized CG divided by 9.17 years = 4.6%/yr. Gross dividend of 5.1% netted down by 24% average ROC creates a net dividend of 3.9%. Total Return = 8.5%/year.

For RBC = 7.4%/year (3.6% + 3.8%).

When I look at the posted RBC-5 yr (8.3%) and 10 yr (7.9%) averages, my calculation looks low, but within reason. When I look at the Sentry-5 yr (5.6%) and 10 yr (7.2%) averages, my calculation looks high. Since the original purchases, there were no additional funds added. I have trimmed each position once.

Question #1 = I know you can shoot holes through this, but from a "very ballpark" laymen's point of view, does my methodology make sense? I understand I only used "simple" averages, not "time-weighted" averages.

Q#2 = I had to create my own average for ROC. I went back through my income tax receipts which showed how the distributions were broken down into CG, Dividend, Interest income, ROC. It was actually pretty easy to do. Then I simply averaged them. For the RBC fund, the simple average since 2013 = 6% ROC. For Sentry = 24% ROC. Does your data base show any better data on a longer term average ROC...long shot, but I thought I'd ask. My data only goes back to 2013.

Q#3 = should I have ignored the ROC issue? In real simple terms I wanted to compare the capital invested versus dividends received + capital received (if I was to sell out).

Thanks for your help...much appreciated...Steve

Q: What is your opinion of Invesco International Fund Series F or other Invesco International Fund Series?

Q: hi, What yours thoughts for those Fund for 2/3% portfolio?
is it to expensive?
thanks jean guy.

Q: Hi Guys
How do you think Mawer International fund will perform going out 5 or 10 years, or would you choose Emerging Markets instead, Would China be a risk ?
Geographic Allocation
45.9% Europe Ex. U.K.
20.0% United Kingdom
14.2% Asia Pacific Ex. Japan
10.7% Japan
5.3% United States
3.9% Cash & Cash Equivalents
0.0% Middle East/Africa
0.0% Latin America
0.0% Canada

Q: How safe is the etf
Is this a good way for short term savings
And how is the income taxed
Thanks
Sam

Q: Could I have your view on the following companies.

Q: Hello,

Can I get a couple of your recommendations for the best balanced growth ETF and/or mutual fund as well as a pure growth recommendation. Sector & Geographic allocation not a huge concern.

Thanks.