Investment Q&A

Q: I finally got around to using Portfolio Analytics on myself. Biggest perk was the totalling of my expected yearly dividends. Mystery solved!
Unsurprising was the overweight tech at 45%.
When one looks at the difference between REAL and SYZ (as examples of software tech) I have to wonder just how useful that advisement is as a total? It seems in software you could have proxies (almost) for the entire market!

Q: Good morning, Portfolio Analytics suggests we (as elderly seniors) lower our Utility holdings by 6.32%. Currently, we have:
AQN 3.9 %, BEPC 3.5%, BIP.UN 4.6%, H 2.2%, SPB 1.8%. Firstly is there a holding I could eliminate? If not should I just lower the larger percentages? All are in RRIFs.
Second suggestion from Analytics is to lower telecom by 3.54%. Currently have BCE 4.2%, T 3.5% and GOOG 4.2%. T and BCE are in RRIFs. GOOG is in an unregistered account. I have always looked at GOOG as technology sector. Any comments. Thanks for your expertise.
Ted

Q: Hello, in the company profile of PHY and CEF, it says that their Industry Classifications - Sector is Financial Services. I was a bit surprised to see that. Could you explain why these ETFs are classified under Financial Services rather than Basic Materials? Thanks, Gervais

Q: I’ve held this stock for a few years thanks to your recommendation! Just wondering if buying in right now would be a good idea seeing as the semiconductor space is on a roll. Thank you for your fantastic service.

Q: Dear 5i team:
Your software indicates our family’s investments are too Canadian-focused. However, I prefer our “home bias”, for three reasons:
(a) most of our assets are non-registered, and the dividend tax credit is especially favourable for Canadian source dividends in a province such as ours (Ontario);
(b) I like supporting the companies that I invest in (e.g., we buy Peller family wines, since we own their shares);
(c) but most important, many of the “Canadian” businesses we own are surprisingly international; among our top 20 equity holdings are:
Alimentation couche-tarde (Circle K is world-wide);
Brookfield Asset Management (globally focused company that invests wherever the opportunities are);
CGI Group (revenues are 84% outside Canada per 2019 annual report);
CP Rail (significant U.S. revenues);
Fortis (65% of earning are in U.S.);
Manulife (growing Asian revenues);
Restaurant Brands International (most of Burger King and Popeye’s restaurants are outside of Canada);
Shopify (not sure, but suspect international revenues are growing faster than Canadian revenues);
TC Energy (dropped “Canada” from its name to reflect its growing U.S. presence);
TD bank (substantial and growing U.S. presence);
Anyways, the above-listed 10 stocks represent about one-third of our overall equity holdings (in absolute $ terms), but I would not consider these companies as being “100% Canadian”. I wonder whether your software could be rejigged to reflect the relative percent earnings (or revenue) contributions, broken down per Canada, U.S., Europe, Asia, and so forth. I suspect our home “bias” is not nearly as substantial as it appears.
Ted

Q: More of a comment than a question. I so appreciate the changes to the Portfolio Tracking and Analysis. The summary at the bottom is terrific as is the up to date plus minus column. Also wondering if a column indicating the date of purchase would be another fine improvement. Is that a possibility?

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

Love the improvements to Portfolio Analytics! Wow, you folks have worked hard with these enhancements. Also, thanks very much for walking me through the troubleshooting procedure when my screen was initially blank. You correctly determined that AdBlock Plus app was the culprit, and when it was disabled for the 5i site, everything was perfect.

Q: I noticed a few people commenting on the vastly improved Portfolio Analytics segment of this website.

Where can I find the details of what has been changed?

TY

Sheldon

Q: In his email, Mike is referring to a portfolio detail review. Where can we find it? Is he referring to your monthly report?

Q: Love the update for the Portfolio Details.
Well done.
Sincerely
Mike

Q: Love the update for the Portfolio Analytics.
Well done.
Sincerely
Mike

Q: Does you portfolio allocation as referred to country investment recognize that some companies despite designated as domestic (Canadian) have and derive significant income from abroad ?
Therefore these are more diversified by the location as it appears in the Portfolio Analytics summaries.Basically the summary understates the total portfolio diversification by the country .I give the two above companies as an example but there are more companies to which this would apply.

Q: Good morning 5i
In your/my portfolio tracking which symbol should I use to track flutter shares?
Thanks
Jeremy

Q: In July you had a "Portfolio Analytics Walk through and Stock Market Update" video. Is it still accessible ? I would like to review the PA Walk through part as a tutorial for entering my portfolio. Thanks 5i

Q: I am very pleased with the Portfolio Analytics, and have found it to be a quite useful tool. Thank you for building this product.

Broadly, I would like to better understand how you developed your recommended sector/geographic allocations in the Asset Allocator. In particular, I would like to understand:

1) Certain assets (e.g. gold, REITs) are missing or very low percentages. What is the basis for this recommendation in the Portfolio Analytics?

2) Most if not all broadly based core index funds have a greater allocation to financials than the 15% recommended in the Portfolio Analyzer. Why are you recommending a 15% allocation?

3) Are your recommended asset allocation percentages static, or are you planning on adjusting these percentages over time as markets change?

4) Given that markets typically revert to the mean, how do your recommended allocations compare to the mean sector percentages of major indexes, for example EAFE or the S&P500?

Any insights you can offer to help me better understand the basis for how these asset allocations were developed would be most helpful. Thank you for this excellent service!

Q: I have a question about asset allocation. I'm 70 and don't need income from my portfolio. Currently I have 75% in equities fairly well diversified and 15% in fixed income, mostly bond ETFs (rest cash). You recommend having 25-33% in fixed income depending on how I answer your asset allocator questions. why do I need any fixed income at all if I do not need the income now or for the next few years. When I do need this income, could I not convert to bonds ? The bond funds that I have have been about neutral over the past couple of years; some have gained and some have lost value. they have paid out interest but then so have the equities to a considerable extent. thanks

Q: How is the 5i Portfolio Tracking and Analysis will adjust for the split 2 for 1? Will one have to correct the amount manually?

Q: Portfolio Analytics categorizes Sienna Senior Living as Health Care and Northwest Healthcare Properties as Real Estate (I get that it's because it's a REIT). A couple of questions:
1) Does it make sense to consider NWH.UN as being in the Health Care sector?
2) In general, does it make sense to override the sector a stock is allocated in cases like this?
3) Have you thought of adding a column to your database to allow users to do this? Using an extra column rather than overriding the Sector provided by Portfolio Analytics would give the user access to both values.
4) Same questions for Geography (see my previous question).

Thanks
Peter

Q: Hello 5i
It is great that these changes have been made to the Portfolio Analytics. The next important change would be to be able to download my portfolio with the combined positions instead of the separate ones. Adjusting the downloaded spreadsheet to having to add all the similar elements is a chore to get a hard copy of everything. Since I buy and sell with TD and monitor using Morningstar and Yahoo it makes things difficult. (I use Morningstar and Yahoo in addition to your great Portfolio Analytics as each offers a different perspective) and, yes, I do spend hours a day reviewing my portfolio but only taking action at your suggestion, when required but its is good to be hands on as nobody else would care as much as I do because its mine and not a generic assimilation from a broker!
Question: Is combining the positions available to the download in the works?
Thanx
Stanley

Q: I have been investing in ETFs for several years, using a simple 5 ETF portfolio which includes VCN (27%), XUU (27%), XEF (19%), XEC(7%), and ZAB (20%). When I use the portfolio analytics, the suggested ETF portfolio includes about 15 ETFs. Just wondering what if the added complication of the additional funds is worth the effort. I assume that yours has better downside protection as it reduces some of the concentrated sectors and perhaps has better returns? My portfolio has grown in size over the past years so I am ok with the additional work to manage the portfolio, just wanted to better understand why.

Thanks,