Investment Q&A

Q: Hello,

Not that any of the stocks in the portfolio will be bought out any time soon, could you still hazard a guess and list the top 3 in order and why?

Q: Hi there,

I recently sold my position in Shopify at a big gain (thanks to you!). The majority of my portfolio is made up of the top 20 growth names in your Balanced Equity Portfolio. What names currently look good to add to from my Shopify gains?

Also, as a young investor I try to not invest in slow growth names and would prefer a concentrated portfolio. What names from the Balanced Equity Portfolio would you remove to bring it down to 20 holding, for a growthier tilt?

Thank you!

Q: Hi there,

What are your thoughts regarding the recent yield curve inversion and this signalling an upcoming recession? Markets seem sensitive to headline news and I'm wondering if now would be a good time to devote a decent amount of my portfolio to a low volatility ETF until things subside. If so, which ones would you recommend at this time? I believe BMO has a pretty good product line. In addition to this ETF holding I will also hold the Canadian growth equities listed from your Balanced Equity Portfolio.

Thanks!

Q: Hi there,

I have mostly Canadian listed equities and am starting to dabble in US holdings. If you were going to start a Balanced Equity portfolio, with a higher tilt towards growth, what 5 names would you start with and in what order?

Thanks for the great service!

Q: Wondering if you can confirm what Benchmarks are used for the 5i Model Portfolios.
I may be wrong but from passed members questions I gather you may use XTR for Income, XCS for Growth. What about Balance Equity portfolio benchmark?
Many Thanks
Frank

Q: What would you buy today from the BE portfolio based on prospects and valuation (leaving aside portfolio weighting considerations)? Thanks!

Q: Hi there, I like the risk profile of the names that you tend to select in the Balanced Equity Portfolio, however I am looking to build a growthier version that is concentrated in fewer names. Which 7 names would you remove to produce a portfolio with more torque?

Also, I am looking to layer on some US exposure at about a 25% weighting of my portfolio. I was thinking either going all HXQ, 50/50 HXQ/CYBR or 50/50 HXQ/VFV. Which do you think would be the best mix?

Thanks!

Q: I follow your Balanced Equity portfolio, and have new money to add, probably enough to add to 6-10 positions, which ones should I add to today?

Please do not include the following companies, since I am fully weighted/overweight in them: BNS, CSU, MG, MX, PBH, PKI, SIS, SU, WSP

When do you think you will be making the next BE portfolio change? If you are planning on selling an existing BE position, please do not recommend that I add to it at this time. Thank you.

Q: Why is it that you have not filed portfolio updates as of the end of January?

Q: Is Peter Hodson still active in managing the 5i portfolios?
The 2018 research and the recommendations, leading to severely underperforming all the markets for 2018 leads me to believe the experience isn't managing 5i as before. Please clarify.

Q: Good morning crew.

A general observation that you can feeel free to correct. Having been a member for two plus years I notice that your patience with picks that do not have a dividend, or a small one, seem to have a shorter leash that say a stock that has a healthy dividend.

Would that be accurate or are the prospects for growth what really matters. Like GUD for example.

I know this is a simplistic observation, but my own patience is somewhat relaxed when in receipt of a dividend like an ENB or PBH.

Thanks. Appreciated.

KC

Q: I’m looking to add a 3 positions to this list. I was thinking about bns or slf. Can you give me some other suggestions from the balanced portfolio? This account is 20% of my total investments, and is for medium to long term savings. The rest is in well diversified funds. Thanks.

Q: I just noticed from reading the question of a subscriber that you have sold SPB in your portfolio. I have not received any notification with respect to this although in the past I was receiving regularly updates with respect to your portfolio adjustments.
Can you please add me to your list so that I can receive regular updates?
Can you also provide some rationale as to why you sold SPB?
Thanks

Q: Can you please identify if any 5i stocks in your 3 portfolios are "zombies" as defined by the following quote from Cresat:

" Crescat calculates that about 80 percent of Canadian non-financial stocks have been cash-flow negative in the past 12 months, which he measures as cash flow from operations minus capital expenditures.

That may be inflated by the the large numbers of “zombie” companies on Canadian stock exchanges, which the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development defines as those 10 years and older and whose earnings aren’t high enough to cover interest payments on their debts. In a September study, Deloitte found 16 percent of public companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange and its sister Venture Exchange are considered zombies, compared with 10 percent globally.
Costa said even if he excludes energy and materials stocks, 70 percent of Canadian stocks have still lost money on a free cash-flow basis. If you consider only non-financial stocks with a market value of more than $100 million, the share is still more than 50 percent, he said."

Q: Could you advise what the cash positions are in both Income and Balanced portfolios after the changes made in your January 16th notification.
Will you be making additional sales/purchases in the near future in either of these portfolios or in the Growth portfolio.
Thank you .

Q: Hello Peter, Ryan and Team.

Thank you for the update. Hope the new year is treating you well.

How much cash does these changes leave the balanced portfolio with?

Thanks,

Wes

Q: Good morning: If we follow your suggestions to buy and sell in your recent Balance and Income portfolio's, and a lot of members do, the cost of rebalancing is high. In this case nearly a $100 in commissions to sell and buy. Do you account for this when you make your suggestions??
I am also having trouble with your suggestion to buy 1% of this and 2% of that stock. If the goal is to get to 5% over time, that's also a lot of commission fees. There has to be a better way to diversify without paying so much fees.

Q: In the same vane as Vineet's recent question , I am interested in spreading the stocks of the balanced portfolio across two TFSA's and an unregistered account. To that end I am wondering which 12 of the balanced portfolio you would consider the best for growth and inclusion in the TFSA's.

Many thanks
Mike

Q: As of today, what are your top 2 picks from each of your 3 portfolios?

Thanks as always

Dave

Q: Hi,
Happy Holidays. Please deduct as many credits as needed. I mainly follow your balanced portfolio, some of your other two portfolios and some US stocks etc. I just transferred my pension to a LIRA and have 30% cash to invest. With this pull back the timing might work out well. Retirement is 12 years away and my husband has pension for the fixed income portion of retirement. I plan gradually start to deploy 20% of the cash (still hold 10% cash for now) and add to all my current half positions and increase my holdings back to full positions that been beaten down such as TCL.A, DOO, NFI etc. I am not sure about adding to the following and wonder if they are a show me story or a good opportunity. Their portfolio weights have dropped to roughly the 1% range all in registered accounts with no tax loss advantage. Would you add to the following or just wait:
FB
Photon
COV
DOL
ENB
BOX
Any other stocks in your Balanced portfolio that that you would not add to at this time? Does this plan sound ok? Any other suggestions/advice
Thanks,
Kerri