Investment Q&A

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

Q: Happy New Year Peter, Ryan and Team,

Thanks for all you do. Which stocks in the Model Balance Portfolio will you recommend adding the new 6k for TSFAs to?

I have them all with a few substitutions. Weighting and risk are not an issue.

Thank you,

Wes

Q: With the possibility of an impending recession, what would be 5I 's approach in managing the 3 Portfolios? Thanks, Bill

Q: Hi there, going into 2019 I'd like to re-balance my portfolio to start the new year. I'd like to use your BE Portfolio as the Canadian exposure of my portfolio and add ETFs to add diversity. I'm in my mid 30's and have a 15/20 year outlook with a private DB plan at work. In terms of risk and volatility tolerance, I am okay with the profile growthier names in the BE Port (ie: SIS, KXS, TOY, CSU, PBH etc) but usually stay away from the Growth Portfolio names, as the volatility is usually too much for me. At first glance I was thinking of the following but am not very experienced and am completely open to your advice and expertise:

50% BE Portfolio
40% HXS/VFV
10% HXQ

Could you suggest a 1) TSX ETF only listed portfolio make up and 2) TSX and/or US listed ETF make up? Please remove as many question credits as required.

Thanks for your advice and guidance!

Q: Your update sent to subscribers on Thursday: "Amid all the negativity, investors can find solace in remembering that volatility is a part of investing in the market and solid long-term returns are earned by accepting this risk in the markets."
Your article on the Post on Friday: "One of the most important things to watch for as an investor is when there is a market or economic ‘shift’... We may be entering a shift in the economy right now. Companies are guiding to lower growth. Stocks have been weak. The market is in a slow train-wreck crash. The Fed even has indicated the economic party may be winding down."
The 'tone' in your Q&A section and all your updates has been to stay the course, don't sell, and even to add to numerous names. This is a completely different 'tone' than your article on Friday. Please clarify.

Also, your Balanced Portfolio has a significant growth tilt that doesn't seem appropriate at all at this time. Over the last 3 months, it's down almost 16%, 7% more than the TSX. Are you planning to 'shift' the portfolio?

Q: I see dramatic price declines for most equities in this portfolio. I have never seen a report to sell them or reduce...just the fundamentals are OK ... don't worry. I find there is a repricing going on where PE's used to be 15-25 are now falling to 10-15.
A constant buy thesis based on Company earning fundamentals does not take the PE revaluation into account. Your thoughts?

Q: What would the beta be of the B.E. portfolio versus the TSX?

Q: From your answer on November 23rd:
No, an individual would still need to hold global exposure to the US, europe and emerging markets as well as fixed income. In terms of Canadian exposure, we would be pretty comfortable with the portfolio as a more growth-tilted proxy to Canada but an investor may want to overlay one Canadian broad ETF just to smooth out the volatility a little, depending on portfolio size. This, or adding a selection of larger company stocks, would help overall diversification.

Can you suggest % or guidelines on each type of exposure to have a well-diversified portfolio? (US, Europe, emerging markets, fixed income, Beport, one Canadian broad ETF or larger company stocks).
Thank you

Q: Hi 5i,
My current strategy is to have a hybrid approach so that I have some of the income portfolio holdings, some growth and some from balanced. In addition I have taken the same approach with US holdings and UK/Australian (to a lesser extent) so my version is diversified (both by sector and geographically, well hopefully) and I think of it like a balance equity portfolio.
Generally how does this (balanced) approach compare to the income or growth portfolio which seems more targeted in its purpose. Are there persuasive arguments to follow one style over another?
Thanks
Mike

Q: Hi there, in the past, I’ve taken your balanced equity portfolio and have tweaked and adjusted here and there. I suppose it may be human nature to try and personalize things but I’ve become tired of altering it here and there as it’s become time consuming. I am now thinking to simplify and just try and follow your portfolio as close to a T as possible. This way I can just follow your buy, sell and rebalancing as you make adjustments. If I take this route, will mimicking your balanced equity portfolio give me a fully diversified portfolio? Thanks!

Q: Allocations in my Balanced portfolio don’t match recommended % in the 5i model:

Above: TSGI by 3%, PKI by 8.1%, BNS by 4.4%, WSP by 1% , CCL.B by 1.7%

Below: TOY by 1.8%, ENB by 1.1%, AEM by 1.2

Don’t own GC, CLS, SLF but Telus with 1.6% allocation. SLF own in Income portfolio.

% for all other stocks in my Balanced portfolio do match 5i model. My Balanced portfolio is for 5 years or longer hold, currently at -17.6% loss.

Would you be recommending any changes to my allocations considering current prices / market conditions? Thanks in advance for your valuable opinion.

Q: Do you consider the stage of the economic cycle or general market conditions at all when you make your balanced portfolio recommendations? Your balanced portfolio is down over 12% since Sept 1 and the generally pretty lousy TSX is only down 6.5%???

Q: Hi Peter
I have some money to put to work and am building positions in the 5i portfolios over time. I currently have BNS, MG, TSGI,WCP, WSP, AW and EMB. I am building a blend of income and growth. My question is what in your opinion, of the stocks that 5i covers, are most undervalued and oversold? (I am trying to stay away from the oil and gas sector.)

I would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

Alex Ribedn

Q: What is the reason that there are no ratings for some of the companies in your portfolios? In this case, what make them the candidates to be in there?

Thanks in advance!
Jane

Q: As a follow up to a question on CLS, which stocks in the three portfolios are on your "intensive care list" for monitoring, or do you keep a close eye on all the holdings?

Q: For your model portfolio percentage returns, did you include the dividends as part of the returns?

Q: Peter and team:
Regardless of sector and weighting, what would be the top 5 companies from your balanced portfolio that you would add to with any spare cash available at this stage of the recent "pull back"?

Thanks

Phil