Investment Q&A

Q: portfolio strategy
the Buffet quote / instruction to his heirs, is to put 90 % of the portfolio in a S&P 500 etf and the remaining 10 % in a fixed income ETF.
I believe his arguments are
1. simplicity for the non professional heir (and not likely to be too interested in managing a portfolio)
2. the S&P 500 is adequately diversified in sector and global diversification is accounted for by virtue of the majority of companies having a global presence, example apple products sell everywhere.

Assuming same parameters, heirs who receive a sizeable portfolio who are too busy with no interest in managing it and don't want to hire "professional" help.

Please provide your opinion on this "Buffet" approach Pros - Cons and how would you perhaps editorialize or tweak this approach to optimize it,

Q: Hi - have some dry powder available to be able to invest. We're close enough to the orange-man implementing tariffs that I'm going to wait and see what happens next week before deploying. I'm guessing any decline in stocks will be felt more in Canada than the US, but I"m wondering what you think might take a hit and what Cdn & US companies you might look at buying should the market have a healthy pullback. Probably better to ask if/when things sell off, but I'm just trying to prep my shopping list. Thx.

Q: hi,
do you know how the US indices have performed if the "magnificent seven" and excluded? ie how is the rest of American business doing? further do you think we are in "bubble" territory currently?
cheers, chris

Q: Hi there,

I am sitting on about 35% cash currently that I accumulated in mid August before the indexes rolled over (SPX ~4200). Obviously no one knows where the bottom is, but if you had to make an educated guess, where do you think the SPX will bottom out and when? What strategic would you use to deploy cash? Would you DCA over a couple tranches?

Thanks!

Q: Hi, Thanks for today's Market/Portfolio Update, specially the explanation of inverse relationship between value of USD (DXY) and risk assets ( S&P 500, TSX and Stocks in general). Do you think, the market bounce on Wednesday, was for no fundamental/technical reasons, but was a reaction to news from UK of BOE market intervention through Bond buying to support the fledgling economy and a one day breather to unstoppable US Dollar ascent ? Based on this thesis, besides other technicals, would it be prudent to keep an eye on USD uptrend breaking down, before entering into new long positions. Mr David Burrows of Barometer Capital was on BNN recommended to stay on the sidelines, until the market downtrend breaks and at least 2 days of Buying with High Volume is confirmed with follow through for 5 days. Their firm has 30% cash ( due to Stop Loss liquidations in Tech/Financial and others sectors). They own only defensives like Energy, Utilities and Telcos with 0% Tech. Does this strategy make sense, in your view, as most of us are almost fully invested presently as well as in past ? That seems to be the case for past several weeks and months - we buy/add to positions and stocks only get cheaper over following days. BTW, stocks with higher yields in sectors like Utilities/Telcos/Pipelines continue to get decimated - even though, bond yields declined over past 2 days - Any comments , please ? Thank You

Q: Hi , which index fund do you recommend that follows the S&P 500
Thanks

Q: Can you please post the total return for the S&P 500 and TSX for both 2020 and 2021. Thx

Q: I am looking for low to medium risk USD investments like RBC's US monthly Income Fund other than straight bonds and GICs. Any suggestions?

Q: Hi 5i team.

I'm going to try to re-phrase my question asked earlier re: levels in the S+P.

What is the S+P currently trading at and forward PE?
Since this is on the high side historically, what would be the reversion to the mean number? (I believe it's currently trading at 25xs and the mean would be 15?)
If at some point the market heads back there (as is typical in theory) what would the S+P be trading at vs where it is today?

Many thanks.

Q: My brother did a Ph.D in the area of virus research, at M.I.T. He has zero interest in stocks. He was able to tell us 1 thing regarding this event, it's that Europe, Canada and the U.S.A are currently in what he calls Phase I of the virus breakout (out of 3 phases) and that statistically, the death cases should be much higher in about 2 weeks. This of course might not translate to the equity market, but probably means that worst looking headlines are coming. My plan is to wait 2 weeks and then, start buying on margin *IF* the market is lower than today. Here's my question. Considering that the cost of the loan is 4.95% (all-in-one mortgage from NBC), how much of a drop from today (SP500 is at 2950) would you recommend buying the U.S index? Thank you.

Q: Hi 5I team, can you explain in what ways the coronovirus affect stock market. Flu virus in the states are infecting over millions of people every years and killing over 100,000 this year .Thanks.

Q: Notwithstanding the Coronavirus (which I understand is a wildcard at present), what sectors and regions would you be inclined to over/underweight in 2020? Thank you.

Q: Hey Guys,

What exactly causes a Bubble? I have read and heard so many different things, so I was wondering what your thoughts were.

I know things get over valued, but how do they get over valued and why?

Thanks

Q: Hi,
How concerned should we be over the increase in US corporate debt? There seems to be an increase in ratings downgrades and I am wondering about the overall effect of this in time should it continue.
As always, I appreciate your input and enjoy the Q&A regularly.
Dawn

Q: The P/E on the S&P of 20 seems irrationally high. Any justification for this?
Also private companies typically sell in a P/E range of 3-5. Why do public companies trade so much higher?

Q: Hi Peter and Ryan,
The US market has not done well in May and may get worse due to the trade war with China. The volatility of the market increased significantly. People also talk about a possible recession. I am a long term investor. I have some cash available now. I am a bit hesitant to invest in either US or Canadian market, as the two stock markets are somehow connected. Do you think I should wait a bit or invest in some attractive stocks after the recent market drop? What are they if you recommend the latter?
Thank you,
Yiwen

Q: Lots more discussion this weekend over an inverted yield curve. I have two questions:
1) Is this something to be worried of, and do you think investors should be more conservative in the next 12 months?
2) Didn't the 3 and 5 year yield curve invert in December 2018? If so, I'm assuming the 10 and the 2 inverting isn't a huge surprise, although markets have done really well in the past 3 months.

Q: Good afternoon
I seem to recall that one of your answers to portfolio balancing for ones entire portfolio outside of Canada could be up to 40% US and 10% or so Emerging and ? Europe. I'm approximately 30% US and thinking of going to 35 or 40% due to the strength of the US. May I have your comments on this strategy at this time for a 3 to 5 year time horizon.
much thanks

Q: Can you please give me the total return for the calendar year 2018 for the following:
TSX, Dow, S&P500, Nasdaq, and Nikkei. Thank you.

Q: Do you have a resource for accurate tabulated annual returns of the TSX and S&P500?