Investment Q&A

Q: Which category of stocks are these (financial, energy and etc )?
BRK.B(Berkshire )
CDZ
BAM.B(Brookfield )
Thank you

Q: I just read this from a respected member of an American investment service and would like to know your thoughts. Do you agree with his reason that the fund industry does their tax loss selling in September? If so, is this the case in Canada also?

"If anyone out there expects to do tax loss selling this year, I have a few words of wisdom for you.
September is the worst month of the year for the market historically. Look it up, you'll see. The reason September is such a poor performing month is that the fund industry does their tax loss selling in September because that's the end of their fiscal year. They don't operate on calendar year.
The reason we usually get a Santa Claus rally is because wash rules have been exhausted, cash has been raised, and cash goes back to work because fund charters stipulate they can't hold over a certain percentage of cash.
So, if you are going to sell something for tax losses, and want to buy the company back a little later and establish a lower cost basis, the time to do your selling is in August, prior to the funds doing their selling. You'll have time for the wash rules to play out so that you can reinvest in time for the Santa Claus rally."

Q: I am a new member and just came into an inheritance. I want to preserve the capital and am wary of a big market correction looming on the horizon - soonish. So, where can I park my money to preserve its value while waiting for the financial Armageddon?

Q: Which is the best way to calculate the annual EPS Growth Rate for a stock that has had a miss(s) over 5 years? I want to compare all stocks as per their annual EPS growth rates (actual and estimates) to find the great companies to invest in.

Here is an example of TCN's annual growth rate (no misses) over 5yrs from TD:

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 GR (%)
0.23 0.55 0.56 0.56 0.63 0.81 28.63

Here is an example of PKI's annual growth rate (with misses) over 5yrs from TD:

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 GR (%)
1.32 0.66 0.46 0.49 0.72 1.17 -2.38

Here again is PKI's annual growth rate over 3 yrs from TD, restarting the rising growth rate trend at 2015?

2015 2016 2017 2018 GR (%)
0.46 0.49 0.72 1.17 36.50

Obviously, if I use PKI's 5 yr EPS GR it would rank well down my list. However if I compare all stocks using the 5 yr EPS GR it won't penalize a company that has been intelligently growing earnings consistently? Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

Q: At one point you were considering starting one or more ETFs based on your portfolios. Anything happening with that? Thank you.

Q: Hi 5I,
General question on how successful short sellers operate. Do they short the stocks daily, weekly or how do they keep the price down? If they continually short the stock, do they not end up owning a considerable % of the companies stocks in order to keep the price down? Is there a website that gives the % of the stock that is shorted? It appears that you need to be careful in the Canadian market that you are not on the opposite end of the short attacks. Are there any other Canadian stocks that are heavily shorted?
Thanks Keep up the good work.
Bob

Q: My current holding in one RRSP consist of the following:ABT
CSW.A
FR
GUD
IPL
ITC
PKI
PLC
RIC
SIS
T
TLT.V
BEP.UN
BPY.UN
CSH.UN
TOY

What do you think of this setup? Is there any additions that you would suggest? My time horizon is 20 to 30 years. Cheers
seamus

Q: what would be your suggestion building a balanced portfolio using only us etf's portfolio size about a million, time horizon 10-20 years

Q: Re my previous question of Mawer funds in a TFSA, your answer seems at variance with the advice from Mawer.
Mawer advises that:" Mawer mutual funds are structured as a Canadian Mutual Fund Trust.Foreign holdings inside the fund are not classed as foreign holdings for withholding tax purposes"

Q: I would like to ask for your opinion and comment on my investment approach with reference to hedged to CAD or un-hedged versions of ETF's available from Canadian issuers. My approach has been the following:
- keep US equity ETF un-hedged;
- keep developed and emerging international equity ETF's hedged to CAD;
- keep US bond ETF's hedged to CAD.
I am aware that this approach was not too benefitial during the past month or two, and I am starting to have second thoughts, but I figure I better ask for a second opinion from a pro before I make any changes. This is where you guys step in...
Thank you.

Q: How much faith should one put into Recognia valuation charting? Is there any evidence that any of their predictions bear out?
Can you explain how they come up with their projections?
Guy R.

Q: Hi Team,
When selling to open a put option position that expires in Jan 2018, is the premium received to be reported in 2018 tax return assuming it expires worthless in 2018?
Thank you.

Q: If the ex dividend date is the 19th can i put my order to buy and buy that day the 19th or do i buy 3 days before to collect the dividend for that month?

Q: What do you think of the Phillips Hager & North High Yield Bond fund? I understand the lead manager is Hanif Mamdani. The fund seems to have half its assets in Canadian and half in American high-yield bonds. The MER is 0.87% which doesn't seem too bad for this kind of fund. The chart they post on the web looks outstanding (http://funds.rbcgam.com/pdf/fund-pages/monthly/rbf1280_e.pdf). How risky is this fund going forward?

Q: I would like to place some Mawer fund that is mostly in foreign stocks into my TFSA. Are there any withholding tax implications?
Thanks for your answer. HD

Q: I have multiple questions in this post, feel free to take as many credits it requires.

I am right now rethinking my portfolio and your advices-suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am investing for the long-term 10+ years

In the past 2 years, the size of my portfolio has tripled, mostly due to savings. Both my RRSP and TFSA are full, and I am now putting my new savings in an unregistered account. My full position (5%) size is currently between 8 to 9K$. When I began investing, in my TFSA my positions were more of 2-4K$. Here's a list of what stocks are in which account :

TFSA : ATD.B, GSY, MG, NA, OTEX, PHO, POT, SNC, T, and TD
RRSP : AQN, FTS, GUD, SIS, KXS, SLF
Un-registered : BAM, CCL.B +50K cash

I was thinking of selling SNC to buy back WSP in un-registered, and also moving TD to un-registered. So I could add to PHO, OTEX and GSY (my smallest positions). Is there other stocks in my TFSA that would better fit in another account? Do you have suggestions?

Also, I know I have some more growthy names in my RRSP that would might be better in a TFSA, but that's where I had room at the time of buying. Do you you think it's worth moving stocks from this account or it's OK leaving it as it is? I am at least 30 years away from retirement and don't plan to use money in my RRSP soon.

I would like to add gradually 4-5 positions to my un-registered account with my cash position. Do you have suggestions for quality long-term stocks (as I want to avoid as much as possible to sell in my un-registered) that could improve my portfolio?

Thank you!

Q: Given the recent questions concerning FIH my interest in India has been piqued.

My question might be outside your scope .... but I just received what appears to be an email promotion from Deutche Bank India. The offering is for a FD (fixed deposit) GIC for 5 years with a graduated interest rate starting at 6.9% for years 1 and 2 and moving up from there to 8%. Too good to be true? Obviously the interest rates are appealing.

I could try to copy and paste the ad if you are unable to find it.

Thanks for your help.

A dividend seeking senior!

Q: Hi 5i Team,

In the current environment, which sectors do you consider will be worth focussing on to add new positions - I am overweight financial, underweight most other sectors currently, attempting to resolve this.

Thanks

Q: Good morning Peter,

Thank you for your thoughtful-as-usual, prompt answer to my recent question.

You feel that over the long term, a 50/50 portfolio (50% US Market Index ETF/50% US Money Market Fund) would return about half or less than one that is fully invested in the US Market Index ETF.

Writing in San Francisco's MarketWatch on Sept. 2, 2010, Jonathan Burton showed that such a portfolio "...has made almost as much money as the more aggressive, stock-heavy strategy over the past 25 years and topped it over the past decade."

Why would investors not reasonably expect a similar future performances?

Thank you.

Milan

Q: good day...I am looking for a mutual fund that has no load and a small mer that my son and his wife can use in their rrsp for the next year or two ...I only want an mutual fund because of the trading costs incurred by buying individual stocks until they have a larger balance in this account...if you could recommend a good fund here I would greatly appreciate it...gene