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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Hey folks
With it looking more possible that a Trump win is in the future, and the predictions of how the markets are going to fall ( which we may have seen the start of today), would it be prudent to take some gains off the table now and reinvest when/if the markets drop, knowing fully that they will recover in a short time, or should a person stand pat and ride it out? I am thinking there may be some gains to be realized by playing the over reaction that is sure to come if Mr. Trump wins.
Read Answer Asked by Michael on November 02, 2016
Q: I am looking to build a future income stream from a portfolio of 5-6 names that can be held for many years (decades) that will show sustainability and dividend growth. I am patient and would add to the names consistently for the next 20 years. If you had to pick 6 "forever" stocks that you could rely on, what would they be? (utilizing Buffett's theory of best time horizon for owning a stock is forever). I don't ever want to worry about a dividend cut and am comfortable holding through periods of extreme volatility as long as I know I am getting paid. Thanks in advance! (PS I am aware this could mean no exposure to commodity stocks)
Read Answer Asked by Kevin on November 01, 2016
Q: My portfolio is predominantly made up of 4 company's stocks. They are ATD.B, GIL, HCG and SJ. With the exception of SJ (bought it in 2006) I have owned them all since 2002. I have significant capital gains from them all and have been selling them off slowly over the past three years. In each of the past three years I paid significant taxes due to the sale of these shares. I have tried to offset some of the gains by selling some of my losers but the gains are much higher and selling my losers makes the imbalance in my portfolio greater. Do you have a suggestion on how I can help balance my portfolio and avoid paying significant capital gains taxes?
Read Answer Asked by Robert on October 28, 2016
Q: Hi Team,
Can you please provide an overview of Union Gas (UNG-C or UNG-P)? What is it's risk/reward profile? TD Waterhouse shows a tiny market cap of ~$7.5M with $1.8B revenue TTM. Is that correct? I don't understand the corporate structure (searches say it is a subsidiary of Spectra Energy with assets of more than $7B). Union Gas issues bonds in its own name though. Can you please shed some light on this?

Thank you, Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on October 28, 2016
Q: Hi,

I asked a question yesterday about fixed income investments. You recommended a couple of ETFs that I will look into.

My question is the merit of ETFs vs actual bonds. I understand that individual investors can't get the same diversification with bonds as with an ETFs, but ETFs never mature unlike actual bonds and you could end up with a loss. What are your thoughts?

Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on October 27, 2016
Q: Hi guys,

I recently read the intelligent investor and it gives several metrics by which Benjamin Graham would analyze stocks. Given that the book was written so long ago, are the metrics still relevant or have they evolved?

I'm specifically referring to a few, such as:

1- Current assets should be at 2 time Current liabilities

2 - Uninterrupted dividend payments for at least 20 years

3 - P/E Ratio of not more than 15 times when using last 3 year avg of earnings

4 - Long-term debt should not exceed working capital

While a lot of the information is helpful, it seems some of these criteria are nearly impossible to meet in the current low interest rate environment where companies are leveraging themselves to buy back shares or do other things. While we need to keep a close eye on long-term debt, net debt to EBITDA or net debt to total capitalization may be better tools to use?

Thanks,
Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on October 26, 2016