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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: There is a good article (approx. 8 pages long) in the recent National Post regarding the Cannabis Industry both in Canada and the U.S. which has a few states where it is legal for retail sale.

One grower in Denver, Colorado (where there is a lot of regulations which constantly change) has a legal grow facility and 14 stores. The facility spends $150,000 per month on electricity alone.

It is not as easy to grow and harvest to the specs required as many people may assume the article shows to some degree.

http://news.nationalpost.com/features/o-cannabis
Read Answer Asked by Stan (1) on October 19, 2016
Q: Reading this article, I can t help but wonder why is the growth rate still so low ? Am I correct to assume that bigger the central banks become, this shoud be a positive for the global growth ?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-16/big-central-bank-assets-jump-fastest-in-5-years-to-21-trillion

We often hear about the level of debt but rarely about the creditors of the global market. Who are the main creditors ? What is the global balance sheet looks like ? I know there is a lot to talk about here but your general comments would be appreciated and suggested reading material or books on the topic as well. Thank you.

Read Answer Asked by Pierre on October 17, 2016
Q: Just a comment on David's question about RRIF withdrawls. It was suggested on another board that if election for minimum Payment is set as one annual payment to be received in December, say December 15, it does not limit the flexibility to make RRIF withdrawls throughout the year, as and when needed.These are known as "unscheduled withdrawls". As long as total of these withdrawls does not exceed minimum amount for the year, the final December payment can be adjusted. David may want to confirm with TDW this as well as exemption from withholding tax for unscheduled withdrawls.
Read Answer Asked by rajeev on October 17, 2016
Q: Hi,Peter
I suggested sometimes ago to make response always available without having to open the link... I did get no reaction.
without loosing my commitment to your daily Q/A, I have another suggestion.
Context:I reopened a suscription to a London (UK) site which is very similar to yours in content and presentation, but geared more to the macro picture, balancing, I hope, your "permanent" positive views on the markets.
They also have 2 managers and I hold them in very high regards. They are allowing themselves to trade worldwide BUT they are reporting their trades on a regular basis wich force them to put their money where their mouth is.
I consider this arrangement in fine much better than prohibiting any trading, and give a lot of credibility to their comments, as well as a lot of weight to their judgement.

Another food for thought, and may solve your problem of hiring top notch analysts.
All the best,
Claude
Ps: publish at will
Read Answer Asked by claude on October 17, 2016
Q: I normally keep my new additions to my portfolio for two quarters and evaluation if they are keepers by the third quarterly results.

I now have five stocks in this category and they are all either slightly above or under water at this stage. If I am going to keep just three of these five stocks (and drop the other two), what would be your ranking? Certainly the decision, as always, has to be based on projected forward earnings, growth in future cash flow, and the prospect of dividend increases.

The five are: INE, FSZ, SOT.UN, TCN and BLX.

Thanks for your insight.
Read Answer Asked by Victor on October 17, 2016
Q: RRIF - I have to convert my RRSP to a RIF by the end of the year. My broker is TDW. TD Canada Trust, their agent, wants me to make the minimum withdrawal on a regular schedule ie monthly, quarterly etc.
I want to make the withdrawals on an as required basis, subject to the annual minimum, to help with my overall cash flow demands.
Is there a legal requirement to do it TD's way?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by David on October 17, 2016
Q: Hi 5i Research team , I have now limited capital to invest relative to the size of my overall portfolio. I am a long term investor with long horizon and I am relatively satisfied with the quality of the stocks in my portfolio. I have recently mainly used margin, cash from takeover, overweight reductions, dividends over margin's interest and small personal cash contribution to refund the margin used and to make new investments. I am currently fully invested and, I intend to mainly invest in a prepared in advance short list of companies when there is broad stock market corrections (10%ish) that I expected every sx to ten months. Could you comment on this strategy, its merits and weaknesses? Am I forgetting something? Thank you, Eric
Read Answer Asked by Eric on October 14, 2016
Q: Peter and Team,

My total portfolio is approximately 5% Gold Bullion, 9% Short term bonds (Brookfield Infrastructure 5 year and CBO), 86% Equity. The equity exposure is currently 7.5% in US Stocks (JNJ, SBUX, XYL, V) and 78.5% Balanced Equity Model Portfolio.

I was thinking that I am missing international exposure and am thinking that I should be adding some sort of ETF for this. I originally was thinking of building a portfolio including Nestle but I think that the weighting will be too small to build individual positions.

Can you please provide your ideas for ETFs that would provide international diversification given my current holdings and, if possible, any weighting I should be aiming for in terms of international position? I would describe myself as very much in line with the risk profile of the Balanced Equity portfolio.

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Marc on October 13, 2016