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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 something I'd like to share with your members. I've been tracking 3 portfolios in detail for the last 18 months. One of them is a "couch potato" self-directed account, one is a mutual fund account while the third is an RBC "wealth management" account. The top performer believe it or not is the self-directed account!
It would seem that the outrageously high portfolio management fees in Canada are indeed not justifiable (based on my limited findings at least).
I am writing this message to add my simple voice to the growing chorus of individuals managing their own financial affairs. It works! I hope this simple message will encourage your members to keep on the path that they're on.
Now for my question - in another response you mentioned that brokers add to their revenue stream by "lending clients equities held in brokerage accounts" to short sellers. What percentage of a typical brokerage firms's revenue would be derived this way?
Read Answer Asked by DAVE on October 06, 2016
Q: From Oct. 3 : Q: A headline article in Globe and mail " Why it feels like another financial crisis ----" gives a current p/e for the tsx of 23.6 Your macroeconomic report has it at 17. Is this a difference between trailing and forward earnings or am I missing something?/
5i Research Answer:
There is a difference between current and forward earnings multiples. For example, based on data from Thomson Reuters, the current P/E for the TSX is 17.2x and the forward P/E shows 16.7x. Some publishings do not distinguish between forward and current when reporting P/E so one may see differences from time to time. However, the P/E quoted by the Globe looks to be high regardless of the timing perspective. Different services also seem to use different sources of estimates; we do see 23X on some other services, but simply defaulted to Thomson here.

It seems to me that the difference between 17 and 23 is a significant distinction and would indicate the TSX is in overbought territory if the latter is true. A subsequent article in ROB on Oct 4 produced a chart (source Bloomberg) showing the PE ratio for the TSX "Composite" at 23.5 and the highest in 14 years with the widest gap with the US since 2009. Is it possible 5i Research data from Thomson Reuters is utilizing the smaller sample from the TSX "60" or another index to arrive at 17X?
How to know what the true number is for sure?
Read Answer Asked by Jeff on October 06, 2016
Q: I don't know if this question comes under your umbrella. It concerns money borrowed to invest, with the aim to claim the interest for tax back. I have done a Google check but i am not sure whether all loans can be used this way. currenly I use a small margin credit on my accounts, which comes to 3.75 per cent. I know that I can do much better than that, if i borrow on my house. But, would such a loan be seen as tax deductible for investing services.
thanks
Read Answer Asked by joseph on October 04, 2016
Q: I have found that my best returns are when I reduce my portfolio size to 8-10 stocks.I know that according to almost all experts that my portfolio would not be properly diversified.I find that a investor such as myself can not spend the amount of time needed to keep up to a 20 stock portfolio.
The easy answer of course is to hire someone for my investments,but I have unfortunately been burned twice by investment professionals,and unwilling to strike out the third time.
Is there anything wrong with keeping a 8-10 stock portfolio, where I can keep a close watch on the news and the financials.
I personally think that is why your site is so helpful because the average investor do not have the resources and staff of a professional money manager.
Read Answer Asked by Randy on October 04, 2016
Q: If you were asked to create a Canadian dividend Aristocrat ETF what holdings would you include? Would you equal weight the holdings? Would you diversify it across sectors? How would you base your selections against payout ratios or higher dividend payers? How often would you review the selections and how many names would you hold. Why might you want to do this type of ETF over another example such as growth, small cap index, value , GARP, etc.? Also please compare your Model portfolio to such an ETF. What makes the model portfolio different from this approach? Sorry for the longer question. To sum it up I am hoping to get a feeling of your strategies from the answer. Thank You Jeremy
Read Answer Asked by Jeremy on October 03, 2016