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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: Hi there, I saw a long term chart the other day of the S&P500 and how the market typically bottoms, relative to the spike in the VIX. In past recessions/corrections, it appeared that the market tended to bottom out about 2 to 3 months after the VIX has spiked. Based on your experience, do you see this happening again this time around? If so, that would approximately give a mid May to mid June bottom. Do you see this pattern to likely repeat or is it this different this time in your opinion and what would the reasoning be?

Thanks for your input and guidance!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 23, 2020
Q: Negativity re Covid 19 seems to be decreasing and attention may be switching to the economy, beginning with this weeks reports. Everything I'm reading suggests that the massive testing required to safely open the economy just isn't there, and a vaccine is far away. Meaning a later rather than sooner scenario for business as usual. Today's retail numbers and bank earnings have moved the market lower and only reflect March's partial shutdown.Do you see the markets recent Covid 19 optimism, being replaced by economic negativity, with markets deteriorating further towards Q2 numbers. I have a large cash position and cognizant of your buy slowly strategy, but can't help thinking the worse is yet to come.
Thanks Peter.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on April 16, 2020
Q: Hi there,

There are some high quality names that have not been beat down in the downturn (ie: KXS, DSG, CSU etc) which have not participated as much in the rebound, which makes sense - but if someone was looking for high quality names that have been beat down that would present a good entry point and a great opportunity at recovering and outperforming in a rebound, what would you recommend looking at?

Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 15, 2020
Q: Hi there, this 2 week rally is starting to look look and feel a V while many market commentators on BNN/Bloomberg/CNBC seem to say we will retest the lows and possibly even go lower - more of like a U or W or L. Obviously the situation we are in as a society and economy is out of the ordinary, but as professional investors, what is your opinion on where we go from here? Is this rally the real deal, or is it a prolonged dead cat bounce? How do we interpret these moves and what are some general signals to watch out for?

Thanks for your guidance!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on April 13, 2020
Q: Peter
I know you have said that the stock market may start going up before this crisis is over and confuse and confound investors. Well I am one of those investors. If as the Royal Bank said this morning millions of dollars have been pulled out of mutual funds in the last several weeks, I can’t imagine that it is those people getting back in the market or is it? Where is all the money coming from to buy stocks? What is the stock market anyway? Institutions and individuals buying and selling to each other to try and make a buck? I read once that the world could do without oil before they could do without the stock market. Do you believe that?
Post if you want. I am sure I am not the only investor out there who can’t make sense of the stock market.
Read Answer Asked by Helen on April 08, 2020
Q: You have recommended buying into the market slowly over several months, perhaps small cumulative positions in individual favorites, or a diversified etf. I'm wondering how many earnings shocks we will see that may offer an opportunity to 'jump in' to an individual position. Are you expecting such opportunities to arise or do you think recent lows have already baked in those expectations. An example might be Goose, which has been hammered and looks attractive, but could it get worse when it reports.
Thank you for guiding us through the storm and helping quell the emotional turbulence of an individual investor.
Peter.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on April 07, 2020
Q: Dear 5i
A couple weeks ago i sold an ETF for a loss . A few days ago i inadvertently bought the same ETF back though not the same dollar value . In this situation have i lost the tax loss claim for accounting purposes and if so is there any way of getting it back ie re selling again the same ETF i just purchased a few days ago ?
Also i`ve opened up 3 RIF accounts ( mine, my wifes and her spousal ) .
I plan on transferring our RRSP monies from each of our RRSP accounts into the corresponding RIF accounts but only for what we need to live on for that year (for tax reasons ). This amounts to about $16k per account .
My question is how should the $16k per RIF account be invested considering that about $4k will come out from each account every 3 months (staggered withdrawals ) ? The bulk of the investments will still be in RRSP`s and it is these accounts that can be fully invested ( when the time comes re the virus ) .
Thanks
Bill C.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on April 06, 2020
Q: With the slow down of the economy during this pandemic investors who depend on dividends to supplement their income are worried about dividends cuts and/or suspensions.
In an article in this morning's Globe the writer said: "For dividend investors looking for bargains, there is a lot to choose from".
Could you perhaps list (10) dividend stocks where you think the dividend will be safe.
What sector(s) would you advise investors to focus on at this time? The stocks need not be paying a dividend.
Looks like I have 2 questions.......
Read Answer Asked by shirley on April 01, 2020