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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: I seem to have a ...bad... habit of selling my winners and keeping my losers, especially Cdn resource co's, waiting for them to turn around.

Forest Co's under perform, constantly under U.S tariff threat.
Gold Co's and base metals ...who knows where commodity prices will go ?
Oil and gas ...Regulatory and fed govt is a disaster compared to U.S investment climate.

Are Cdn resource Co's only for stock pickers and short term traders in todays economic climate ?
Read Answer Asked by Bernie on October 25, 2017
Q: I am approaching my TFSA contribution limit and have opened a cash account. I'd appreciate your advice on how I should allocate stocks between the two accounts.

Currently my account consists primarily of micro/small/mid cap growth stocks and high dividend stocks. I am planning on adding some high dividend etfs.
I'd like to separate high growth stocks from dividend stocks/etfs.

My initial thought is to use my TFSA as a tax free income generator with the dividend stocks/etfs. As these stocks produce somewhat guaranteed gains I will definitely be utilizing the tax free incentive of the account.

While having my riskier growth stocks in a cash account where I am more likely to incur loses and can take advantage of tax loss rules. Also, if Im lucky enough to have a multi bagged I hope I wouldn't be too upset paying a bit of tax on the gain.

Does that make sense? Would you suggest otherwise and if so why?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by EVAN on October 25, 2017
Q: Hello,
I recall recently reading a reply you had given to someone who asked about a list of "forever" stocks that you had recommended in 2016. The stocks were: BNS, BCE, ENB, T, CSU, FTS, BEP, AQN, OPTEX, PBH. They asked if you would still recommend these and you said "yes" and that there were some additional names you would add.
Could you pls advise what these additional names would be.
Thank you
Margaret
Read Answer Asked by Margaret on October 24, 2017
Q: I use Adjusted Cost Base.ca to track my ACB. I have been with TD Direct Investing since 2012. They do an ok job of tracking ACB of stocks (including DRIP's and commissions) for stocks bought and held on one side or the other (CDN or US) of the account. This tends to go off the rails if I buy CDN stocks that pay USD dividends I journal them on the US side to get dividend/drip. If I move any portion of a given stock back to the CDN side of the account to sell or donate, I find the ACB is not accurate. It's easier to keep track and more accurate with Adjusted Cost Base.ca and it's free. Also, at tax time, TD only records the market value of sell transactions. You're on your own to calculate the book value.
Richard
Read Answer Asked by Richard on October 24, 2017
Q: Thanks for your great service.

I would like to know if I can extend for more than 2 years at old price or do you offer a lifetime membership.

I dont need more for next 15 years.

Please advise where is the best place to hold dividend-paying stocks ie Register or non-registered.

Is this a correct approach to hold growth stocks in TFSA and Registered. Dividend in Non-registered.

Thanks again
Read Answer Asked by Hector on October 24, 2017
Q: Many of your subscribers discuss their weightings on individual investments.
If I have 5 accounts and a total invested capital of 2,000,000 and if I want to have a minimum of 5% weighting on each stock,ETF or mutual fund would you suggest that 20 holdings averaging 100,000 each would be appropriate?
Or, in the case of some of your smaller capitalized companies like sis and aar.un, would a smaller percentage allocation be more appropriate?
I am 71 and have been in the market for over 40years.
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 24, 2017
Q: I just read the Dividend article you sent to subscribers. Thank you. I'm one of those investors that doesn't want to spend a lot of time researching companies....which is why I'm a subscriber! But I'm also an investor that loves dividends. The question.... Have you thought about keeping a list of 'Top Canadian Dividend Stocks' that subscribers can refer to at any time if they want to add to their portfolio?? I know you have the 'Income porfolio' that may be close. 5i gets a lot of questions asking you for top dividend stocks....this could be an ongoing list that may change slightly from month and?? Just a thought.
Read Answer Asked by Graham on October 23, 2017
Q: Regarding Grant's question earlier today on tracking gains and losses, I also use TD WebBroker. While there is no field in the Order Entry screen, the data is there. In Account Detail, there is a Tab for Performance, which shows your ROR Yr to date (and other intervals) and a Tab for Gain & Loss which shows the total $ Gain and Loss for the year and individual $ Gain and Loss by security. TD cautions that it should not be relied upon for tax purposes.
dave
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 23, 2017
Q: TD WebBroker: Click Accounts > Gain & Loss.

Paul

October 23, 2017 - Asked by Grant

Q: How do people track their overall performance as traders? I use TD Web Broker and after I make a trade there doesn't seem to be a filed that tracks the loss or gain on the trade. Do people track this in an Excel Spread Sheet or is there a program/app for this?

Thank you for another great year of smart stock picks!

5i Research Answer:
From what we have seen, most automated programs don't do a great job of tracking this as withdrawals and deposits tend to skew results. Excel is likely the most reliable way to do this albeit can be a bit more time consuming.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 23, 2017