Investment Q&A

Q: Thanks for your comprehensive answer to my question on fixed income. Just a further clarification. I have often wondered about the usefulness of preferred shares. It seems to me that they are just as vulnerable as stocks, so why have them rather than stocks? I know that you get paid first if the company goes under. But I am not sure that is a big consideration in most cases.

Secondly, i wonder if you might suggest some symbols that correspond to such an arrangement for fixed income.
Thanks for the excellent service

Q: How would IShares Preferred share ETF (CPD) and IShares Convertible Bond ETF (CVD) perform in a rising rate environment?

Thanks, Mike

Q: I need to raise some cash which one can be trimmed today? Thanks.

Q: Hello Peter,

The ETF's above are in the income portfolio. All have different yields that are paid out monthly. My question is, do any of these "dividends" increase over time? Not the yield but the actual payout per share?

Thanks,

Kelly

Q: Hello, for tax purposes is the income of CVD treated as interest or dividend? If you had to choose just one with the goal of income and "safety", which one would you pick? Thank you

Q: This ETF interests me but I really have very little understanding of convertible bonds. Can this fund be considered a pure fixed income option? Having been burned twice on preferred shares I’m a bit leery on two fronts, investing in things that are neither equity nor fixed income, and investing in things I don’t understand. CVD has held up over the past 5 years while delivering a pretty good yield. What are the risks going forward and would you have any concerns about capital preservation?

Q: I have a non-registered account which is invested in roughly equal weights of 13 Canadian blue chip dividend payers (NTR, RY, BNS, TCL.A, T, BCE, SLF, QSR, ENB, FTS, LNF, BEPC, AQN) and CPD. I am in the process of re-organizing it a bit and have some additional cash to invest.

I have tinkered with SYZ, FSZ and LIF in this account and none of these quite fit the profile I'm going for (steady eddies thru next economic cycle, decent and reliable dividend).

Over the last year or so, I have been tweaking this account to get it to the point where it will be very low (or no) maintenance. Game plan is to drip for another few years, then start to take the dividend in cash to live off. Capital preservation and dividend reliability are obviously key.

Looking for some guidance on choosing 2 or 3 additional holdings from the following list:
EIF (nice div, needed industrial exposure)
AW.UN or ZRE (are these OK in an open account?)
CVD or XHY (some fixed income to smooth out any upcoming lumps) or other fixed income idea.

Do CPD, CVD, XHY make sense now with tapering about to begin in the US?
All comments about this strategy and my stock selections are most welcome.

Several questions here - please take several credits


Thanks in advance,

Jim

Q: I read your article about the correlation between stocks and bonds and it made me wonder whether this was a good or not so good time to purchase them? I read a little more in another article and it said that in the same historical instances, bonds have tended to do well after. Would you agree with this?
I only have room in my margin account so would CVD, CPD, and HAB be giving me interest as apposed to Dividends so there are tax implications?
Thanks!

Q: Hi I have this etf in my account . Should i sell some and buy stocks or add some i am looking for dividend income.

Thank you

Q: I had a portfolio review many years ago when you did them individually, personally by human! At the time your suggestions were right on and cleaned up my ETF's. Now I have over ten and according to your metrics it should not be so. Given those above, is there anything that is not required? I am up 25%- 150% on all of them. I am happy with all of them. I have a balanced portfolio in all 11 sectors with 44 stocks all doing quite nicely thank you. Following the income portfolio with some of my own additions from 15 years ago. I do not see any major conflicts.I am s a buy and hold dividend investor with some growth ( lightspeed, Leon's).
Thank you for your million dollar service!
Stanley

Q: I am not familiar with fixed income investments. I am looking at investing 30k in fixed income . Your portfolios show investments in CVD, CPB, and XHY. Looking for best optimization of rising rate environment and falling bond prices in the future. Just going through your question answer background material , I find VGRO, ICVT, and CSU.DB, very interesting. What would be the best combination in addition to any suggestions you may have. Thank you for your valuable guidance and a great job 5i is doing.

Q: With interest rates moving up on growth optimism, do you like CVD as part of your fixed income allocation. Seems it might hold up better than other bond funds and it pays a decent yield. I'm also considering ZPR in the fixed income side for the same reason. If this is two questions, please deduct accordingly. Thanks.

Q: With a Democrat Senate, higher government spending, rising inflation and an expanding 10 yr yield, what would be your fixed income allocation for the next five years? Do any of the above choices make sense? Thanks.

Q: Good morning 5i. I am considering "parking" about 10% of my portfolio in "cash equivalents". Are CVD and CPD your preferences in this case as I see they pay out roughly 5% which seems a reasonable risk/reward scenario? Are there other options or recommendations that you might consider? Thank you in advance.

Q: I have no exposure to fixed income and wanted to know if there are any other that you were preferred over this list? I am looking at buying all of these names each for a 5 % weight.

Thanks

Q: Hi,
I'm trying to create a well balanced bond fund for that portion of my portfolio and have come up with this: HFR-T, CBO-T, CLF-T, TLT, XBB-T, CVD-T, SHY, FLOT, IVOL, BNDX, VSG-T
I guess I should have something that will generate monthly income as well? If I am overdoing this, please let me know...it seems like a lot of holdings. Is there a better way? A mutual fund?
Thanks.

Q: A question about corporate bonds from Gary posted April 14, was answered with "We would prefer to comment on individual issues that your broker might have rather than list several that might not be available." I see that your income portfolio includes CVD. This ETF seems to be not very large and not very liquid; is that correct? If so, I would otherwise be leery of taking a position; but here it is in the portfolio. Is it indeed something that is recommended? If not, is there another ETF that would be better? Or is an ETF not the way to go because of the potential failure of some bonds in any basket? Thanks,

Q: ..how do you think HFR and CVD will perform as interest rates skid along the bottom?

Q: In my RRSP accounts I have built up a laddered GIC portfolio in addition to a variety of stocks and equity etfs, taking the income generated by the portfolio and adding to the ladder. Given the low rates for 5 yr GIC, under 2%, I’m thinking of taking this years income and purchasing CVD, which has a lower payout but more stability than the above mentioned Preferred share ETFs.
I may split my purchase between CVD and one of the above Preferred Share ETFs and am leaning towards ZPR as performance and MER of the 3 is similar but ZPR has a higher dividend payout.
In addition to better income, interest rates should be close to bottoming and if I stage my purchases over the next 3 months I will benefit from unit price appreciation when rates start going up and will have locked in a 5-6% return.
Your thoughts please.

Q: What do you think of convertible debentures as a part of an overall fixed income allocation ? Could you give 4-5 debentures that you like with low to medium risk ? Thanks you!