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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: Retired dividend-income investor. I'm sitting on 15% cash that I created by taking profits and harvesting some losses. I have mapped out how to redeploy this cash to hit my asset allocation targets, both by sector as well as by individual holding. I had originally designed the re-entry on spreading the purchases over 6 months. Given that we now have information on different countries indicating that they MIGHT be showing signs of COVID slowly recovering and that the stock market is forward looking, would you adjust the 6 months time frame to 4 months? What's your crystal ball tell you...redeploy a little faster?

Also, the above equities are those that are candidates for topping up. Which would you hit up first?

Thanks for your help...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on April 08, 2020
Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I currently own ZLB (RRSP, max'd out), XIT (RRSP-TFSA, max'd out), ZRE (Cash, 3/4 position, will add to over time), ZWC (Cash, close to max'd out). I also have some legacy positions in RBF1018 (RBC Cdn Equity Income-D...MER of 1.0) and CIG50217 (Sentry Cdn Income...high MER), both of which I have averaged roughly 7-8% return over the last many years, prior to this crisis. On top of the above I own AD, AQN, AW, BCE, CSH, CM, FTS, NTR, NWC, RY, TRP, WSP in various amounts to achieve my overall asset allocation targets (not to mention my fixed income portion of my portfolio.

I normally like to run a concentrated portfolio of around 20 positions, composed of +/- 6 ETF-MF and +/- 14 stocks. I have mapped out the use of my current cash (15%) into monthly repurchases over the next 6 months. My question relates to the combination of ETFs, but focusing on ZWC. I own ZWC for its high CC dividend, but recognize that the upside is potentially limited in a recovery. Also, when mapping out spending my cash, I reach an uncomfortable level of too high an allocation per individual stock. That led me to consider adding another ETF. I looked at several, and filtered them down to CDZ, XEI and XDV. I have chosen CDZ as my candidate to add. Looking under the hood at the ETF holdings, they appear to not overlap too much with my own individual stocks.

Do you like this strategy? Does it result in a significant overlap in stocks, held either individually or within the existing ETFs?

Thanks for your help...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on March 26, 2020
Q: First off I just want to say thank you so much for your special report you issued last week. For a young investor like myself who has never been through events like we currently are experiencing your advice has been extremely valuable to help navigate these uncharted waters.

I have been sitting on some cash and would like to increase my technology (both Canada and the US) exposure as it is low right now. I am comfortable with moderate risk. I have a few questions on this subject so feel free to subtract as many credits as you see fit:
1) For Canadian tech companies, after reading your special report and the Q&A's, it seems you like CSU, KXS, DSG, and SHOP. Would you recommend buying these individual companies (or others?) or would XIT be a reasonable alternative with these 4 companies composing ~61%? Or is there another tech etf you would suggest?
2) For US tech companies (or any US company for that matter), with the Canadian dollar being low, would you recommend looking at specific US companies or a Canadian ETF that holds US tech companies? I am worried the exchange would eat into possible returns. Do you have any recommendations (e.g. I have seen you mention XQQ for an etf, SKYY highlighted in etfupdate, and companies like MSFT, GOOG, TEAM, etc)?

Thanks for all that you do.
Read Answer Asked by Justin on March 16, 2020
Q: I HAVE VERY LITTLE EXPOSER TO TECH AND I WOULD LIKE YOUR OPINION AS TO WHICH IS A BETTER BUY AND WHY. THANKS, JAMES
Read Answer Asked by JAMES on January 14, 2020
Q: I have, for me, significant positions in the US technology sector with decent positions in Apple, Microsoft and XQQ, and a smaller position in Cisco. As the new year begins, I am evaluating my holdings and I notice that, even though I like many of the Canadian technology companies, the only position I have in Canadian technology is a small position in Shopify through a Fidelity mutual fund. Given that I like many of the Canadian companies (Enghouse, Kinaxis, CGI, Constellation, Descartes, and Open Text) what is my best strategy to enter this space? As I am not sure it is prudent to create enough space in my portfolios to buy all of these at one time, is there a Canadian technology ETF that holds a number of these companies?
Thank you for your advice.
Don
Read Answer Asked by Donald on January 14, 2020
Q: I am a retired, dividend-income investor. Assume asset allocation is not an issue. I already hold positions in Nutrien, XIT (technology ETF) and Eric's NinePoint Energy fund (proxy for the oil market). I have this year's TFSA monies to put towards one of these equities.

Please rank for total return (best to worst) for 2020 and a short explanation as to why.

Thanks for your help...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on January 13, 2020
Q: XIT: We have a very large portfolio made up in RRSP, TFSA, & Non -Registered Accounts (biggest holdings). My investment style over many , many years has been to buy large cap "dividend growing" stocks which have served us incredibly well. Because technology stocks usually trade a high P.E. multiples, most are not dividend growers; but, most of all, the arena can change on a dime - just look at all the tech stocks that have gone bust over the last 20 years or so. In any case, I was thinking of buying XIT to add to our "dividend growers". I already own a small holding in my USD account of IGM.
Read Answer Asked by James on January 07, 2020
Q: 5I Team,
I own IHI etf, I like it's limited number of stocks (10 top stocks 70%)
Can you please suggest few ETF that have limited number of stocks (any sector, US, Can, Global) ?
Thanks
Best regards
Read Answer Asked by Djamel on December 27, 2019
Q: My daughter holds RBF1018 (series D units) in her RRSP. I plan to sell all of it and buy XIT to improve her overall asset allocation. Are there any issues with pending year end dividends for either securities? Should I wait until Jan 01/20 or go ahead now?
Thanks...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on December 13, 2019
Q: I manage my daughter's investments and will be selling a mutual fund (RBF1018) and plan to purchase XIT, as her asset allocation is light on technology.

86% of XIT is made up of SHOP, GIB.A, CSU, OTEX. P/B = 5.3 and P/E = 35.2. Technology has had quite a run this year...the chart looks parabolic and might possibly be forming a double top. I heard years ago that after a big run, stocks may settle back roughly 1/3 of the recent gain. This would put the "settle" price to be around $25.

I know this is the same as market timing. OR....just buy it now. Your thoughts?

Thanks...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on December 11, 2019
Q: i am curious about this,i know shopify and constellation software are 2 of your favorite companies, i also know you like open text and cgi, so these 4 companies represent 82% of the xit with shop and csu representing 51%, why not just recommend the xit to your investor, still lots of risk but less so and you get them all plus smaller amount of kxs and some others.dave
Read Answer Asked by david on August 16, 2019
Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

In our combined portfolio (RRIF, RRSP, TFSAs, and non-registered account), we are underweight in Information Technology. 5i's latest recommendation for this sector's weighting is 15%, but we are at 13.4%.

We hold these stocks/ETF followed by their weighting:
CSU: 5.67%
ENGH: 2.38%
KXS: 1.09%
OTEX: 2.50%
SYZ: 0.92%
XIT: 0.91% (We use it to park cash as it's a commission-free ETF for us)

My wife has a preference for holding dividend payers (even a small dividend) in her RRSP. In her RRSP, she holds a 1.51 % position in CSU, and the full 2.38% of ENGH. In order to increase the IT weighting to 15%, she needs to invest $19,500. There is sufficient cash in her RRSP for this purchase. What course of action would you suggest? Should she top up her position in ENGH? Or should she start a new position in ET or OTEX?

Please deduct sufficient credits for this rather convoluted question. Your guidance is very valuable to us.

Read Answer Asked by Jerry on May 14, 2019
Q: Hi
Based on the Portfolio Analytics program I am now above or below a regional exposure (Canada, USA & International within 1%. I was low on tech suggested percentage big time.
I sold my less than 1% holdings, would XIT be a good holding this would cover my Canadian holdings and increase my Tech holdings.
Based on my age I do not want to own stocks any longer and have several under 1% holdings.
You thoughts please

Mike



Read Answer Asked by Mike on April 24, 2019
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