Investment Q&A

Q: Dear 5i team.

Can you shed light on why EIT appears to have similar volitility to the general market?
What are the top holdings? Does it use leverage?
Is this something that is just too volitile for a conservative investor? The wild ride with the market last few weeks has got my attention.

Many thanks for your help

Q: Hello. Could you comment on how the yield is achieved in this fund? Dividends will form part and I see leverage was mentioned in a previous answer (assuming there is a net benefit from additional yield over the cost of leverage). Does this fund also employ an options strategy? If no options strategy, am I right that a good chunk of the distribution over time has been return of capital? Secondly, could you comment on the volume/liquidity of the fund over time? I'm thinking of starting a position in this across our investment accounts but am concerned about what might be limited volume on entry or exit. Thank-you.

Q: Here is a challenge for investors to beat financing charges. The financing is 2.4% for 36 months and I need better than 2.6% to pay taxes on unregistered account. With a ladder of tbills, bonds and strips one can obtain 3.1% with very little risk. If one could live with a bit more risk ( say possibility -5% over the term) are there any other options such as a low volatility income fund or preferred shares?

Q: Hello Peter and Team. I am about to open a new TFSA account with almost 100K. Time frame of 5-8 years. Could you please recommend 4-6 growth/income stocks with 1or 2 ETF’s?

I was thinking BN, VFV, EIT.UN, TVK. Any other recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks for the amazing service. Brian

Q: I have a incorporated small business with some excess cash. I am taking out a small amount every year but the bulk will not be needed in the next ten years. No new cash will be added. I was thinking of investing half in EIT.UN and half in ZSP, but both are near all time highs. I would also be fine holding a handful of individual stocks. Would you have some suggestions? Thanks!

Q: In the growth portion of my RRIF i like the above three ETFs. Do you see any issues with any of these? Is there much overlap? Other stocks and ETFs focus on dividends, although Canoe is included in that group. Thanks.

Q: What is your current opinion of EIT.UN.ca - is it a good investment or would you have alternatives that are better?
Thanks

Q: I am finalizing RRIF portfolio focusing on safety and yield. I am trying to decide between Canoe Income fund and SLF. Performance-wise they look similar to me but with EIT having a higher yield. I would value your advice on selecting one of these unless you have an even better suggestion then that would be welcome as well. Thanks for all you do! Dan

Q: My wife has been diagnosed with dementia and on a waiting list for LTC. I'm thinking of setting up her TFSA for monthly income to top up her government pensions.
Thinking of eit.un, zwu, zwe . Harvest and Horizon have higher yields but I am concerned about sustainability. Your thought please.
Thank you for your good works.

Q: Hello Peter and staff:
Each of the above mentioned have incredible yields, that pay monthly dividends - CBNK - 9.78%, EIT.UN - 8.74%, DFN - 22.94%. Could you comment on each of the 3 in terms of sustainability and could you rate them in order of preference, or not at all. Could you also recommend other high yield monthly dividend paying stocks. Thank you all for your incredible service.

Q: As a retired income investment, I have enjoyed the steady increase in the value of these funds over the last years as well as a good dividend. In fact they tended to stay steady every time the market dipped. Until lately. Both have seen daily drops unseen before. Has anything changed or is it the general skittish market right now.

Q: Good morning. I have held Canoe EIT Income Fund since 2016 and it has averaged 11% annually. My goal is yield so I have been quite happy. I am currently reinvesting the distributions, but plan to eventually withdraw them to help fund my retirement. My EIT.UN holdings are now approaching 7% of my portfolio value and I was hoping to find something similar but different, for diversification. I know you have mentioned in the past that the fund is decent but has some drawbacks like a high MER. Could you provide some other options please? Thank you.

Q: I would like to put about 50% of my portfolio into safe, higher yielding (10%+) Canadian focused ETF's or Mutual Funds, and adjust my holdings as needed going forward based on sector performance. I feel that both Banks & Utilities are nearing lows and that a further correction may occur in the general market due to tax loss selling or possibly one more rate hike. Do you feel that the mix of ETF's listed provide a safe way to invest with the goals indicated? What % for each, as part of the 50%, would you recommend as a holding, and how would they be treated for tax purposes? Thanks for the great service and please use as many credits as necessary.

Q: One year ago I decided to choose 6 reits ( avoiding shopping centers and offices),+ one professionaly managed reit etf (mentionned above) .The final result is that the managed ETF did loose 15% +,and the 6 "amateur chosen" ETF gained more than 15% ,the choice was based on the "basic observation"of a slowing economy and specific individual REIT performances,I did then favour industrial, data centers and some real estate REITs.Is it normal that a professionaly managed ETF could underperform so much versus personal choices and why? I wonder if I should trust actively managed products on the future,considering the fees etc..,instead of just choosing stocks or ETFs in safe sectors according to observable macro-economic tendancies.

Q: What are your thoughts on this fund?
Long term performance and yield are both very strong, in excess of 9%. No covered calls but does have some leverage. Not sure how they achieve 9%+ yield without covered calls but the yield seems consistent and large portion of distribution is capital gains, eligible dividends and ROC.
Never invested in a closed end fund before. What is the difference between this and an ETF?

Q: I have these stocks in my TFSA and most are doing okay. I have some extra cash to use to either beef up or buy another stock or ETF. I’m an income investor with also an interest in growth. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. I appreciate your work immensely.

Q: Looking at 3 very different asset classes that offer high yields and would appreciate your help in sorting which ones offer best risk/ reward.
1. Covered calls: NXF, ZWC, ZWU, LIFE, JEPI;
2. Credit - OCSL, ORCC, MAINMAIN
3. Yield - GCOW, EIT-UN.
Questions: 1. What is your comfort level on risk/reward for any or all;
2. Please choose which are investable with short commentary as to rationale and and target buy prices

Q: Hello,

I am a recently retired individual. Over the past few years my wife and I have moved the majority of our investments into various income generating shares and units. (CDN Banks, Utilities, Pipelines and other higher yielding investments). One of our higher yielding investments is a holding in EIT.UN. We currently have about 3.2% of our combined retirement savings invested in EIT.UN. I'm hoping that you might be able to help me better understand how that vehicle is able to pay out an approximately 8.75% yield, on an ongoing basis? The dividend of $1.20 per unit appears to have been paid out continuously, since August of 2009.

I believe that a portion of the $1.20 that is being paid out per unit each year, is a Return of Capital but I have no clear understanding of what that might actually mean? Is an investment that is returning an investor's capital to them able to do so indefinitely? Wouldn't they eventually run out of capital to return to the investors and would that then necessitate a precipitous drop in the annual payout?

While we are enjoying the current dividends we don't wish to be blind to a potential decrease in those distributions and/or an accompanying drop in the principal value of our investment. Lastly, as it may apply to any tax considerations, please be aware that all of our retirement savings are held in various registered plans (RRSPs, LIRAs & TFSAs).

Thank you!

Q: I’d like to start a position in one or more income funds that offer a very high yield, but I’m not sure which ones to choose. As of Wednesday Oct 5th, these are the indicated yields I’ve found:

CLM 23.92%
PDBC 20.65%
SDIV 15.31%
QYLD 14.19%
RYLD 14.05%
XYLD 13.05%
BIGZ 11.01%
JEPI 10.94%
PDO 10.90%
PDI 10.79%
BXMT 10.38%
MPW 10.17%
STWD 9.84%
EIT.UN 9.42%
IDV 8.15%

Would you recommend any of these or do you have other suggestions? Are any of them too risky if the bear market deteriorates from here, or can they all be held long term? Are some of these yields too good to be true, like CLM and PDBC? Thanks for your thoughts.

Q: Hi all,

Please provide your thoughts on HDIF and EIT in terms of income sustainability and safety. Do you see any growth potential?

Thanks