Investment Q&A

Q: Could you give me the current assets for NNRG and NPP314?
For CRA, I guess these 2 are the same ?
Thanks a lot.

Q: Hello 5i gang!

In your opinion, what is the best widely available energy mutual fund?
According to a few strategists, energy will be the best performing asset over the next 5 years.

Thank you very much!

Q: Current owner of NPP314 in my TFSA. I've been waiting for the assets under NNRG to get to a reasonable level prior to making the switch. The last time I looked, NPP314 had roughly $400M and NNRG had $1M. Last night I see NPP314 has $385M and NNRG has over $400M.

Does this match your search engine data? That's quite a jump....to go from roughly $400M combined to $800M combined! Would you agree that it now makes sense to make the switch to NNRG, now that it has a critical mass, along with cheaper fees?

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: I currently own Eric's Mutual Fund (NPP314) and am considering switching to his ETF (NNRG). Just to understand the tracking differences, I monitored the daily movements on 3 days...May 26-28-31 (small sample, I know).
May 26 => NNRG = 0.91% vs NPP314 = 1.68%
May 28 => 1.70% vs 1.90%
May 31 => 4.93% vs 3.71%
Total all 3 days => 7.54% vs 7.29%

Can you please provide your understanding of the daily differences?
Also, is the May 31 difference, due to month-end adjustments?
The totals seems to make sense, due to the different MERs...agree?

Do you still agree it makes sense to move to NNRG (I can't find much information on the ETF in their website (or through RBC), except it is in their drop down box for options to buy, on the Ninepoint website. To me this implies that the holdings are identical)? There is only $1.1 Million in NNRG...is this an issue to be concerned about?

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: I hold Eric's Energy Fund (NPP314) in my TFSA and have averaged down multiple times in the past. I understood I was probably catching a falling knife, but I believed in his expertise and was also building a position. Now I am up roughly 20% and believe there is more room for his Fund to run. NPP314 represents about 40% of my energy exposure. Most of the balance is held within my ETF exposures (CDZ, ZWC, etc.).

With the recent creation of Eric's ETF (NNRG), what do you recommend? Should I wait until the ETF has been around for a while (like you recommend for other new ETFs) or should I just switch now? What are the Pros vs Cons (aside from the 2.5% vs 1.5% fee that I see in the May 18/21 question)? Will the holdings be identical? Could you please add NNRG to your data base...thanks.

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor....normally. Assume I already have a balanced portfolio.

Considering topping up a 90% XIT position (my Technology weighting is 7.5%).....or...buying a small position in Copper Mtn (CMMC)....(my Materials weighting is 5.0)%. Reading prior copper questions indicates that you think there is much more room to run in Copper...for a while. Assume a roughly 1 year holding.

Second question = oil better than copper over the next year or so?

So, I guess the question is = please rank 1 year performance (best to worst) for Technology, Copper, Oil.

Thanks....Steve

The conservative side of me = XIT. The aggressive side of me = CMMC.

Q: Which has more upside in the next 1-2 years....NPP314 or XIT? Put another way, Eric's "old" energy vs new tech?
Thanks...Steve

Q: Hi Peter: When I sit back and take a look at the big picture and review how my portfolio performed during COVID-19 (so far), I try to see what lessons I can learn, then turn to how to apply those lessons to make my portfolio stronger.

I am a retired, dividend-income investor. I am a huge believer in asset allocation and have designed a portfolio, in my opinion, to be reasonably well diversified, although heavy to Canada. It WAS roughly 70% equities (including 32% foreign content) and 30% fixed income (roughly 15% insured annuities, 15% Fisgard Capital...both averaging in the 5-6% pre-tax range and minor cash). My equities are mostly blue chip, dividend payers, as you can see above. The 3 mutual funds are a very minor part of my portfolio, especially Eric's Energy Fund (<2%). I also receive a company pension and CPP-OAS which, when included, drops my equities to roughly 32%.

I use various metrics to monitor my portfolio, such as P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S, Beta, ROE, Div growth, Payout%, technical indicators like 200 mda. I am normally a buy-and-hold investor who trims/adds around a core position.

Periodically I measure how "at risk" my portfolio is relative to the overall market. I do this by prorating my portfolio using Beta. Based on equities only, I averaged 0.68 and for my entire portfolio I averaged 0.44. So, one would think that if the overall market (TSX) was to drop 30%, then I would have thought my portfolio would drop 44% to 68% of that, being in the range of 13% (overall) to 20% (equities only).

In actual fact, my entire portfolio dropped 27% from peak to trough vs the expected 13%...over double! I understand that EVERYTHING was sold off...almost no exceptions. So what do we learn from this and what changes should we consider? Do we accept that "sxxt happens" once in a while...you can't predict every event, accept it and move on? Should we consider increasing the cash component as a buffer? Or...is there something else to be learned here?

Thanks for you help...much appreciated...Steve

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

Q: I am looking at this mutual fund as a way to play the potential bounce in canadian mid cap oils. I am impressed with Eric Nuttal's knowledge base and this seems like a more diversified way of playing this space. I bought 1000 units on RBC Direct just to see how the fund works and the result was puzzling. The transaction seems to be at the NAV and only happens at the end of the day and although the units show in my account, my "check orders" page shows it still pending until the following day. Before I buy more, can you tell me if I am buying on the market or from NPP ... all of which is OK. A second question is when I want to sell, is there a market or am I at the mercy of NPP deciding what to pay me.
many thanks for the great service.