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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 have several beat up stocks that are now small holdings so looking to clean up the mess a bit and reduce my holdings to a more reasonable number. These are all in my unregistered accounts so will generate a tax loss although that wont do me much good this year with no likely gains to harvest.... So my general plan was to sell some and consolidate in other holdings I already have: ( use as many credits as required)

Sell HSE ( 1/4 position ) and add to my 1/2 SU . I get the tax loss to carry forward and move from HSE that is mostly heavy oil to SU with less downside.

Sell CHW ( 1/4 position) and add to my 1/2 SJ. These 2 don't really match up well like HSE and SU but the CHW is such a small position, unlikely to move until late in the recovery and with the div suspended I think I am going to take my lumps on it. I am a bit lite on SJ anyways.

Sell my MX ( 1/2 position) and add to my MAL ( 1/2 position). Once again not good matches but these 2 are small position in the same account. MAL hasn't done much in terms of stock movement but has generated a good yield over the many years I have owned it. I am not feeling the love in the energy sector for the next few years and I have a felling that the good old days in oil and gas might be at an end with the cost of solar improving and the steady growth in electrifying transportation....

And last sell 1/2 position of AD and buy ALA ( 1/2 position). Once again not a great fit in terms of sector but yields are comparable and ALA is essentially a utility ( and not a oil and gas) so should be a somewhat stable yield.

I wish I had a few big winner I wanted to sell to harvest the tax losses now but will just need to put them in my pocket for the big recovery in a hopefully not to distant future... These moves reduce my small holdings, Get rid of some holding you don't have in your portfolios, de-risk my portfolio somewhat and finally move that money into companies a bit better placed to maintain their dividends during covid/post covid
Read Answer Asked by Tom on July 22, 2020
Q: Apologize for the newbie question. When I look at Suncor's price chart, in my head something is telling me that it will double in one year? Why is not everyone buying it right now? It looks like a steal price and I'm even thinking about putting half of all my money into it. Please stop me if it's a crazy idea. Or if you have better stocks to recommend it would be wonderful. Currently I have 15% AC, 9% BAM.A, 7% KXS, 3% LSPD, 3% WELL. Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Yongwei on July 20, 2020
Q: Hi 5i team,
I’ve recently sold some of my SHOP position in a taxable account (the share price has risen ~15-fold since purchase about 2-1/2 years ago, and even after this partial disposition, SHOP remains my biggest overall position—thank you for this excellent recommendation!). Now, I want to reduce the tax hit, and so I am planning to sell positions in BMO, BNS, and SU, with aim to rebuy after 31 days (to avoid superficial loss), as these 3 securities are core holdings in my portfolio. In general, when I do tax loss selling, I try to maintain an economic position in the types of companies I am selling, because I’m always anxious the shares will rise during the 30-day waiting period (indeed, frustrating increases in stock prices during the 30-day waiting period seem to happen quite often, at least in my experience). So, my question is: Can you recommend a security (or securities) to maintain economic exposure to BMO/BNS, as well as to SU, for the 30-day waiting period? (For perspective, I’m planning to sell ~$185,000 worth of BMO/BNS, as well as ~$72,000 worth of SU; when I rebuy BMO/BNS/SU, I would then sell the temporary holdings I bought to maintain the economic position.). Would you buy a Canadian bank ETF and Canadian oil sector ETF, to maintain these economic positions (and please recommend some appropriate securities), or rather other individual Canadian banks or individual oil companies (and please recommend some appropriate securities)? Also interested in your philosophical thoughts about how to handle the situation of tax loss selling, which arises every so often, especially now during pandemic, when there is wide variety of individual security performance (some big winners, but also some high-quality stocks that are—hopefully temporarily—depressed in price) as well as higher-than-usual volatility.
Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on July 14, 2020
Q: Sir, I find myself down 25-60 % in ALL of the above companies. In keeping with your BUY MORE, HOLD, SELL SOME or all, I would appreciate your thoughts on the above companies. I have some capital gains to off set so all is not lost- yet. Thanks- JP
Read Answer Asked by James on June 22, 2020
Q: I have been following your advice of slow buying. For recovery plays with a one to 3 year timeframe (US election and possible normalcy returning post-COVID) is Canada or US better positioned? If all things are equal I favour Canada to avoid the nuisance of Norbert's Gambit etc. But if there is a compelling difference I'd like to use that to my advantage. I have some XIT, AC, SU and LNF and I am finding it hard to wait for the slow buying due to FOMO. How slow is slow enough? Thoughts appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Marilou on June 19, 2020
Q: Stagflation is beginning to be mentioned as a medium term possibility. What sector(s) provide best protection against this and could see growth? Can you recommend an ETF or two (if a handful of individual companies would be better, please recommend a couple instead). Thank you in advance.
Read Answer Asked by John on June 01, 2020
Q: What do you think is the best way to play potential return to reasonable pricing for oil? USO - merged with HUC or a company like SU? No one can make money at these current prices even though they have gone up nicely recently.
Read Answer Asked by James on May 08, 2020
Q: I am ready to exit Suncor, and am looking for a replacement stock with a good balance between dividend sustainability (over the long term, understanding that almost no dividends are safe in the current environment), dividend yield, and dividend growth.
I am considering either QSR or SYL (or another stock in the consumer discretionary or tech sectors -- please recommend, slight preference for consumer discretionary as I am underweight this sector) as a replacement. This is for a long term (hopefully indefinite) hold. I already hold CTC.A, MSFT, and IBM. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on May 07, 2020
Q: Hi 5i,
Thoughts on purchasing BAM.A and SLF at current prices, or wait for lower prices? Do you think their dividends are safe?
Thoughts on the Canadian oil sector with respect to SU and CNQ? While dividends cuts have happened and likely to continue, do you see long term value in purchasing at these levels and do you prefer one over the other? Worth the risk for a 5 year hold?
Thanks very much
Terry
Read Answer Asked by Terry on May 07, 2020
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