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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: Liquidity. As general rule regarding liquidity, I've tried to ensure that the number of shares held do not exceed 10% of the average daily trading volume. For a sizeable 20-30 stock portfolio this eliminates many thinly traded stocks including some in the Model portfolios.
I would appreciate your comments on liquidity considerations when buying/selling a security?
And, is it different for ETF's. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Lloyd on March 29, 2017
Q: Looking to add another full position to each TFSA. Could you recommend a stock for each. Also, would you change any of these stocks, if so, what would they be changed to?
JAMES TFSA: CRH 26%, ECN 6.52%, EFC 11.39%, GUD 10%, PHO 12%, PBH 10.76%, SIS 16.61%, TOY 5%

LORETTA TFSA: GSY 14.67% KXS 15.41%, MTY 15.82%, SIS 18.91%, SHOP 15.82%, WCP 13.77%, TOY 5.58%

Much appreciated.

Read Answer Asked by James on March 29, 2017
Q: Hello,
This is a question more about portfolio management than a specific stock. I need to make a fairly large purchase soon and I have been debating about taking the money out of my TFSA, which thanks to 5I has done amazingly well, ( i would immediately buy the stocks sold in the TFSA in my RIF, thus not losing out on future gains). Better start another sentence :).

Or, use the opportunity to prune my portfolio. I do have too many stocks and would be glad of an opportunity for pruning. But, the ones I would prune have a capital gain of at least seventy per cent. Because I have a number of smaller positions in many cases this comes to only ten or fifteen thousand dollars per stock.

Or, should I just let them ride and live with the chaos?

thanks for any help
Read Answer Asked by joseph on March 29, 2017
Q: Preference shares
Following your reply, I conclude that, even on a reset date, preference shares may not trade at face value. Therefore, there would be no point in time when an investor is assured of full repayment of capital. Why then would these shares ever be suitable for investor adverse to interest rate risk? The only exception would be the investor willing to hold the shares for an unknown period until the shares are worth more than face value or the issuer decides to redeem them. Also, I wonder whether investors generally understand that, if they pay more than face value for the shares, the dividends represent in part a repyment in capital. Preference shares appear to have an undeserved allure, suitable only for investors willing to gamble with interest rates (perhaps having a trading strategy) or remain invested for an unknow period of time. Perhaps they should generally thought of as speculative and/or suitable only for sophisticated investors. I question whether even investment advisors understand this instrument well, particularly the range of attributes among issues.
Read Answer Asked by Carl on March 28, 2017
Q: Recently we were surprised to see that my 86 year old mother in law sold an etf and purchased Manulife simplicity portfolio FE (568). I say surprised as the broker is well aware to discuss financial changes to her account with my husband and ETFs were specifically chosen to avoid buying mutual funds. What can you tell me about this fund and does it generate monthly income. It looks like the broker is selling shares every month and sending her a cheque. I do not see any info around fees (which I thought had to be disclosed under the new rules) on her monthly statement. My husband is meeting with the broker so any info you can provide or questions he should ask would be appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Maggie on March 28, 2017
Q: Based on bitter experience, I have concluded that preference shares are generally not suitable for an investor disinterested in gambling on interest rates.

My conclusion is based on the following:
- the only type of preference share which assures the investor of a fixed capital repayment amount is one subject to a mandatory fixed redemption date.

It seems to me (perhaps wrongly) that 1. reset shares will not necessarily trade for face value on the reset date and 2. floating rate shares would never necessarily trade at their face value
- in practice, the mandatory redemption type share is not available to a retail investor, if at all.
- apart from interest rate risk, I wonder whether there is a significant spread between bid and ask, placing the investor at an automatic disadvantage at the time of sale

Am I wrong?
Read Answer Asked by Carl on March 28, 2017
Q: From your experience did you find that, in an upward market, inflow of money into mutual funds increases and therefore accelerates the upward momentum and the opposite is true as well? Today with all these ETFS can this occur with ETFS as well? Is the popularity of ETFS (funds flowing in and out) is adding to the volatility of the market. Would you see a panic scenario causing a major collapse?

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Saad on March 27, 2017
Q: Keystone gets go ahead from Trump. Realize line won't be completed until 2019.I expect good for the future for Canadian Companies and Alberta Gov't. What Companies will benefit in Canada, drillers, other pipelines feeding into TRP, tar sand companies SU. What other Canadian Oil Producers and Service Companies. Thanks Bob

Railways will get a hit that transport oil and RR car
manufacturers that produce oil tankers. Will this effect Burlington Northern and Mr. Buffet I understand cost to ship oil from Canada by Rail is $ 15.00 a barrel. Is that correct ? Thanks Bob
Read Answer Asked by bob on March 27, 2017
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