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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 no current exposure to oil or gas. Thinking it may be time to acquire some. Is an etf the better way to go or perhaps going with Birchcliff, Seven Generations, Peyto. Which etf if thats your choice and what % of a portfolio should a person consider at this juncture.
I asked a question 3 or 4 days ago, can't tell if the credits have been reduced but I did not get an answer. The question referred to a choice between TXN vs NVDA. I currently own about 18% in technology,CSU,IT,GC,GOOGL but was thinking that perhaps I should sell ULTI in exchange for TXN or NVDA, or whatever recommendation you think is best. Thank You.
Read Answer Asked by Maureen on August 18, 2016
Q: I've been to China 5 times in last 24 months and on my recent trip I observed more and more people have smart phones than previous trips. Speaking with one of my Chinese colleagues on this trip, we discussed how most people in China with a smart phone use WeChat as their messaging app. WeChat is not just a messaging app, you can make payments and shop. Travelling thru several cities, most retailers requested payment thru WeChat. I was amazed at the adoption of this app. It is owned by Tencent and trades OTC in the US. Do you know anything about this company and do you have any concerns with buying stock on the OTC?
Read Answer Asked by Rob on August 18, 2016
Q: Gold mining companies have no control over gold prices, but they do have some control over the costs of producing that gold. Those with the lowest cost of production can be expected to make the most profit per ounce of gold produced. Do you know the top 6 - 10 gold producers that have the lowest cost to produce an ounce of gold and what that cost is? Thank Ted
Read Answer Asked by Ted on August 17, 2016
Q: As hard as I try, I can't find a website that shows daily price changed multiplied by shares outstanding. I find this curious as it would seem to be the metric that one should care most about. Then you could see how much market cap was created and destroyed on any given trading day.
Any thoughts?
I found this one which gives daily volume traded times share price, so we can see the daily $ traded.

http://www.barchart.com/stocks/pricevol.php
Read Answer Asked by Bill on August 17, 2016
Q: I sold my shares in AVO today and intend to replace them within my TFSA with either Shopify or any other that you may recommend. The ones that I do not have from the growth portfolio are GUD PEO QHR RRX and SH.
Is there a defined price for the recent share offering that would define the trading price range?
If your recommendation would be to go with SH over the others mentioned above, do you suggest I wait for now till the price settles - say around the anticipated offer price? Do you have an opinion on what that might be? The price was quite volatile today.
Read Answer Asked by Rajiv on August 17, 2016
Q: Hello 5i team,

Not sure why my question does not reach you as I've tried twice in the past 2 weeks.......hope it gets through to you in this 3rd attempt.

I am 61 years old and about 16% of my overall portfolio is in bonds. The rest is in income stocks and growth stocks similar to 5i portfolio. The yield return of fixed income instruments is so low currently and I am rather comfortable owning income stocks. Now, I have $60,000 in cash in RRSP and I have the following options. Please comment on each option and your preference and recommendations.
1. To buy several corporate bonds with maturity of 3 to 5 years and to hold till maturity.
2. To buy more income stocks like AW.UN or EIF.un
3. To buy ETF of inflation bonds
4. To buy ETF of high yield bonds
5. To buy ETF of US corporate bonds

Please advise preferred ETF for option 3, 4 and 5.
Many thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Willie on August 17, 2016
Q: In concurring with Clarence's comments and observations around CXR.

This includes that management must have integrity and be honest I have learned.

To that point many CEO's, and high level management got to the position they are in due to their sales skills to the board of directors, the public and shareholders and thus meeting, talking with them and listening to them can often only make an investor vulnerable to their sales pitch of saying all is well, do not worry. I have learned that many big investors never talk to the management for this very reason. They do not want to get sucked in so they remove that possibility.

Reading the annual and 1/4'trly reports including the address and final notes can usually reveal the truth as the reports are reviewed by the company's lawyers and they do not want a law suit once they are published.

I understand that earnings and other #'s can me manipulated but over time this can be detected by looking at the other #'s. FCF, Free Cashflow cannot be manipulated as a company either has cash or it does not. They can lie about is but that would not serve them very long or well. Growing FCF year over year over year is one good thing to look for for sound well managed companies.

Also how the CEO is compensated which was over-looked by many in the case of VRX. Are they in for themselves or the long-term business and shareholders?

Read Answer Asked by Stan (1) on August 16, 2016
Q: Hello Peter and Ryan,
I would like to get your opinion on the Army of professional investors who are all saying that yield stocks like utilities and telecoms are over valued and that their P/E's are too high. The last time I heard noise (chatter) like this was back in the summer of 2014 when the P/E's of all the pipeline stocks were at all time highs and then they all sold off with oil prices.

Being a retired person I have owned telecoms and utility stocks for a while now and like being able to collect the yield.

Thank you, Charlie
Read Answer Asked by CHARLES LA on August 16, 2016