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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: Here is a simple question for you. When determining an amount that a particular equity has for the percentage of my portfolio, do I use the total value of my portfolio including the fixed income part, or just the equity part? For example, if the total portfolio is $100,000 including fixed income and I have a 60/40 split of equity /fixed, is a 5% position $5,000 or $3,000?
Thank you for your excellent service.
Read Answer Asked by Leonard on February 14, 2020
Q: In answer to Nick on Feb 7 about the topic of "company share splitting", I thought the practice in the past had to do with a lower share price making it easier for the small investor to buy 50 or 100 share "board lots". Now with the ease and ability of buying even 1 share, the board lot issue has all but disappeared. Not sure...just my recollection....Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on February 11, 2020
Q: As a follow-up on a question re investment information - my favourite by far is barchart.com, especially for momentum investors although others may find it useful as well. The US site is a bit more detailed than the Canadian one, but that is not much of a drawback. So much easily available information, handy tools, screeners, etc. I used to like the globe.com/investing site, but much of it is behind a paywall.
Read Answer Asked by Walter on February 10, 2020
Q: Hi Peter / Ryan, do you know what reasons companies use to determine stock splits. I've heard the price of the share is to high so to allow more people access to it they split the shares. Now a lot of shares are over 500 dollars but they don't split, which shoots that reason out and some split more often than others, for example ATD.B gets to about 90 and they split, its happened twice since I've owned them. Banks used to split more often now they don't. Last time RY split it was around 90 now it's over 100 and still no split. Thanks, Nick
Read Answer Asked by Nick on February 07, 2020
Q: On Feb. 3, a member wrote on the question board that "TD Waterhouse stopped coverage on GSY only because their analyst quit." Would a brokerage as large as TD completely drop coverage of a company if an analyst left their organization, or would they simply transfer coverage of the company to another analyst which they employed (or perhaps hire another analyst if the company in question could not be evaluated by analysts within their employ)? I would figure that any brokerage which offers analysis of publicly traded companies would not drop evaluation of a given company altogether due to one of their own analysts seeking employment elsewhere. I am curious to know your thoughts on this question. Thanks so much!
Read Answer Asked by Domenic on February 04, 2020
Q: Hello all,
My portfolio is largely based on your balanced portfolio with some stocks from your growth portfolio. I'm reviewing asset allocation in my portfolio and recognize that some stocks represent too much of my portfolio e.g., GSY which is currently almost 22% and is now a 4 bagger for me. I've always let winners run, but I recognize that this increases my risk. I've seen, in the past, that you typically do sell stocks to reduce allocation to a certain level. Is this a strict rule you follow or do you ever let a stock go until there's a concrete reason to sell it? Thank you as always for your great service.
Read Answer Asked by jeff on February 03, 2020
Q: As concerns withholding tax on foreign-but-non-US dividends in registered accounts: the member's concerns are certainly valid, but it bears mention that a great number of ADRs also give holders the option of receiving dividends either as shares, or as shares converted immediately (by the issuer) to cash, neither of which option involves withholding taxes.

To be sure, this exposes you to risk as concerns the share price at the time shares are sold, but for corporations with liquid shares, this is unlikely to cause significant losses, and, certainly, should not cause losses anywhere near the tax hit.

The complication in this arrangement is that not all ADRs offer the most-tax-efficient option by default, i.e., for such ADRs you would need to give instructions to your broker prior to some cut-off date. This sort of information falls under the general heading of 'Corporate actions', i.e.: supposing you trade online, you would need to check your inbox for a corporate action notice re: the ADR in question.
Read Answer Asked by John on February 03, 2020
Q: With many markets currently expensive by historical measures, I wonder whether you could suggest either some regional or country markets that may offer good value at this time. One area that may qualify is emerging markets but I wonder if you may also have other suggestions. I realize this goes outside of your normal field, but I would appreciate any insights that you may have.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on January 30, 2020
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