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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 am interested in finding out more about structured notes. On the surface, it appears a good instrument for regular income. However, do not understand several aspects of it and also there seem to be several types of structured note, e.g. principal protected, exchange traded notes. Not sure what types are suitable for my goals. Can you please provide your views and brief description, or link for more information, or contact who could provide more information. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Naren on May 12, 2021
Q: Hi,
I understand PRTS had earnings and judging by the market reaction, would assume the results were very good, but I am not well versed in parsing out fundamentals, so am concerned that today's jump in price may be just a bit of buying caused by short covering? If you can add any comments that would help to shine a realistic light on PRTS and its longer term potential, I would appreciate it!
Thanks!
Dawn
Read Answer Asked by Dawn on May 12, 2021
Q: Good morning! I note that you've rarely had much to say that is positive about EIT.UN. Most recently you suggested that XIC would be a better choice, and I don't understand why. ( For one thing it seems to be an apples/oranges comparison.) EIT.UN is up almost 40% in 52 weeks. And why should I care too much about the disparity in fees, if the one yields 10% and the other, less than 3%?
Regarding return of capital, I know that is has always been high, but here is the breakdown from my 2020 T3:
R.o.C. 42.7%
Cap. Gains 53.3%
el. Dividends 4.0%
Read Answer Asked by chris on May 12, 2021
Q: Me, scratching my noggin to explain this......Today, the market is down but in my portfolio, the US stocks broke even but the Lonnie ones are way down. Maybe it's to do with the mix of the stocks in the portfolio, eh?!.....or the timing, which Canada just catching up the down ongoing down drift in the US market?
The Canadian ones relate well to the 5iR portfolios and my total portfolio is 45% balanced, 22% income, 11% growth, all Canadian, and the remaining 22% is composed of US stocks. Coming back to today, I wondering if you agree that the Canadian stocks seem to be hit harder or fell more than the US ones? Any specific reasons for that? Thanks for attempting to put a finger on it, or two.....Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on May 12, 2021
Q: Good evening (or morning, as the case may be!)
I have been asked by friends (a couple, she is 72, he is 81) to help allocate $500K from sale of a house (going to rent an apt. since he is going blind) for a dividend income stream to supplement their pension income. Their hope is to have 4.5% to 5% dividend return, with no major concerns about capital appreciation.
1) I can recommend certain equities (such as PPL, ENB, CM or BNS, SIA, LIF, CPX, EIF for example), but wonder if there might be 5 or 6 others they might add to the list.
2) Would there be any ETF's you could suggest that pay a dividend in that range with a reasonable fee?
3) As another consideration, I have taken a look at annuities, and wonder if you might know where they could purchase same (most likely joint) safely and with a good return. They do not have any relatives so inheritance is not an issue.
4) Last of all would be whether you might suggest a mix of these three (ETF, Annuity, Equity), and if so in what percentage.
Of note, they are not interested in investing globally as they have concerns that the US dollar will be falling and they worry about other countries. The "sleep factor" is important here. Their diversification will be in Canada alone.

Thanks! Please deduct as many credits as you feel warranted.!
Paul K.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on May 12, 2021
Q: I'm heavy in financial stocks and would like to reduce the number of holdings. In what order from best to least would you rank these companies for a long term hold. I'd like to mention that this question function is a tremendous feature. Thanks for the excellent and speedy answers to my previous questions. I feel very supported.
Read Answer Asked by Robert on May 12, 2021
Q: We are typically buy and hold investors. It has been suggested that we sell our Capital Market Weighted Index VTI (unregistered) and purchase RSP which is Equal Weighted (unregistered). Apparently, the larger companies in VTI are getting very expensive and have started to under-perform since November 2020. Other than capital gains from the sale of VTI what are the advantages and disadvantages of switching?
Read Answer Asked by Bradley on May 12, 2021
Q: Good day, I’m thinking with the better exchange rate of late, it would be a good time to buy more US shares inside a tfsa. We are very diversified across all accounts. Looking for some ideas. What are some growth names you would buy today? Already own most big tech, but would have no problem adding to them. Thanks so much as always




Read Answer Asked by Darby on May 12, 2021
Q: Hi,
I am aware these companies are mentioned, often in a positive light, fairly often in your Q&A section. To be honest, I struggle with what you might be seeing that apparently investors don't seem to be aware of, as these have all sold off quite a bit recently. I am interested in whether or not you still feel as positive on these companies now, as you may have in the past. U gapped down in Feb by about 15% and has since dropped about 40% more. VEEV is probably down about 23% from its Feb high, and ROKU about 37% during the same period. I understand there has been a rotation away from tech but these strike me as having a very long way to crawl back up, even though I understand earnings haven't been all that bleak. Am I missing something here? I would be very interested in your thoughts and these and any others you feel might be really under priced lately!
Thanks!
Dawn
Read Answer Asked by Dawn on May 12, 2021