Investment Q&A

Q: Publish publicly in whole or part (or none) at your discretion, within the limits of what is appropriate for an investing advice service.
This is in response to Ed's tax/accounting beef of April 1.
I'm a retired tax accountant who served many investors who were plagued by this same situation.
I used to give my investment clients a little mini-editorial about it being the responsibility of the investor to have all that data, either prepared and kept by the investor themselves, or by someone else (which may have been the broker) the investor paid to prepare it for them. I developed a spreadsheet (which I used myself as well as making it available to my clients) to assist them in doing it for themselves if they so wished. Simple spreadsheet, usable in Excel or Google Sheets, which anyone comfortable with spreadsheets could replicate.
I'm happy to post the above, as well as a copy of the spreadsheet if that is possible, in the forums, though I note the most appropriate forum (Tax & FX issues) is now 5 years old. Perhaps a new forum topic, but I don't know how to start one?

Q: Do you have a preference between HXS.CA vs HXS.U and HXQ.CA vs HXQ.U and could you comment on HXX - would it be the same as the others with the exception of the focus on Europe?
Thanks for your service

Q: Good day. This is more of an informational request on brokerages and processing day orders. I ordered 500 shares of XMH today (Itrade), which at that time had a price of 24.50. I put in a limit order and got a partial fill of 200 shares. But I could see, after a short time, that there were bids for higher than 24.50 and it was near end of day. I raised my limit bid to 24.55, and got another 200 shares. At 3.59 to finish the order I changed it to a market order and got the last 100 at 24.60.
Throughout this the actual price/value of the stock never changed from 24.50. It remained at 24.50 at end of day. I had thought that a stock/etf exchanging hands for a higher price would raise the value of that stock/etf?

Q: Hello, I need to liquidate some of the stocks listed. Disregarding sector diversification, in what order should I do this? Thanks for your help.

Q: Can you suggest some companies with decent premiums that you think would be good candidates for an income generating strategy using options.
Many thanks.
Mike

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan and Team,

With the current market environment, what are your top 5 US and Canadian growth picks?

Q: Hello
Since you are dipping your toes in the small fish pond with MRS.V I thought I would ask about these two microcaps, Sifco Industries(USA) and Hammond Manufacturing(CDA).
I've had them on my watchlist for about four months and find them interesting although risky due to the small size.
Your thoughts please.
Thank you
Dave

Q: Any idea what happened today with Pure Gold down 13%. More Sprott funding was announced and close to commercial production so would have expected a bump not a dive.

Q: Do they actually manufacture their products or are they resellers??

Q: Thoughts on most recent results?

Q: This is a tax / accounting beef, but it may apply to a lot of subscribers.

I'm doing my taxes on my own, and it is extremely time-consuming and frustrating when it comes to investments. CRA wants all the US numbers converted to CAD.

I have a US-based margin account to avoid the constant back and forth with losing money on exchange rates. I own relatively small amounts of many US stocks. Almost half of my tax time is related to accounting for stocks, looking up the original purchase date or settlement date, figuring out the US exchange rate (from the Internet) on that particular day, then adding to the cost base another day and a different US exchange rate when I added a few more shares to it, then subtracting that from the sell price with the sell date's foreign exchange rate. If that’s not enough, CRA wants us to include the commission in the cost base, but then the sell price needs to have the commission stripped out (with its US exchange rate calculated). What’s that all about?

I don’t know why the trading platform doesn’t figure all this out for you. Are there any smarter ways of doing this, other than switching brokerage accounts?

Q: Which are , in your views, and in a growth perspective, the best ETFs to cover the financial sector ? Is IAI one of them ? Why or why not ?

Gratefully,

Jacques IDS

Q: This stock just took a 15% drop because of their recent financial report. It looks to be about the Covid problem. Do you think that this would be a good entry point, since Covid vaccinations are going ahead rapidly in the U.S. ?

Q: Would you have a preference, or even recommend either of these US industrial stocks? Seems Jim Cramer on Mad Money in US is a big fan but I would like your perspective. Thanks.

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I own the following Cons Staples = NWC, PBH, PLC, as well as I am building a Cons Discretionary position in Leon's.

I am looking for another Disc stock. I remember seeing a related question on this a few days ago, but couldn't find it. What are your favorites right now for me to do further research on? I must admit I lean towards value stocks, as I have difficulty in buying something that has already had a good run.

Could you give me 3 Discretionary names on the conservative side and 3 on the more aggressive side...no speculative names. If we can't find a suitable Discretionary stock, I might add another Staple name, like possibly ADW (it is listed as a Staple, which is absolutely true in our household, but it could be Discretionary...compared with food). Could you therefore give me 3 Staple names that might fit well with my existing Consumer holdings? So, I need 9 names, if possible. The cash available is in my TFSA, so while a dividend is nice it is not imperative.

Thanks for your help...much appreciated...Steve

Q: Can you please comment on the outlook for autodesk.
Would this be a good infrastructure play?
Thanks Cal

Q: CLF Thoughts on this company with the Biden infrastructure plan coming out later today, stock seemed to get a “shot in the arm” 😁 on this announcement!

Q: Gold in general due to the massive Fed and provincial deficits in Canada

Hi Peter and team
even before Covid, the Fed govt was running a substantial deficit in good time
(comparatively)
the Fed deficit for the next few years (1-5) would be enormous no matter which party takes power
with the debt, for an average investor, I do own gold stocks and ETF
today at 11:30 Wed , one speaker on BNN felt that investors are not keen on buying gold (now off the peak season), he does not like bitcoin either

From your perspective, this could be a good time to buy some more quality gold
stocks and ETF (I know the names that your services recommend) ; I wonder
if you feel that this would be a prudent move, (up to 5 plus percent in ones portfolio)
or there is another sector one could buy as an insurance of the massive printing of our money due to the huge deficits (the US called it Quantitative easing)

looking forward to hear your expert opinion,
thanks

Michael (do own some gold stocks and the ETF for gold)

Q: Regarding their year end release. I noticed they have a cash balance of 16.3M which increased in 2020 despite the terrible year. This is almost 1/3 of its market cap in cash. How positive do you view the ability of this company's ability to weather the storm in 2020 and be diligent enough to increase its cash position. Looking for your thoughts as I am getting more inclined to increase my weight slightly as a spec play. thank you.

Q: Hi 5i team,
DOC share price has been steadily declining during 2021, whereas Dialogue Health ‘CARE’ debuts yesterday with almost a 30% gain. What’s the reasons driving the very different sentiments toward these two tele-medicine stocks? What is your top choice in this space and why (excluding WELL) ? Thanks.