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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: Janet Yellen - Federal Reserve - talking about taxing unrealized capital gains - year after year even if you have not sold. Your opinion on this. Now that everyone including young people I know are getting information through Reddit and buying all these risky plays, i.e. Koss, and Gamestop are making a lot of money for new people in the market. Will there be enough to go around for people who just want to buy safe stocks and hold on to them for a period of time? Most of my stocks in this area have gone a fair amount over the past while, whereas these highly promoted risky and shorted stocks - seemed to be skyrocketing and more money will gravitate to them. Your opinion on that?
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on February 01, 2021
Q: hi 5i team

2 beginners questions about options

Question 1; This may seem like a silly question. I owned 300 shares of FLGT for a while, then I sold 3 july calls at 47.5 Now the silly question is, when the call expires, do I have to give specific instructions to the brokerage, or do they just see the 300 shares in my account and automatically sell them at 47.50 ? (since I did not place both the buy share order and sell call at the same time).

Question 2a and 2b: For the sake of the question, let's assume a zero bid ask spread. From what I see in the quotes in my account, and suppose the call was to expire at the same prices tomorrow, then I would be better (by about 1000$ US) to buy back the calls and sell the shares at the current prices then to let it execute ! I am surprised by that, any comment you can make, does it seem normal ?
Question 2b: then IF I thought the price of the stock would keep going up, it would be better to close out the position now.
many thanks
Read Answer Asked by Francois on February 01, 2021
Q: The typical suggested portfolio size seems to be about 20 stocks. Your portfolios are constructed at about this size. Why?

Why not a larger assortment of stocks/ETFs/etc...? Perhaps a limit of $2000 (or whatever) per selection could be made and each sector would then be represented and diversified within. Would not this mitigate risk while still providing opportunities for gain?

Read Answer Asked by Dano on February 01, 2021
Q: There are a lot of small to medium sized Canadian technology companies, some of them fairly new to the stock market, that have seen very good stock price appreciation in the last year or two. Many/most of these companies are not profitable, and obviously this is a fairly speculative segment of the market. Today, I heard Darren Sissons talking about JDS Uniphase which went from $2 to $1,000 and back to $2 in the tech bubble 21 years ago. I'm wondering about how many of these small to medium sized Canadian tech companies might suffer a similar fate, and how many will succeed. Of the following list of stocks, what would be your estimate for the % of them that will succeed 5 - 10 years down the road at becoming long term successful businesses, with strong profits and a substantially higher stock price than now, and what % will fall by the wayside, failing to become good profitable businesses, and seeing their stock price drop off substantially. There are no doubt others that could be included in this list, but these are the ones I have picked out. Not asking which ones will succeed, just trying to get an idea of general potential for success/failure for this type of company/stock. ADCO, AT, CTS, DCBO, DND, KSI, LSPD, MVP, NVEI, PHO, QUIS, STC, WISH.
Read Answer Asked by Dan on January 31, 2021
Q: Hi Guys,

I would like to add one more eft to my balance (75%) and growth (25%) portfolio, what would be your top North American pick for a 3 to 5 year hold? I already hold Arkk 3%, Dxg 7%, Arkg 2% and Tan 3.5%. Or should I just add to one of the ones already inside my portfolio.

thanks
Jim
Read Answer Asked by jim on January 31, 2021
Q: Is there a Canadian Co. that might benefit from the proposed Infrastructure spending that U.S
President Biden is planning for the U.S.? Would this Co. have to be listed on both the Canadian & U.S. Exchanges? I want a stock that qualifies for the Canadian DTC. I find BIP.UN & BIPC a bit baffling. Last March, BIPC was created & I thought it was supposed to mirror BIP.UN but as of last Friday there was a $20 difference between the price of the two stocks. When I look into BIPC which I would prefer because of the DTC, most of its holdings are in Brazil & the U.K.
Thank you: Jerry
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on January 31, 2021
Q: Hi,
What would be a good entry point for AT?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Marco on January 29, 2021
Q: Peter/Ryan, can you comment on what's going on in the market re: the Hedge Funds and shorting news. Can this be harmful to us regular small investors who are just trying to grow there investments. Should we be doing anything to avoid any trouble, like locking in our gains and selling. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Nick on January 29, 2021