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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: For a ten year investment, what would you recommend as your top three ETFs for international equities (i.e. non-US and non-Cdn equities) from a risk-reward standpoint? Does your recommendation change if the ETFs are to go in a registered or non-registered account? Dividends are not necessarily an objective. The ETFs can be from a Canadian or a US firm (i.e. Vanguard, iShares, BMO, etc.).

Thank you for this great service!
Read Answer Asked by Dale on July 05, 2019
Q: I bought ARX on the recommendation of a couple individuals on BNN. I think I might have leapt before I looked. Doing some research I’m not impressed with the chart as well as the negativity on natural gas. I like to invest in stocks with a decent dividend and some opportunity for price appreciation. I’m not sure this fits. What’s your opinion?
Read Answer Asked by Roy on July 05, 2019
Q: Hi,
What would be the best ratios to look at before buying a REIT : FFO, P/B , EV/EBITDA ?, …For example CUF has good ratios (may be because the price is down) but is far from a favorite among analysts. I have small positions in AP, HR, REI, PLZ, TCN. I sold SRU. I also have VNQ Etf, WIR, HOT and IVQ on the US side. The last two did not perform very well, but seem OK and have quite a big yield. Are my holdings a good mix or too diversified ? I find the REITs are historically expensive right now (ex IIP, DIR) and I’m hesitant to put more money in this sector. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Denise on July 05, 2019
Q: I hold the above positions in the Information Technology sector of my US dollar portfolio that is balanced and well diversified. I am now able to add 1 or 2 Information Technology sector positions. Please provide me with your suggestions including weightings.
Also if you think that the above positions overlap one another, please let me know......Many thanks.....Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on July 05, 2019
Q: Small TFSA started last year and now looking at bringing it up to the maximum with contributions this year and beginning of next year. Would like to try and grow it towards $100,000 and then in about 4 years transition more to income producing holdings to augment pensions. Could you please comment on the current holdings listed below and suggest where to top up, replace or add and to what %. Prefer Canadian holdings to avoid U.S. tax issues.
Many thanks as always

KXS 30%
BNS 25%
BEP.un 10%
SIS 10%
GC 9.5%
PHO 6%
TSGI 6%
GUD 2%
COV 1.5%
Read Answer Asked by Alexandra on July 05, 2019
Q: Hi

My question is about structuring and managing a portfolio across multiple registered and unregistered accounts. Please forgive if this question has been asked before.

Between 4 family members (including two young children) we have 11 trading accounts on the go, including 5 unregistered (3 Cdn and 2 US), 2 tfsa’s, 2 rrsp’s, and 2 resp’s. My approach to date has generally been to try to diversify within each account and try not to duplicate between accounts, with an eye to overall diversification.

This results in three problems (at least): sub-optimal diversification within and across accounts, too many holdings (which are difficult to monitor) and a low average $ value per holding. For example, 11 accounts times ten positions per account is 110 holdings. As for low value, a 10% holding on a $50,000 registered account is $5,000, which represents only 0.5% of an aggregate $1,000,000 value (example).

I have been thinking of treating all of the accounts holistically rather than individually while accounting for tax considerations of course. My goal is to try to get the number of holdings down to 20 - 30, with an average value of 3% - 5% of aggregate portfolio value. I find the main difficulty to be in structuring the lower value accounts.

Two approaches I have been mulling over:

1) Scrap the individual account diversification approach and perhaps only hold 1 - 3 positions in lower value accounts. This approach would probably mean that no account on its own will be diversified but the aggregate portfolio will be (hopefully).
2) Try to maintain the account diversification approach by investing in only one etf per account until the account eventually reaches a size sufficient to hold more positions (then I suppose the approach would flip to the first approach). The idea being that each account would hold a different etf (and at least be somewhat diversified) that would contribute to the overall diversification of the aggregate portfolio.

Do you have any comments or guidance on managing multiple accounts? How do investment professionals manage their own family accounts? Any best practices that you are aware of, or good articles that you can direct me to? Any considerations besides tax; for example, how do you apportion risk between family members and accounts?

Thanks
Derek
Read Answer Asked by Derek on July 05, 2019
Q: Hi
Several questions have referenced your "excel spreadsheet of monthly dividend payers". It sounds very useful but I have been unable to find it. Is it available to all members?
Thank you................. Paul K.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on July 05, 2019
Q: Best bets today! Returned from a holiday to find the tight stops I left were pretty much all triggered. What are your buy recommendation cdn and us....2-3 of each? I am not a buy and holder so looking for stocks with a tailwind in the present market.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Robert on July 05, 2019
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