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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: Peter,

I want to compare performance of various mutual funds on my electronic watchlist. This will involve equity funds as well as balanced funds. I have no interest in bond funds. I will be looking at both small cap & large cap. What companies to you recommend me comparing. I know you like Mawer and have owned various of their funds for a number of years and am very happy with the results.
If specific mutual fund families have a specific successful niche ( ie small cap etc ) please indicate. looking at Canada, USA, non North America as well as Emerging Markets.

Thanks for allowing us to renew at old prices early.


Thank you

Paul
Read Answer Asked by paul on October 31, 2017
Q: Hi,

My question is regarding their recent offer for convertible debentures and I would appreciate any thoughts you might have on them. The cd's will bear 7% interest paid semi annually, with a conversion price of 2.20. There is also the chance THCX would force the conversion of all of the principal amount of the outstanding cd's on 30 days' notice if the average trading price of the common shares be greater than 3.15 for any 10 consecutive trading days. I do agree with your skepticism of this sector, but can't help but wonder about this one partly because of it's location and partly because we have a government that seems to be willing to move forward with setting standards that might help this industry to become more established.
On the other hand, it also occurs to me that with the recent rise in the US dollar, I should just buy MSFT, INTC or more NVDA, the latter which thank you - I bought on your recommendation some time ago.

Dawn

Read Answer Asked by Dawn on October 31, 2017
Q: I own equal amounts of these bond funds in an RSP. While CBO has a 2.3% return over the last year, and is considered one of 5Si"s "core" holdings, I am thinking that I should retain this position. XSB is off about 1% in the last 12 months, and its return over the last 5 years is dismal. XSH has about a 0.4% return in the last 12 months , with a 3 year return of 2.1%. Is there a benefit to selling any or all of these positions, and purchasing higher yielding bond etf's? If I were to sell, should I seek US or Canadian bonds fund, and which specific etf's might you recommend?
Thank you for your consistently good advice.
Read Answer Asked by doug on October 31, 2017
Q: Hello 5i,
Which preferred do to you prefer? Pardon the pun.
I'm seeking USD dividend income from Canadian companies to take advantage of the div tax credit. Can you suggest other vehicles or strategies to achieve this?
Are these perpetual or rate reset? With rates increasing, why aren't these going down in value? The yield seems to be north of 5%. Any obvious risks I may be overlooking?
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on October 31, 2017
Q: I intend to reduce my equity holdings for two reasons – I need to free up some cash for other projects and, secondly, I am concerned about the current risk in the equity markets and want to discharge an investment loan I have against my house. I am happy with the securities I own and their % in the portfolio. Consequently, my plan is to generally reduce across the board.

I own both ENB and ENF. Should I sell one and keep the other or reduce both?

I also own ESP. It has been a wild ride and I am presently down about 25%. What is your outlook on this stock over the next couple of years? Given my plans for portfolio restructuring should I sell and book the loss or continue to hold?

In the US portion of my portfolio I own GOOGL, AMZN and FB among others. If the market enters a severe correction do you see these as more risky than the US market in general?
Read Answer Asked by Ross on October 31, 2017
Q: Can you please give me your thoughts (or alternative recommendations) on the following Funds for a 64 year old heading into retirement within the next year.

RBC Select Balanced Portfolio - Series A . (RBF460)
EdgePoint Cdn Growth & Income Port Sr A (CAD). - (EDG188)
EdgePoint Global Growth & Inc Port Sr A (CAD). - (EDG180)
PIMCO Monthly Income A (CAD). - (PMO005)

Please deduct as many credits as required.

As always, thank you for your invaluable service.

Micheal
Read Answer Asked by micheal on October 31, 2017
Q: I would like to add to my industrials and can't decide between these two companies. I know you like both. Is there anything that suggests one over the other? I am wondering if given I have enough healthcare already, is that enough to influence me to go with NFI as it is the "purer" industrial play?

Appreciate your insight (and really looking forward to the new website!)

Paul F.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 31, 2017
Q: You seem to like Covalon a lot and I wonder what you are seeing that it might be worth investing in.
It looks to me that their product line is not very diversified....and a Chinese copycat could easily move in.
If you had a choice between COV,KXS or CLS what would be your pick be in order without looking at sectors?
Read Answer Asked by Josh on October 31, 2017
Q: I have about 35 % in the above stocks in my TFSA and they have gone up nicely. The rest of my TFSA portfolio is following loosely your income portfolio ( + ZPW, ZWE, ZWH etc). My question is whether I should lower my exposure to the financial sector above?
Do you have some suggestions as to which US companies I could buy were I to sell some of the banks. I bought the US banks for growth as the rest of the stocks on the Can. side are mostly income producers.I already own Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Visa in my RRSP.
Thank you for your answer.
Heidi
Read Answer Asked by Heidrun on October 31, 2017
Q: Lately, a few analysts at BNN have mentioned about canadian banks being overvalued. I own TD, NA, BNS with about 4% each on the portfolio. All in registered accounts and above purchase price. Would it make sense to sell all (or some) and wait in case they correct ?. If yes, what can they be replaced with ? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Alejandro (Alex) on October 31, 2017
Q: To help out the member who was asking about crytpocurrencies, I may be able to help. I have been trading cryptos since April. There is definitely a learning curve.

There are two kinds of exchanges; fiat-to-crypto, and crypto-to-crypto.

Fiat-to-crypto allow you trade dollars for Bitcoin (or ether). Bitcoin is the reserve currency; you need it (or ether) to get the other cryptos. In Canada, there is QuadrigaCx. It’s based out of Vancouver, and I think it’s okay. I used Kraken, which is based in San Francisco. I seem to get Bitcoin for about $100 less on Kraken than I see quoted on QuadrigaCx. As best I can tell, Kraken has a good reputation, and I think it also has insurance in the event of fraud. I got a Tier 3 clearance, so I can transfer about $30,000 per day, and about $250,000 per month. In order to transfer, I needed to wire it to a bank in Japan (!), so the wire cost me $50, then another $35 was taken by the bank in Japan. My first transfer took about a week, and I was nervous, not really sure if my $20,000 would actually show up. But it did. My last two transfers have been much slower, about 2 weeks, and I am still waiting for my last. I have heard there has been a surge in activity which has slowed things down.

Once you have your Bitcoin, although you can trade a few cryptos with Kraken, the selection is limited. So if you want a broad selection, you need to open an account at a crypto-to-crypto exchange. I use Bittrex. It has a good reputation. Poloniex used to be okay, but I think they have had some problems recently. I also had to open an account with Binance, which is a China-based exchange because I wanted to buy GAS, which at the time was only available on that exchange. (GAS is necessary for NEO, which will likely be the Chinese equivalent of ether, so hopefully good prospects.)

A few important things to be aware of. First, you should not store your cryptos on the exchanges, because crytos stored on exchanges have been stolen. Cryptos they should be stored on a wallet. A wallet is just a program on your computer to store your cryptos. Be careful what wallets you use, because some of them are scams, and they will steal your cryptos. I use Jaxx. It’s okay, but has been slow to update their wallet for Bitcoin Cash. There are different wallets for different coins. Don’t keep a lot of cryptos in wallets on your smartphone, because smartphones are not secure enough. If you have a lot money in cryptos, use a device like a Trezor. Very secure, and off the grid.

Be careful when transferring cryptos. If you accidentally send Bitcoin to a Bitcoin Cash wallet or a wallet for Dash or Monera, it will be gone forever. Also, the abbreviation for cryptos can vary between exchanges. Bitcoin is XBT on Kraken, but BTC on Bittrex. Finally, make sure to enable all the security options, like two-factor authentication, and make sure you write down and store all the passwords, etc, and store them in at least two separate locations, in the event of a fire.

Cryptos took me a while to figure out, but they have been very profitable for me. If someone is thinking of getting into cryptos, now is a good time, because there is tremendous institutional interest. None of the big money, such as mutual funds, has been allowed to get in, because it is new and undefined, but some ETFs should be approved in the near future, which should push the price up. And the hassles and learning curve is preventing a lot of individual investors from getting in.

I firmly believe crytptos are here to stay; the genie can’t be put back in the bottle. The more I have learned about them, I think they will radically transform the world of finance. But be prepared for major volatility. Every week somebody will say they are a bubble, or a fraud, or a pyramid scheme. Despite all this negative publicity, Bitcoin continues to hit new highs.

Finally, if you are going to invest in cryptos besides the big ones, like Bitcoin, ether, etc, you should subscribe to a newsletter like I did. There aren’t many of them, and they are expensive, but worth it.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on October 31, 2017
Q: 5i is my best source for Canadian investment information so I naturally turn here for a (possibly) difficult-to-answer question.

A guest on today’s BNN Market Call mentioned as an alternative to Shopify a small, growing company that sounded like “Hop-spot” or “Hot-spot”, but didn’t show or indicate a stock symbol. I searched for the symbol using a range of what I thought are plausible alternative spellings but turned up nothing.

With your encyclopedic grasp of what’s available to Canadian investors, could you point me in the right way to this (probably small-cap) stock?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Steve on October 30, 2017
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