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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: This is about the question asked by Paul regarding tax consequences. I am not sure I understand your answer, you say that "one can even sell in late December (as long as the sell settles in 2023) and then in January and shift the tax burden a full year". In a case like this I would have thought of selling very early in January 2024 instead. Could you comment? Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Gervais on October 03, 2023
Q: Awhile ago a G & M columnist wrote a reply to a question and gave advice and details about selling a U.S. listed stock. He recommended not doing it all at once for tax reasons and I am wondering what your thoughts would be. I bought 300 shares of QQQ in the 1990's at about $43/share. It has grown to be a significant portion of my non registered account. I was thinking of selling 100 shares each of the next three years to lessen the tax consequences. (I am a buy and holder). Thoughts and consequences?
Cheers
Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 03, 2023
Q: What can you tell us about structured notes and any recommendations?
Read Answer Asked by Guy R. on October 03, 2023
Q: There’s a widely held belief that a recession will occur fairly soon which would see the US ten year yield decline, but there are also bond experts now predicting that the yield could rise above 13% within seven years. If that happens, does it mean that dividend paying “bond proxies” like pipelines, telcos and utilities will just keep drifting lower? Does the same apply to mining companies? What’s the investment thesis for such assets in a world of rising yields?
Read Answer Asked by Brian on October 03, 2023
Q: Good afternoon. Just a brutal 5-7 days for the Canadian telcos, pipelines and utilities.

Besides the usual narrative(s) of higher rates for longer and a Fed now suggesting 2 vs 4 rate cuts in 2024, is there anything else at play here that should cause a retired yield-focused investor cause for concern?
Read Answer Asked by Trevor on October 03, 2023
Q: Everyone. AI is at the beginning of a great breakout in many industries. AI is in exponentially growth period and the early adopters will benefit but the biggest beneficiaries are yet to be identified. I didn’t understand the benefits of MSFT or APPL in their pre-real growth stages. Will AI change the stock market in a profound way the humans will not be involved ie the human stock pickers. What tech areas should I look for be looking for or are they in my view already? Should we believe in the large cap tech stocks will continue to lead, or buy, the AI technology revolution? Clayton
Read Answer Asked by Clayton on October 03, 2023
Q: I'm having trouble understanding why FTN keeps having these unexplained price drops!!Last time it happened I bought a lot of it and sold it for a hefty profit a few days later,which I then invested in FTN.PR which just raised its dividend to 9.25%.Now FTN is back down to where I bought it a few weeks ago!!!The yield is 22% and as long as the NAV remains above $15 it will pay the dividend,NAV is $16.82 as of Sept 15.I know you're not a fan of split shares or short term investing,but would FTN not seem like a screaming buy here???
Read Answer Asked by terry on October 03, 2023
Q: In a world where indebted dividend-payers are being stressed by higher rates, how would you rank the following Canadian companies in terms of the sustainability of their dividend?

RY, TD, BMO, BNS, SRU.UN, FCR.UN, BCE, Telus, FTS, EMA, BEP.UN, BIP.UN, ALA, ENB, TRP, PPL, GEI
Read Answer Asked by Brian on October 03, 2023
Q: Hi Peter,
Of the bigger O/G Cos we own CNQ and IMO but not CVE or SU. IMO has been on a solid run lately and we're wondering why vs the group laggard SU (easy to see using ratio charts). For new capital would you stick with CNQ/IMO or add in CVE or SU. Do you agree that with higher rates the Oils are a good place to be ? Finally CNQ has committed to greater returns when their debt target is reached; are there similar committments from the others ? Thank you and pls deduct credits as appropriate,
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 03, 2023
Q: Please give me your view on Norfolk Southern Corp.

Thank You in advance.
Read Answer Asked by John on October 02, 2023
Q: In a year BEP.UN down 32.22 % , FTS down
3 .65 %. Why the difference; BEP.UN initially overpriced FTS “ underpriced “, green stocks way out of favour, etc? I own a fair amount of BEP.UN and do want to sell but if there is something fundamentally wrong with this company I don’t want to hold on until it’s a penny stock or something like AQN happens. I imagine Flatt and others are wringing their hands and hope they do something to improve the share price.
Thanks. Derek
Read Answer Asked by Derek on October 02, 2023
Q: For non-registered accounts:
a) Am I correct in assuming that capital losses can only be used to reduce tax on capital gains. and not any other sources of income, such as investment interest ?
b) Similarly, how about capital gains tax reduction through an RRSP contribution -- is this allowed ?
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by TOM on October 02, 2023
Q: I own TDB977 (US Blue Chip) and TDB645 (Science & Tech) which both had a very bad 2022. These really underperformed the rest of the market and I'm considering a change to an ETF for each category.

For TDB977, change to:
a) ZSP
b) TUED

For TDB645, change to:
a) ZQQ
b) TEC

Can I get your thoughts on the changes? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Victor on October 02, 2023
Q: same sector tax-loss strategy...What am I missing here...with the assumption that the banks move more or less in tandem...

If I sell BNS stock at a $30K loss and use the funds to buy BMO as a "placeholder", won't I be in the same position either way? i.e. after a 10% gain I would either recover my losses as the BNS stock increases or I would grow tax-free gains as the BMO stock increases (up to $30K)...

Surely for this tax loss strategy it is best to just stick with the company I most believe in, yes?
Read Answer Asked by Brett on October 02, 2023
Q: Hi 5i team,

I'm interested in your thoughts on Enovix, a seemingly new technology that is moving to commercialize an improved EV battery. Less fire risk.

ALSO - a suggestion that could be highly useful to subscribers.

The 5i portfolio analytics indicates I have gaps in my sector and stock diversification. I want to easily consider 5i rated (using A+ downward) system. I currently can filter for the year of rating, and 'letter grade' rating which is helpful. It would be super helpful to also be able to filter for sector. As well, what is most relevant to me is which countries the stock revenue comes from....rather than its corporate office location. Is this possible?

As an aside - I have been working with Chat GPT a little. One example is where I uploaded a number of documents and then could interactively apply prompts/questions to the data (uploaded documents) to quickly answer important questions. Having a Chat GPT engine that includes 5i historical research would seemingly be able to cover the suggestion I noted above with little additional or ongoing maintenance. Love to get your thoughts here.

Thank you again for premium service.

Glenn Atkinson
Read Answer Asked by Glenn on October 02, 2023