Investment Q&A

Q: If one decides he has too much risk, would it be wise to sell some equities now at these depressed prices, or wait for a recovery to act?
Thanks,

Q: Do you think that this becomes a better investment the lower the dollar goes? Or will the deterioration of purchasing power make even staycations out of reach for too many households?

Q: I know in the past you have mentioned that you use Bloomberg Professional. I'm just wondering if you could recommend websites or software that the average person can take advantage of for Canadian market research and portfolio tracking?

Q: Peter, there appears to be no let up in car buying, Exco I believe, brings in mostly US income and have expenses mostly in CAD, and its P/E seems very reasonable. Yet the stock is down. Other than this brutal market, any reasons? Subject to over concentration...buy more?

Q: To add to the general hilarity, Albert Edwards from Societe Generale Private Banking, told his clients yesterday that they should sell everything as we are heading for a 2008 style crash and US stocks will lose 75% of their value. This comes from the UK Telegraph Saturday Jan. 16, 2016. Publish or not as you see fit.

Q: Hi Pete and Ryan,

Two questions on two different companies:

1. VSN - How are these guys funding their projects if all their cash flow is going to pay the dividend? It seems to me that a dividend cut is in order as they can't keep going like this forever. What do you think?

2. Capital Power - In light of Alberta's climate change policy, do you think Capital Power will be able to grow their power generation asset base such that the shutdown of their coal assets (in 2030) will be mitigated, if not immaterial altogether? Capital Power seems to have decent cash flow and upcoming projects underway, but I wonder how much this will impact them in 15 years time.

Thanks again,

Aaron

Q: I have gone through homepage and financials of wcp and surge. My question is this; of the hedges that were in place for 2015 and pending 2016, how many of these were actually carried out at these prices? It seems to me if they were all carried out, these two companies would be in the black.
On a related note, if oil futures are going down, why is US and Saudi Arabia pumping and selling the oil glut. It seems to me that this is done deliberately to flush out all the other countries, and would leave US and Saudi controlling the future oil production. Just look at the price of TCW, CFW, PD. FRC. and many others. These companies are on there last legs and will be bought out or cease activities. Are there others who believe like I do? Thanks, this has been on my mind for several years. Sorry to be a pain.

Q: I think the U.S. is going into a recession as some have predicted and much of the data supports. Ones overall view of the big picture should be paramount, not the buy the dip mentality which has been pervasive view and correct over the last few years, prior to 2015. Things have changed and the markets are forcasting the change. Cash will be safe but until the change for the better starts to happen, I recommend stay in cash. Not for everyone, but if you invest or trade, you have to sleep at night. just one point of view and this makes a market go up and down. Watch all the data. not good at the moment imhop.

Q: I am interested in some balancing to my overwhelming Canadian holdings.
1. Can you suggest some low MER ETFs to provide US and World (excluding North America)?
2. What do you think of 'fundamental' ETFs compared to those based on 'market cap'? Any suggested names for further research?
The complexity of the expanding ETF field seems self defeating to their intended purpose. Thank you for your guidance.

Q: I have built up about 60% cash. I held onto RY TD and BNS. With blood in the streets I am considering deploying some cash (gradually). What sectors should I look at and in what order. Any individual stocks that look compelling at this time. Thank you in advance

Q: Hello.
Been watching and looking for an entry point for GUD. In a recent answer you indicated this would be a good time to buy. I don't understand how an investor would choose this as an entry point. The stock price seems to be diving through support values.......would you please comment on what makes this a good time to enter and take up a new position?
Thanks
Dave

Q: It looks like a lot of people are taking that RBS advise to "sell everything " to heart today. Wouldn't selling now just lock in loses? Do you advise the best course is do nothing and just ride it out for those who don't need the cash?

Q: Hi 5i

Does this company have a future or is it just a small fish in a big pond waiting to be eaten up by the sharks fanduel or draftkings?

thanks Paul

Q: I have a fairly diversified portfolio with stocks and etfs in different sectors. But I am seeing a majority of my holdings are down. Practically, anything which was bought within the last couple of years is down especially anything in the last couple of months (which was when I invested a majority of holdings) is down. I have a fairly long time frame but what should I do at times like these? What should I learn from this? Even those stocks which seemed like a good buy at that time seem overvalued..On top of this the drop in Canadian $ was a big hit.

Q: hi folks:

I own important, yet relatively small amounts of these energy related service co's

canyon (frc); Gibson (gei); McCoy (mcb); strad (sdy)

is there any obvious reason to sell any of them?

fairly sure they are all well run and simply affected by the obvious oil decline

what are your concerns on each one, and what order would you
buy more?

thanks in advance

Q: Can you please comment on the S&P500 valuation at the moment and going forward in this environment ? We keep hearing about the strong dollar which affects earning but it appears the index remains very high at close to 2000 (vs the last 5-10 yrs). Also, do you think the tsx will be closely correlated with the US index in the next 2-3 years. Thank you.

Q: Hello 5i!
I have the following O&G related stocks: BAD(-20%), BNK (-87%), CVX.us(-12%), ENB(-15%), EPD.us(+12%), HWO(-9%), MCR(-43%), PEY (-30%), PRW(-68%), RRX(-26%), SGY(-74%), TOG(+4%), TOU(-58%), VET(-51%) & WCP(-40%).

I am thinking cutting down the number of positions to about 6, or whatever makes sense to have a good balance with a growth profile. I understand some of the above offer services, and BAD is not 100% tied to the energy sector, you may put these aside for the exercise if required.

Biggest losers by $ are BNK, SGY, TOU & VET and I can claim tax loss for each of them.

Based on your knowledge, which one should I keep in the list?
Also, what are your thoughts on selling everything I can claim tax loss and wait a month before getting back into the market based on the current market outlook?
I recently started to average down and it seems I could be doing that for a few months! I am setting up things for the long term and can handle risk.
Thank you so much for your usual great services!

Q: Which would you prefer in the refining space, Holly Frontier (HFC.US) or Valero (VLO.US) and why?

Q: I hold XIT in both my RRSP and Cash accounts as my tech exposure, which is roughly 10%. 77% of the ETF is made up of 5 stocks = CGI-24%, CSU-21%, OTC-15%, BB-11% and DH-6%. It has performed reasonably well, even beating out it's USA cousin XLK (7.8% vs 1.3% total return over the last year).

I am reasonably positive on CGI, OTC and DH, neutral on BB and thought quite highly of CSU until recently. It appears to be rolling over. I suspect it might be some profit taking due to these ugly markets.

Is XIT still a reasonable holding for tech exposure? It really comes down to CGI and CSU, in my opinion...thanks for your guidance.

Q: Is this a good environment to invest in Gold Stocks. What is your view? How would you rank these gold/silver stocks in terms of growth:
G,AEM,THO,SEA,OSK,DGC

Also which ones have a higher probability of a takeover. Thanks