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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: I am a retiree with substantial cash set aside for things like a new car, appliances on their last legs, some renovations, and a trip. My questions is: do I include this cash as part of my portfolio when determining asset allocation %, both in equity vs fixed income and, more importantly, when calculating what % of my portfolio is in individual stocks and what % is in any given sector? Obviously, %s change dramatically if I only count the $ actually invested! Thanks again for your steady hand.
Read Answer Asked by M.S. on October 21, 2015
Q: With the broad-based sell-off of healthcare stocks, do you have any sense which other sectors may benefit to the extent that institutional sellers are re-investing their sale proceeds?
Read Answer Asked by Murray on October 21, 2015
Q: I am not a holder of Valeant Pharma, but I do have a small position in Concordia. While one could argue that Valeant had appreciated quite spectacularly after its failed bid for Allergan and was perhaps due for a pullback that recent market behavior seems irrational! It seems that retail investors don't really have a chance in today's markets with HFT and powerful short sellers. Many retail investors will get scared out of these stocks and others when huge declines occur even if they bounce back in 3 weeks or 3 months as evidenced by what happened on that Monday in August. Is there something the market watchers can do to restore some semblance of fair play in the stocks markets?
Read Answer Asked by Jason on October 21, 2015
Q: Hi,

Why is it that when these stocks drop, CXR, the one not being targeted by subpoena, seems to drop twice as much as VRX? For example, last Monday CXR dropped 20 % whereas VRX dropped ten?
Today, when news came out of allegations of VRX's, CXR dropped just as badly? From its peak, VRX, has dropped about 56%, whereas CXR has dropped 82%!! I can see why people are selling VRX but why is CXR being punished worse?
Read Answer Asked by Graeme on October 21, 2015
Q: Hi
At 11:59 today there was an announcement from cinven

Cinven announces acquisition of 7,233,338 common shares of Concordia Healthcare Corp.
21 Oct 2015 11:59 ET Please comment. Thankyou
Read Answer Asked by maida on October 21, 2015
Q: A follow-up to the discussion on the ACB of stocks held in multiple accounts: the real complication, here, is if some of your funds are managed professionally. It's by no means unusual that, acting independently and at arm's-length, both you and the money manager have taken positions in the same security. However, your money manager's end-of-year documents will pretend that only they own shares. Conversely, for you to integrate their cost-of-shares into your own end-of-year documents has the potential to get obscenely complicated, and (since the money manager doesn't reciprocate) pointless, to boot. I've never heard of the CRA complaining about reporting ACB separately for separately-managed accounts. After all, it would only create make pointless (i.e., unremunerative) work for them, too.
Read Answer Asked by John on October 21, 2015
Q: Hi Peter,
Sorry for another question on the same companies. Jason Donville recently recommended Valeant and Concordia and Bill Ackman owns a fair amount of Valeant shares. These folks are very smart people. I understand that the shorts are effectively ruling the show right now as the same thing happened to Nobilius Health. The stocks are not reoovering. One would think that if the fundamentals are there, the stocks would have a bit of comeback. What is missing here please given your experience?
Read Answer Asked by umedali on October 21, 2015
Q: My apologies for adding to the barrage of questions on Concordia -- I promise to sit on my hands on any further questions until the end of the year. Pinky swear : )

Now, what validity should be attached to the Citron Research report? Is it factual? Is it accurate? Is it truthful -- three very distinct entities, from a legal perspective.

More importantly, what's Citron's vested interest in all this?

From my understanding, the prime researcher on this is a renowned short-seller, so is this report as obvious a ploy as it looks?

Being naive? Or conspiratorial?

I'm just not sure what to believe anymore. I'm holding on to my shares for now, in this gale-force wind, because 5 I reiterates that there is value in the stock and that the fundamentals will speak for themselves, if we can hang on through all this noise.

Thanks for your advice, as always.

Read Answer Asked by Sylvia on October 21, 2015
Q: On Oct.20 you told Henry to use the "text" search function in the Q&A section - where does one find that?
Read Answer Asked by chris on October 21, 2015
Q: Good morning,

There seems to be a lot of opinions about excess shorting by U.S hedge funds that is causing considerable disruption to stocks in the Canadian markets. I have never been an advocate of shorting as it is destructive by nature, but it is what it is.
My main concern is that there may be a return of excessive naked shorting and there is little defense against this activity.

What are your views on this? and how can we protect ourselves against this.

Is the uptick rule still in place or has that gone the way of the Dodo ?

Thanks Peter



Read Answer Asked by Peter on October 21, 2015
Q: Hello, and sorry for the very general question. Are there any financial actions we could do before the change of governments?
We are retired but find the TFSA very useful. Should it be topped up before the change ? Any other things that could come from left field?
Read Answer Asked by Deborah on October 21, 2015
Q: Orbite has recently redeemed all its 2012 debentures. Forgetting Orbite past history, Can redeeming debentures ahead of time be considered a good sign ?
Read Answer Asked by Terry on October 21, 2015
Q: Hello 5i,
Regarding your response to Kenneth today: Not quite like that. The adjusted cost base is the AVERAGE cost of ALL the shares owned, in all non registered accounts.

Does this include tfsa accounts and corporate accounts?
I would think corporate accounts would be separate and as there are no capital gains or losses in tfsa accounts I would think they are separate as well?
Read Answer Asked by Randy on October 21, 2015
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