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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: Hello Team,
We would like to ask a question about capital losses. In order to off set gains this year we need to sell a portion of our holdings. The options are either H&R REIT or Intact financial. In your opinion which holding will likely do better in 2014? We could perhaps sell a portion of each. What is your opinion please?
Have a great time in Europe. thanks
Read Answer Asked by john on October 04, 2013
Q: Hope your European trip was enjoyable & profitable!
Would like to reduce my exposure to Western energy. Presently have ALA, ARX, CPG, PKI, PPL,& KEY - all in a cash acct. Have held all for about 4 yrs. & been quite profitable. Just too much concentration. As always your opinion & recommendations are appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Robert on October 04, 2013
Q: 5i Team,

I hope all is having a great 'workation'.

I have a market strategy question relating to portfolio balancing. For most investors, maintaining a balance portfolio is the best way to hedge market risk / volatility (for the purpose of this question, lets ignore the quality and size of companies being purchased, obviously that is extremely important in any scenario). Theoretically, take 11 sectors and try to maintain relative equal weighting (recognizing that it’s impossible to do so perfectly given daily market fluctuations), hence, a ‘perfectly balance’ portfolio would look like:

Utilities – 9.1%
Consumers Staples – 9.1%
Capital Goods / Industrials – 9.1%
Energy – 9.1%
Financials – 9.1%
Health Care – 9.1%
Consumer Cyclical – 9.1%
Transportation – 9.1%
IT – 9.1%
Materials – 9.1%
Telco – 9.1%

Questions:

1. For a client who is willing to go up on the risk curve, are you ok positioning a portfolio overweight / underweight in sectors that you think will outperform / underperform?

2. Given today’s macro economic backdrop, what sectors do you think will be outperforming / underperforming over the next 1-3 years?

3. Finally, I am a 30 year old investor maintaining a small, relatively balance, six figure portfolio. I will be transferring over additional cash to deploy within the coming weeks equal to about 50% of my current portfolio size and am trying to determine how best to position myself in the 11 sectors. I have time on my side, and future cash to invest in coming years, so I’m not overly worried about taking on more risk if I think it can lead to higher returns, but don’t want to be stupid either. As such, assuming I maintain a relative balance of small cap and large cap companies, what weightings do you think I should aim for? How would you position a portfolio TODAY within the 11 sectors for a more ‘risk on’ investor?

Utilities – ?
Consumers Staples – ?
Capital Goods / Industrials – ?
Energy – ?
Financials – ?
Health Care – ?
Consumer Cyclical – ?
Transportation – ?
IT – ?
Materials – ?
Telco – ?

Sorry for the long question.
Read Answer Asked by Ray on October 04, 2013
Q: Do you think CCT Catamaran is in real trouble or is this now a really great buy? Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Alayne on October 04, 2013
Q: I'm not to sure how it all works. But on oct. 17th. The US National Dept. might come into play. A friend of mine told me maybe we should be selling ALL of our stocks. Ever since we've been listening to you guys were boyh up. Him about 25% & me about 35% we really don't want to lose our profits. So do you think we should be selling or holding on. We really appreciate all the help we've received from you. We'll be waiting for your advice. Thank You Very Much. Andy
Read Answer Asked by Andy on October 04, 2013
Q: your opinions on CALFRAC WELL SERVICES CFW-T would be appreciated. thank you.
Read Answer Asked by LESLIE on October 03, 2013
Q: Equity Financial EQI is dropping on news of a management change. When I look at the bio of the incoming person I think the stock should be rising, not dropping. It appears that investors had more confidence in the outgoing person? Any thoughts?
Read Answer Asked by Gordon on October 03, 2013
Q: Hello team:
I am interested to take a half position in DCI; looks like the dust has settled, should I wait abit longer ?
the other stock that I would like to put in a 1/2 position is
Paladin Lab, waiting for an entry point
Have a good trip to Europe; thanks
Read Answer Asked by Michael on October 02, 2013
Q: I am not a big fan of the large CAD oil producers (Suncor, CCQ) which I believe are more than able to increase dividends, but are not particularly shareholder friendly and the the major holdings in most energy ETF's. What is your opinion of ZEO, the BMO equal weight energy ETF?
Read Answer Asked by John on October 02, 2013
Q: I own the convertible debenture of Sterling shoes SSI. I know the company went into receivership but I cannot find any further information. Would you know what happened to this company since and is their any chance of getting any money back.

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Saad on October 02, 2013
Q: Yesterday Carl Icahn said that he if "fully hedged" right now due to the stupid political games etc being played out in DC and the resulting market uncertainty.

1. What would "fully hedged" mean in the context of a Carl Icahn?
2. How can the rest of us non Carl Icahns hedge our portfolios?

Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on October 02, 2013