Q: I have a portfolio of 25 individual stocks (diversified among most sectors) with no ETFs. Within this portfolio I own companies that trade in CAD and the US but have operations and/or varying degrees of revenue in other countries such as CLBT, AXON, TOI, VHI, UBER, BKNG, WSP, TRI, BN and some of the MAG 7 with their worldwide reach such as GOOG. I often wonder if this is adequate international exposure for a healthy portfolio or should I have a specific international ETF?
I have not been a fan of ETFs due to the often wide exposure that can include "the best along with less than the best" (and they are boring, :), haha). But for long term growth and healthy diversification I often consider opening a position in an international ETF such as VIU.
But then I face my conundrum. In the past 5 years the return on VIU has been 41.4% (Yahoo Finance). Perhaps my expectations are out of line, but I would not be happy (and I would be bored, :), ) with the same return from VIU in the next 5 years. Even a conservative Canadian bank with some international operations such as RY has done 90% in the past 5 years (Yahoo Finance). It seems to me that I must give up too much possible growth in order to achieve a healthy level of international diversification through the instrument of an international ETF.
Perhaps this is a conundrum that need not be solved, but do you have any thoughts that may lead to a wiser investment perspective or a needed tempering of my expectations?
As always, thank you for your excellent service.
Cal

Q: I am very interested in uber and aurora peeked my interest. What do you think about its potential?
This weekend Barron’s article mentioned it as a potential 22 bagger. Of course the guy is already invested so he is pitching it.

Q: Might buy a house, probably won't buy a house. Prices so high, I've been maxout out the FHSA so far and it's mostly in VEQT, bit of PLTR and CRWD which have done well. What other US or CAD stock would you recommend (shorter term BUT will leave it in there longer if market goes down/ ultimately could convert to RRSP) that is underpriced and or could have huge potential upside. Imagining turning the FHSA $40,000 limit into ... ideally a $200,000 down pmt over the next 3-10 years