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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 know these iShares ETFs were just released, but wondering if you were able to form an opinion on these based on its current holdings. The MER seems quite reasonable and am wondering you feel these would be suitable to gain diversification outside of Canada.

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Mike on June 26, 2017
Q: Hi team:
I do not want to invest out side Canada more then what I already have.I would like to invest in Canadian companies that have much of their income in other countries mostly Europe and developing markets.Could you provide a longish list of possible good investments with the above in mind. It would help if the were safe and had a div. Please include ETF'S if you like.
many thanks
Yossi
Read Answer Asked by JOSEPH on June 26, 2017
Q: I presently have no exposure to Europe in my portfolio and wish to add a 5% position by buying a ETF. Should I buy edge or not edge ETF, seeing the weakness in the currencies? Income is not the primary goal but I want good total return of course. I prefer good quality companies, participating in the recovery as opposed to momentum plays or startups. Could you suggest one or two Canadian ETF.
Read Answer Asked by Rene on June 21, 2017
Q: If memory serves me well, at one time you were recommending the FEZ ETF for European exposure. I bought some two years ago. More recently you have been recommending VE. What I like about FEZ in the current environment is that it has no direct exposure to the UK, a country that seems to have a cloudy economic future these days. VE, in contrast, has 29% of its assets in the UK. FEZ’s MER is a bit higher, but not by much, and its yield (before withholding tax) is also higher. FEZ has 50 holdings while VE has 1262. Are you leaning more toward VE these days because it can be bought directly in Canada while FEZ must be bought in the US market? Or is it the (modest) small cap exposure in VE that you like? Or the much greater number of holdings? Or something else?
Read Answer Asked by Philip on June 21, 2017
Q: I hold the following ETF’s in a Non-Registered account. It is sort of a general purpose portfolio with a bit of emphasis on the health care sector (just because I think it is coming due). My question is with additional cash to add should I look for another ETF or add to the existing ones? I guess I am saying do I need more diversification or is there another particular sector I could emphasize?

Canada
iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index Fund

US
Vanguard US Total Mkt Ind ETF
AdvisorShares Focused Equity

Europe
Vangrd FTSE Dev Europe All Cap

Health Care
BMO EqWt US HthCare Hedged CAD
iShares Global Healthcare ETF

Emerging Markets
BMO India Equity Index ETF
Fairfax India Holdings
Fairfax Africa Holdings


Read Answer Asked by David on June 20, 2017
Q: Hi 5i team,
I currently have the above ETFs. I find that the dividend are a bit low (~2%). I was wondering if there are alternatives to the above in the 4-5% dividend range for income?

Andrew
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on June 16, 2017
Q: To add some diversity to my Canadian holdings, over the last 5 years I've held VUS, VFV and VEF. VEF is about 11% of the portfolio. The 2 US ETFs have outperformed VEF almost 2 to 1.
My question is do you think it's necessary to have EAFE exposure? I'm thinking of selling VEF to raise cash so I'm ready for the next dip in north American markets. Thanks for all of your great advice over the years. cheers
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on June 14, 2017
Q: I'm looking for international exposure with more weighting on consumer staples rather than financials, since we have a lot here in Canada already. The best I can find is "ZLI" from BMO. When I look at the holdings, I recognize very little, and am concerned about the quality of those companies. Sure, an ETF is transparent, but if I have no way to "measure" the quality of the holdings, is this transparency useful? Can you help me out with this? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Matt on June 08, 2017
Q: Hello I need to add foreign markets to to my portfolio. I was looking for an Etf in either Canadian or US funds. I was looking for one to mainly target India. One or more that that has more exposure to Japan and Korea. As well as one that's overall balanced that I will put a larger weighting in. If you fell there's a better way about doing this please produced your thoughts.

Regards

Richard
Read Answer Asked by Richard on June 06, 2017
Q: I was interested in Bob's question about SSW, so tried to check it out on the internet. My TD Webroker site had no news and elsewhere, I found nothing that would explain the sudden collapse in stock prices - only a bunch of crappy sites that seem to have boilerplate discussions of movements in price, but zero analysis.

Any ideas as to what happened on this stock ? Where can I look to find answers ?
Read Answer Asked by Don on June 01, 2017
Q: Further to my last, is the stock price decline perhaps related to an anticipated decline in dividend ?? In April the dividend of 13 cents a quarter (down from .38 in January) gave a price of around 6.50, for a yield of 8%. At a price of 5.20, 8% would give a quarterly dividend of 10 cents or so. Would you agree that the market seems to be factoring in a decline in dividend for Q2 ?
Read Answer Asked by Don on June 01, 2017
Q: The Chart on this Company is down from $ 14.00 to $ 5.11 this year. They have 85 Container Ships on the high seas. Is this an indication of China Slowing, or Overcapacity of Container Ships or Reduced Fees. I know of your Concern about amount of Debt the Company has. What is your view on China's economy at present ? Bob
Read Answer Asked by bob on May 31, 2017