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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: The S&P 500 looks good in the current market and long term, with about 72% in the follow: big tech 26%, financials 14%, health care 13%, communication 10%, consumer defensive 6% and utilities 3%. 5i seems to prefer VFV, but its yield is listed at 1.12% on Yahoo and ZSP at 1.3%: is this because VFV has deducted the 15% withholding tax on US dividends? I assume the 15% would still be withheld in a registered account? Thanks!!
Read Answer Asked by Grant on April 11, 2022
Q: Would like a current opinion on this mutual fund?
Is the fees worth the returns or would a global ETF perform better?
Greatly appreciate your opinion.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on April 11, 2022
Q: Good morning,

Truly enjoy reading your reports and answers to queries asked by members!

In your response to Chris, on April 8th, you outline a starting strategy for a young 16 year old investor.

You state: "we might start out with a broad market ETF that pays a dividend"

Would you be comfortable listing a few broad market ETF that fit this criteria taking into account a 10 year lock up of the funds?

Perhaps suggesting a few for high, moderate and low risk tiers.

Have a great weekend!

Art
Read Answer Asked by Arturo on April 11, 2022
Q: good morning everyone at 5i: I would like to increase my exposure to Canadian equities- will you provide etfs, or tmx be a good option, or perhaps one best stock in each sector- . thanks for your time-- Jane
Read Answer Asked by jane on April 09, 2022
Q: Hi
In response to David's question today, you said that mega-cap tech is a sector that should perform well in recessionary environments. can you give some examples of stocks or ETFs. Also, you recommended consumer staples. Would you be comfortable buying consumer staples at these high prices?
thanks for your help
Read Answer Asked by Mary on April 09, 2022
Q: I am looking to simplify my non-registered investment portfolio for my retirement, which is now only 9 months away. I am looking to protect capital and create income. I am looking at one ETF and one fund as possible landing spots for my capital: XSP. And FID282.
Can you please compare and contrast these two funds for me? Are the different enough to warrant owning both? Is there anything else I should be considering?

Thanks in advance
DON
Read Answer Asked by Donald on April 08, 2022
Q: Please help me balance out one of my portfolios. It is tilted heavily to quality us stocks- GOOGL, TMO, MSFT, DIS, SYK, NVDA, BKNG, ACN,BLK, SBUX,ADP,IDXX, ADOBE, EL, AND XYL.
My canadian stocks are BAM,TD, CNR, FSV, SHOP AND TSU.

I would like to increase canadian exposure--- would you suggest gradually
adding to an etf such as xic or could you suggest a few canadian stocks
that would be suitable in this investing envioronment such as energy, materials etc to balance out this portfolio.

Regards, Ajay
Read Answer Asked by Alka on April 07, 2022
Q: For investors seeking to capitalize directly on what looks to be an impending rate hike bonanza through the end of this year (and possibly into 2023), what options are there to look at?

TTT (US) seems like the only decent option but it only offers exposure to longer term rates (20y) which could take a while to respond to higher rates on the short end. Any options you can provide me to investigate are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Marco on April 06, 2022
Q: Between January and March of last year (13-16 months ago) I sold my bond holdings in ZAG and CLF and moved the money into the short-term bond fund ZST. As a capital preservation strategy it limited the downside from rising interest rates. ZST is down 2%, while CLF is down 6% and ZAG 9%. I saw an analyst on BNN this morning recommend it is time to start easing back into longer term bonds. It feels a bit early to me. Won't the short term bond funds benefit first from rising rates while the longer term funds will continue to decline? If capital preservation and rate of return are weighted about 50/50, what do you think of moving back into longer term bond funds at this time and would you do it gradually?
Read Answer Asked by Ken on April 06, 2022
Q: I hold this ETF in my riff along with canadian BCE and T Its performance and yield are not the best. I initially liked the mix rather than just adding something like verizon or ATT US telecom exposure. Is this worth holding in this enviroment? thanks for your opinion
Read Answer Asked by Tom on April 05, 2022
Q: I have owned XIT since 2017 and use it as a proxy for my technology allocation. Based on trying to keep relatively close to my allocation targets, I have trimmed it 14 times and added it 3 times (most recently adding at $47 and $41.

It looks to my amateur eyes that we are near a reasonably strong technical support level of +/- $41, which leads me to consider topping up to my target weighting again. In January I also thought we had support at $46-47...wrong.

However, the forecasted aggressive interest rate hikes might be a headwind to each of the underlying stocks, in which case I am more than happy to sit on the cash to see what happens with the next rate increase or two.

So, it really comes down to SHOP, CSU, GIB.A, OTEX (over 74% of XIT). When you look at each individually, and then in aggregate, what does your crystal ball say for adding at this time? I suspect your answer would include...if it is an asset allocation question, just add/sell now.

Your thoughts? Thanks...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on April 05, 2022
Q: I recognize this is a timing question so apologies in advance. My portfolio is 100% equities (no bonds). As I approach retirement I am thinking of moving 20-25% of my RSP/LIRA into bond ETF's. With rising rates and high inflation am I best to wait this out until we get closer to the end of the rate hiking cycle? If I was to time it perfectly (I know, I know) would it be to buy the bond funds at the interest rate peak? Please recommend a few ETF's to achieve a balanced bond portfolio and any thoughts you have on timing this.
Thanks
Rob
Read Answer Asked by Robert on April 05, 2022