Investment Q&A

Q: For tax efficiency in a non registered account do you recommend HXS and HXQ over ZSP and ZNQ. For US dollars do you like HXS.U and HXQ.U.
For a long term hold what are your thought of HXT in this account?
Thanks

Q: Hi

Have a 33% gain on ATH.

Would you let run or change to VDE for safety.

Also this is would be in my cash account. I know the withholding tax would apply to the dividend but no big deal.

My goal is to reduce my Canadian holdings.

Thank you for your time

Mike

Q: One year ago I decided to choose 6 reits ( avoiding shopping centers and offices),+ one professionaly managed reit etf (mentionned above) .The final result is that the managed ETF did loose 15% +,and the 6 "amateur chosen" ETF gained more than 15% ,the choice was based on the "basic observation"of a slowing economy and specific individual REIT performances,I did then favour industrial, data centers and some real estate REITs.Is it normal that a professionaly managed ETF could underperform so much versus personal choices and why? I wonder if I should trust actively managed products on the future,considering the fees etc..,instead of just choosing stocks or ETFs in safe sectors according to observable macro-economic tendancies.

Q: Hello i would like to add some Zwu to my TSFA account strictly as income,hovewer i noticed that Zwu isn't part of your income portfolio any reasons? i'm 80.

Thanks.
Dan

Q: Dear Peter et al:

Thanks for your nice answer to Don's question today. (Friday, the 8th of September) regarding commodities. You gave a nice selection of ETFs. Looking at them they all have high concentration of energy sector and metals. MER in 70 or 80 basis points.

I wondered however if it would be better for me to hold XBM and XEG instead and lessen the fees plus opt for these bigger fund names with much higher market cap.
However I know I will miss sectors like corn, soybean, cotton etc.,

BNN had Mr. Rick Rule yesterday and he is of course a Metals and Mining Guru! This plus your answer to Don's question made me think of taking a small position in commodities . Looking at the most efficient and cost effective way to do his. Any thoughts?

Thank you in advance.

Q: Can I please have your opinion on this etf for an income investment.
Thanks

Q: Do you have any strong opinions about this ETF from Horizon for a long term hold? It tracks 6 Canadian bank stocks with 25% leverage. Is the cost of the leverage cheaper for them than it would be for a retail investor to borrow to invest?

Q: Am looking at adding some QQQ (or similar) in my TFSA but am wondering if now is the best time. Also, I am not as familiar with Invesco and usually go with iShares. They have XQQ but it is in Canadian dollars and hedged. Would IYW be similar to QQQ? Are you quite comfortable with QQQ? Would you be able to suggest an entry price for whichever one you recommend? Thank you.

Q: Hello. My portfolio is currently composed of all equities and approximately 10% cash. I would like to move some money 15-20% out of equities into fixed income. What would you suggest is a simple, yet effective way to achieve this? Invest directly into bonds? Buy a bond ETF? Bond mutual fund? Short or long-term bonds? Corporate or government? Can you suggest some bond ETFs or mutual funds?
Thank-you.

Q: What ETFs would you recommend to use to represent the international portion of a portfolio? What ones would you use for:
1. Europe
2. India
3. Japan
4. South America
I have excluded China because I don’t trust their reporting. How would you divide that 30% up? Is there any other countries/areas that you would view as investable that I am forgetting.

Thanks in advance.

Q: Hi- I am wondering if a small cap ETF would be a good choice for a RSP account (e.g. XCS and XSU specifically)? Aiming for low risk in this account.

Thanks

Q: Would you say selling VAB and buying HBB would be a superficial loss in CRA's eyes? Or are they different enough? They do track different benchmarks (by title, at least).

Q: I hold ZWU ( significantly),in my RRSP +my non registered account,since my belief was that 1) utilities offer stable yields+ are quite essential even in a recession 2) call options from BMO are made for 50% max of portfolio, so ZWU could also benefit from some growth( in theory ..).But in fact,ZWU share price is in a constant downtrend since the last 10 yrs (17 $ in 2013,10$ now).The dividend is for more than 50% ROC, the rest being mostly eligible dividend.Do the clear fiscal advantage+ the 8 % yield compensate for the capital reduction over those 10 years ?

Q: Now that I discovered that RBC has opened its direct investing accounts to high interest saving ETFs, I am interested in moving the cash portion of my portfolio. HSAV is interesting because of the capital gains tax advantage. However I noticed that it has been fairly volatile in the last few weeks - swinging by almost 1% in a single day. That is more volatility than I would’ve expected from an investment that primarily holds bank savings accounts that reprice daily. Is there something else going on here?

Q: A query on your statement the other day about this high-interest savings ETF. You stated its indicated yield was 6.10% but on the Evolve website the gross yield is indicated as 5.48%

Q: I was interested in Stifel’s recent bullish long term forecast for commodities. Do you share in their enthusiasm, and can you suggest a favoured ETF and several preferred stocks in the sector. Thanks, Don

Q: NVD: If one feels Nvda is due for a price correction, ie drop, would Nvd be a vehicle that would be suitable.
Does it have the decay that many short ETFs suffer.
Thanks

Q: Just read an article in the Financial Post recommending these high yielding etfs.It seems to me to be extremely bad advice for your average investor.Your thoughts??

Q: Is this ETF too volatile and risky for a conservative investor? Terrific yield.

Q: A question about this savings product came up the other day. When I search, it shows as trading on "CHI"; what is that exchange? Is the fund itself CDIC insured and if not, are its holdings? Will the yield fluctuate every month? Any other info you can provide will be appreciated. Thanks