Investment Q&A

Q: I'm considering buying these two ETFs which will be about 5% of my portfolio in total. Is this too much for emerging market exposure or not enough? The mer for each of them is reasonable but one concern I have is that both have BABA & BABA seems to be out of favour with the Chinese gov't. Is that %age a problem? Has this sector already run too far or does it still have room to grow?
Thanks very much for your advice which has been so helpful during my investment journey. To all the team Happy Holidays.
Dave

Q: Hi,
Would you recommend ZUB and can you offer an alternative(s)
Thanks,
Morris

Q: Can you suggest some eft's for the above sectors? Do have a couple tech companies in my portfolio such as Lightspeed and Shopify, but no "big" ones like Google, Apple etc. and WELL and PRN. Would like to find ETF's which may help to broaden my exposure in these sectors.

Q: I have seen many articles in which advisors recommend all-in-one portfolios as core holdings. I understand the value of these portfolios given the rebalancing effect, when there is a mix of bonds and equities (e.g. VBAL, XBAL). However, I do not understand the benefit of the all-equity, all-in-one portfolio (e.g. VEQT, XEQT) compared to an all-world equity ETF (e.g. XAW, XWD). The all-equity, all-in-one portfolios are overweight Canada vis-a-vis global market capitalizations. It seems to me that the all-equity, all-in-one portfolios are "betting" that Canadian equities will outperform the rest of the world. Yet, most articles I read suggest the opposite, and recommend that Canadians invest increasingly internationally (in fact, I can not recall in the last few years any article suggesting Canadian outperformance).

It seems to me that the all world ETFs (XAW, XWD) are a better bet, but I am concerned that I am missing something given the popularity of the all-equity, all-in-one portfolios. What do you see as the advantage of the all equity, all-in-one portfolios over the all world all-equity ETFs? Why do major firms such as Vanguard and Blackrock have a Canadian overweight in their all-equity, all-in-one portfolios? For a long-term core equity-only holding, do you recommend the all-in-one portfolio (e.g. VEQT, XEQT) over the global equity ETFs (XAW, XWD)? Is there any other ETF you would recommend instead?

Many thanks for your excellent advice.

Q: Is there any Active or Non-Active ETF you would recommend in CDN dollars with a similar performance like ARKG?

Thanks for the great service

Q: My question is about investing in an index Exchange traded fund such as XEI, XRE, ZRE, etc.
How often do ETF (fund company) issue additional units/shares ?
Will additional issues of units dilute returns for medium to long term investors ? If yes how much of an impact would it have on returns and how significant would it be?

Q: Hi 5i! I have the above noted 5 ETFs in various dollar amounts in 5 different accounts. Average weight in each is less than 3%. The results have been varied with IYJ and VXUS beiong the strongest recently. I am thinking of consolidating 5 into 2 holdings, probably IYG and VXUS which would give me apporoximately 5% in each ETF. These 2 would complement each other since one is all US and the other non-US. Your thoughts please.

Q: My US exposer is very low and I would like to buy an ETF to cover that sector I presently have VEE ZEQ FPXI which other ETF would fit in this
Thanks

Q: I like picking stocks, but I am also looking for a way to automatically invest 10% of my monthly income into some sort of index fund. Do you know what’s the best option for this? Is there a way to achieve this without having to pay a $9.99 transaction fee each time I buy something (RBC direct investing)? Many thanks and happy holidays! Love your service!

Q: Greetings and perpetual thanks 5i - TEC is approximately 40% concentrated in the FAANGs and trades in Cdn dollars. Is there another Cdn dollar ETF that has an even higher concentration than TEC?

Q: If I purchased any of these, are they subject to capital gains tax? If I wanted to redeem the physical silver in exchange for the shares, what would the charges be over the spot price? Does the share price follow the spot price dollar for dollar? Wouldn't mind having answers for any questions I haven't thought of.

Q: IS THERE AN ETF THAT COVERS ALL THE FANG STOCKS ? does it make more sense to just invest in the Nazdaq index that seems to have outperformed all other indexes by a long shot do you have another suggestion how to invest in american outperform growth stocks several questions ---deduct credits accordingly thanks

Q: I would like to diversify a little more internationally in the coming year. I was looking at these two ETFs EZA and ZWP for a combination of yield from ZWP, and growth and yield with EZA. Naspers, I believe has a large interest in Tencent and has not followed the SP growth to the same extent so I am thinking this might be a good way to play this within an ETF. Could I please have your thoughts or other recommendations to expand internationally?
Thank you
J

Q: In a previous question I asked the following:

I am looking to purchase both XEF and ZEM to increase my international exposure. Any recommendations of percentage allocations to each? Thank You
Answer:
We can't personalize allocations, but if we owned these we would look to 10% XEF and 5% ZEF.

In relationship to your answer, Portfolio Analytics suggests I have 35% in foreign market exposure and the answer given would make up 15% of the 35%. Are there any other ETF's you would suggest to make up the remaining 20%? I realize you don't give personized advise, however I'm looking for a generalization to increase my international exposure?
Thank You

Q: I am looking to purchase both XEF and ZEM to increase my international exposure.
Any recommendations of percentage allocations to each?
Thank You

Q: I am trying to decide which one of these cybersecurity companies to buy if I have to choose one. Alternatively, is there an ETF focusing on this narrow segment of the market you would recommend?
Your insight is much appreciated, Peter

Q: Hi,
What is your general opinion of investing in segregated funds? I understand that there are some great benefits for estate planning purposes as you get older, i.e. bypassing probate/estate fees, quick transfer of funds to beneficiaries, guaranteed death benefit, etc... but are the high MER fees (>2%) really worth it? I was helping my mom who is retired look into some of her investments in her TFSA and her advisor has her in invested in these two Manulife products, MPS4959 and MPS4980. Thoughts on these two funds? Do these two funds pay dividends or have a distribution yield? Could not find it.
Aside from the benefits I mentioned above where you only get with Seg funds, and looking at just the pure investment return/structure of the funds, could you suggest 4-5 other attractive ETF's that she could invest in that would outperform these over the next 10-20 years? I would like to switch her into some low cost ETF's or an all in one fund that are either comparable(balanced fund) or better than these two expensive products. She is close to 70, won't need to draw any of this money to live on (she has other sources of income) and looking for some steady and stable growth assuming life expectancy for another 15-25 years. Thanks!

Q: I have in my portfolio only one position with ARKW ETF Im very hapy with it.
Please provide mi with 2or3 choices of another ETF's with similar performance that would complement my ARKW.

Thanks Andrew.

Q: Good morning. Just saw Mike Novogratz discuss his new bitcoin fund - thought I might dabble a bit - which one should I buy?? BTCG.U or BTCG.UN,

Q: Hi,
I hold ETFs (VRE XEC XEF XIC VUN) in my TFSA and RRSP. follwoing questions
1) Are there tax considerations /US-dividend withholding for any one of those?
2) Also, any specific considerations to use TFSA vs RRSP to invest in these ETFs? for example VUN should be used in RRSP.
3) are they good ETFs to investing in long term (8 to 12 years) for growth and income?

Thanks..