skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Hello 5i,
Just wondering your solid opinion on EDOG as opposed to some of the other DoD’s out there like IDOG and SDOG?
Cheers,
Rick
Read Answer Asked by Rick on June 05, 2020
Q: Hello 5i team. I am starting an investment accounts for my daughter who has started working. She & I are interested in, for her TFSA, co's such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and other tech consumer names. Is there a Cdn dollar ETF with distributions, that invests in this space. I am additionally considering ZWH & CDZ to round off as a starting base.
Read Answer Asked by Harry on June 05, 2020
Q: Looking for some guidance on my US equity holdings. All of my US holdings are in the above ETFs in my RRSP accounts. The US portion represents 21% of my total investment portfolio. Generally I look for a balance between income and growth with dividends used to supplement my pension income. I have 9 years before I have to RIF.
I had held VGG and VUN until recently when, based on one of your answers to another persons question, I switched to ZSP as it has a slightly better return, lower MER and higher Tech weighting. Also more friendly tax structure. I also picked up ZUP at that time for more yield but might be ready to sacrifice that holding for one with more growth or simply add it to the other holdings to keep it simple.
Could I have your opinion on my holdings and any suggestions for improvements and why. I am looking for good overall diversification across the US market with a view to a balance between income and growth. Would like to keep my holdings in CAD.
Read Answer Asked by Bruce on June 04, 2020
Q: Hi

In my RRSP would it be wise to replace VGG, ZDY, and ZWH with ITOT.

Looking for lower fees and growth.

Thank you

Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on June 04, 2020
Q: Hello 5i Team. I'm thinking of starting a small position (1-2%) in LIFE.B (unhedged) in global healthcare for both capital appreciation and yield. Fund would be held in my taxable account for long term hold. Given that holdings are geographically; 55% US and remainder European what will taxation look like? I assume that the 15% withholding tax would be apply to the dividend even with geographic distribution of holdings? Any other tax implications that I need to be aware of? Your recent comments on the fund on May 228/28, 2020 were also very helpful. Thx Steve.
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on June 04, 2020
Q: Regarding VFV and SPY, yesterday there was a large disparity between these two around 1%. Today VFV is -0.31% and SPY is +0.30%. I know there is currency involved, but this seems like quite a difference on a higher volume ETF. Any thoughts?

Also, VUN seems to outperform VFV over the longer term. It is not much more in MER - would you choose VUN over VFV for a 10 year hold?
Read Answer Asked by Terry on June 04, 2020
Q: Hey 5i,

As a follow up. What are your top picks US/CDN REIT ETF's
You'd recommend for a longterm hold.

Thank you for all the great advice!
Read Answer Asked by Adam on June 04, 2020
Q: Hi there,
I'm looking for complete coverage in Canada from small cap to large. No fixed income please. Any ideas?
Read Answer Asked by Gregory on June 04, 2020
Q: Thank you verymuch for your answer to my rather meandering question the ther day. I suppose the gist of the question was whether, given the dangers of these two etf's in the present context, whether i should move away from indexing and pick individual stocks. You say that if i pick a good selection of ten individual stocks, i should have good diversificatin and might not benefit that much from an etf. The big fear i have of individual stocks, though, is of one of them blowing up or being severely disabled. That is in my view the main thing that an etf would help me with. Now, i know that no one else can make these decisions for someone else. It helps me to clarify the problem by running it by knowledgable people like yourselves. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by joseph on June 04, 2020
Q: HI TEAM
XHY IS APPROX 10% AND THE OTHER 3 ARE 30% EACH OF THE BOND PORTION OF MY PORTFOLIO, WHER WOULD YOU ADD FUNDS AS I NEED TO TOP UP MY BONDS
Read Answer Asked by Peter on June 04, 2020
Q: I found your article regarding the difference between the Fang stocks and a small cap stock index very informative and interesting. Perhaps an even more interesting comparison, at least for me, is the difference in performance between VOO and RSP. One a market weighted US etf and the other an equal weighted. There is quite a large divergence between these two in the past while. VOO has the top five holdings as Fang stocks--over 20% of the total portfolio. RSP has no fang stocks in the top ten.
It has me thinking. But, what conclusion to draw? I have been wanting to move away from individual stocks to etf's, especially in my US holdings. But, this makes me wonder whether I wouldn't be a lot better with individual stocks, say the top ten that you mentionned in response to a question today. In that way I wouldn't be burdened down with a group of non performers, as in RSP, nor too heavily invested in Fang stocks, as in VOO, in the event of a future crash.
I know that it is not too good to change strategies often but I am quite perturbed by this. I don't know if you can offer a comment on this or not. But, I appreciate 5i as a sounding board and any comments you have are always helpful and useful
thanks
Read Answer Asked by joseph on June 03, 2020
Q: Hi team,

What do you think of UFO for space play? It think the space should do well in the coming years with the USA now depending on homemade solutions. If you agree, is there any company or ETF you would suggestion in place of this UFO?

P.S: I, as one of your early members, must say that I wish you would have allowed questions on US stocks much earlier. And I am relieved to hear that you are going to continue with this added value service. I keep coming to this site indeed because I want to learn from your answering questions about the US stocks. It is not a secret that Canadian Markets have hugely under-performed their US counterparts.

Thanks for all you do for us!
Read Answer Asked by Saeed on June 03, 2020
Q: I have just $10,000 U.S. to purchase something with. I heard Brookshire Hathaway is sitting on a whack of money and that the valuation was pretty good. This will be my only US holding currently and wondered if an ETF would be better? Not worried about risk and could get 100 Roku, if you think that might be rewarding? Thank you so much for making the stock market fun and interesting for an amateur.
Read Answer Asked by Jill on June 03, 2020
Q: I hold a 5.9% position in ZWU in a registered account. I have surplus US cash in a non-registered account to put to work and was thinking of XLU which yields approx 3.4%. I realize this distribution will be treated as income by CRA [I am retired - low tax bracket] but it seems better than letting the funds just sit. If you could offer other suggestions I'd appreciate them. Thanks.....
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on June 03, 2020
Q: Hi
Would it be a wise to replace the 4 mentioned above with ITOT in my RRSP.

Thank you Mike.
Read Answer Asked by Mike on June 02, 2020