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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 have targeted general [not sector-specific] funds/ ETFs at up to 14% of total portfolio because of fund/ ETF attributes or performance. Please advise on selection and additions/ deletions of current and Watchlist or other.
Currently the allocation is XMU 8%, Edgepoint Gbl Port - 33% [4.5% total portfolio] + CYB - 3.5%, Mawer Gbl Eq and FID Gbl Innovators and AARK all at 11%, TD US Mid-Cap Growth - 9%. My watchlist includes DGRO [value - dividend growth], MAN Gbl Small Cap [previously sold] and TD US Blue Chip.
Read Answer Asked by sam on January 27, 2019
Q: FTB has a dividend yield of 3.56%, actual mgt fee of .50% and an MER of 1.09%. Could the difference be imbedded fees paid to the financial planner recommending the fund and biasing his judgement. How do imbedded fees impact the recommendation of the financial planner. Is he looking out for your best interests or his? He gets a 1%management fee regardless of performance, although he says if I do better he does better. Perhaps they should be paid on performance

By comparison CLF has a yield of 2.66% and an MER of .17, XSB has a yield of 2.38 and an MER of .17 and HFY has a yield of 4.98% and an MER of 1.03. Funds with a higher MER seems to have a larger yield. Is the yield stated after the MER?

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on January 24, 2019
Q: Sheldon recently asked a question about the 1 minute portfolio approach. You answered that you would suggest a more global ETF rather than the Canadian ETF suggested in the Globe article and that it might be a good way for an investor to create a base or core to their portfolio.

Taking into account MER, diversification, holdings and anything else you think is important, could you please suggest a global stock ETF that you feel would work well as a base/core part of a portfolio?

Could you please also suggest a global bond ETF that you feel would work well as the base/core part of a portfolio?

Thank you,
Geoff
Read Answer Asked by Geoff on January 23, 2019
Q: I'm using XIU puts for my CAD portfolio and spy puts for my US portfolio, whenever i feel there is a market risk.
A few weeks ago one of the 5i questions was about XIU short selling for down risk protection.
My US portfolio is $290k. I'm interested in providing protection for70% of my portfolio for the next 6months. I would appreciate your opinion of how you would use the SPY short selling for that.one of the problems that i see is that you tie up too much margin and i use it when i buy risky equities ( like NLY).

Best Regards

Frank
Read Answer Asked by Frank on January 23, 2019
Q: I have about $10,000 I would like to get some non-U.S., foreign exposure with. Maybe an ETF or 2, a dividend would be great but not if it takes away all the growth. Would you recommend China, India or Europe? I know it will limit my choices but I would like to purchase it in Canadian dollars. Thank you so much :-)
Read Answer Asked by Jill on January 22, 2019
Q: Greetings 5i team,

For people who invest in a US market index ETF, are there significant differences between IVV, VOO and SPY ?

Are there any other similar US market index ETFs?

Thank you.

Milan
Read Answer Asked by Milan on January 22, 2019
Q: I propose a 8-9% allocation to this sector. I would sell GUD [gain] and small position in CPH [loss]; hold TD Health Sciences at 15% [good long-term performance and good cross-section of sector] and add to ISRG initial position. That would enable me to add approx. 15% to each of IHI ETF {little overlap with TD Fund], ZTS, IDXX, ILMN, and LHCG.
This is a difficult sector to pick stocks. What would you advise re allocation and selection?
Read Answer Asked by sam on January 21, 2019
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