Investment Q&A

Q: This is a follow up question to your answer to John. When I look at the VCN prospectus as (of Oct. 31st) it seems to follow the benchmark pretty much exactly rather than make the adjustments as per your reply there. Am I missing something? Thanks

Q: Good Morning- I am looking for some ETF suggestions for global dividend growth- Is there any one ETF solution in this category? HAZ is one I am aware of ... and I like PDF for North America. Just wondering if there is a global VGG type out there that would include Emerging markets, EU, North America etc?

Thanks for the suggestions and great work following this complex market!

Q: Please help me understand ETF's. If I owned an ETF which holds, say, technology stocks and I wanted to sell it because AAPL is doing poorly presumably I sell it in the market; which means that someone else buys it. That should not affect AAPL or MSFT, ABDE, etc. Does the ETF need to sell those securities?

Q: Hi 5i,

Most of the etfs that I have looked at for the Canadian market are 60-65% in financials and resources which I think is a very large weighting. I understand that the Canadian market is tilted towards these sectors but is there any etf that is more diverse and balanced?

Alternately, is there an etf which would resemble your balanced portfolio (wishful thinking?). I am looking at moving all my stocks to etfs as I don't have the time to manage them.

If there are no etfs that match the above, maybe you could suggest a mix of etfs for different sectors and weighting? Looking for growth, no need for any yield.

Thanks as always. Please deduct as many credits as you see fit.

Q: I wish to iniate a position in gold. What do you believe is the best investment at this time? Would it be Agnico Eagle as you have chosen for your balanced fund or is there a different investment.?Perhaps an ETF OR Franco Nevada. Others?
Thank-you for your appreciated guidance.

Q: What are your views on unhedged etfs to the US $.More to the point are there any Canadian etfs that are similar to VIG & VXUS that are hedged in Cdn. dollars. It appears that the US $ is peaking.Your comments on the above opinions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Dave

Q: What are your favourite ETFs for US tech exposure in US$ please?

Q: I am interested in adding a tech and healthcare ETF to my RRSP. Which ones would you recommend. Also would you use the same ETFs for a TFSA?

Q: Which etf's or index funds would you use today to allocate $100k in a Canadian registered acct. for a longer term hold and in what proportion?
Thanks.

Q: Hi guys
I know that you are not a fan of split capital shares, but I have had some success with them. With the oil companies being beaten down so much, I am willing to take a position and wait for a recovery. Are the underling companies solid in this structure. Are there any other vehicles that have a basket of oil companies that you would recommend
Thanks

Q: I am holding 5% in XSP. VUN AND ZQQ ETF. I am planning to increase to 10% in each. Plus I hold FTEC and SKYY ETF 2% each. Planning to increase to 5%. DO you think there is overlap and is any ETF holding is to high. If it is too high what percentage do you think is appropriate.

Thanks for the great service
Hector

Q: Hi Team,
Just wondering if you have any thoughts on the investment quality of CWS, an ETF created by Eddy Elfenbein of Crossing Wall Street. I see it is only around $14M US in size and about two years old. It’s meant to be a mid-cap growth fund with low turnover (5 trades once per year) and has a 0.68% MER. Thank you, Michael

Q: Would you recommend QQQ at this level for a long term hold ?

Q: MFT, What is the risk for this ETF?

Q: I currently have my 2 kids (2 and 4 years old) RESP's invested in TD's eseries funds (CDN, US, INT). The fees the last time I checked are 0.33, 0.35, 0.50 respectively. I chose e-series because of the low fees. I manage my own portfolio and don't want to manage stocks in 2 RESP's as well so I want to stick with Index funds or etf's for simplicity. I am wondering it if would save me enough money in fee's to change from the e-series funds to Vanguard etf's of the same category (CDN, US, INT) due to the lower fees. The Vanguard etf's range from around 0.05% mgmt fee and 0.06% MER for the CDN. Since the RESP's have many more years to maturity should I make the move to ETF's since they are about 1/3rd of the price or are we talking about pennies in the long run since the fees for both are already really low? Has performance been better in either?

Thanks,

Q: Hi everyone!
Just bought cybr.b and find it strange that BMO investorline classifies it under "Fixed Income"?
Was wondering if anyone else holds this ETF in another discount broker and under which asset class it is classified.

Thanks to all

Q: As a retired person I am always looking for high yield investments.
So I look at something like HHL from Harvest. It holds 20 equal weighted mainly US healthcare stocks. A solid sector with good long term demographics. I see their current yield on what they are paying out is 8.67% - all capital gains - great! But I see the average dividend yield on the stocks held is only 1.96%. How can that be? Seems it’s done using covered calls Not sure how that works but sounds like it creates added risk. What if the covered call $ generated isn’t enough to meet their intended distribution? Where does the extra $ go if covered call exceeds the distribution.

So I investigate the industry a little more and I see words like- total return swap based, inverse, currency hedged, low/ high volatility, fund of funds, proprietary methodology, 2x returns etc., and I start to wonder what’s going on?

Then I remember the term “ flow through shares” of some time ago and say to myself “ it’s déjà vu all over again.

Derek

Q: Dear 5i
I'm trying to understand how companies actually get paid when we own for example an ETF that has a MER of for an example .5%. If the anticipated yield is say 3% you had stated in an earlier question of mine that the 3% is inclusive of fees . So all yields posted are generally always inclusive of fees right ? This means then that the actual yield is 3.5% minus the MER of .5%. So its a matter of the company in question holding their fee back from the yield rather than a case of the said company getting paid the fee which comes out of my brokerage company account directly .Sorry if this sounds confusing . I'm just trying to understand the process and be sure about what yield I'm actually getting and what fees I'm actually paying .
Thanks
Bill

Q: Hello 5I, In this uncertain investing environment, does it make sense to put some $ into this BMO Put Write ETF, to hedge a bit and collect a 6.5% yield at least until the markets level out, or is it better to raise some cash and sit instead?

Thnx
Dave

Q: ZPR is around 75% fixed reset and floating. I would have expected the unit value to rise this year as 5 year rates have moved from around 1.8% to 2.3%. Instead, the unit value has dropped around 7% ytd. Has the spread on preferreds to bonds widened or is there something else going on? Thanks for any insight.