Investment Q&A

Q: Hi there,

I'm evaluating the fixed income portion of my portfolio and am debating between a ladder GIC vs a HISA ETF. I understand GICs are locked in rates and HISA etfs are floating, but can you provide any insight as to the general historical differences in performance over historical time? In other words, say 100k split into 5 rungs of 20k vs 100k in a floating rate HISA etf - is there any difference in performance historically?

Thank you!

Q: What do you think of HUBL for income generation and do you think the 9-10% yield is sustainable?

Any better alternatives in the 8-10% range?

Q: What US & CDN ETFs replicate the DJIA. Is there an ETF that you would recommend. Thanks … Cal

Q: What would the change of interest rates going up or down have on yield and the etf price on ZFH.ca. And the possible magnitude of yield and ETF price.
Thanks.

Q: Dear 5i team.

Looking at the chart of ZFH, it appears to be volitile around general market downturns. Can you explain how/why a bond fund like this has this much downside when markets panic and sell off? Looks fairly correlated to me.

Many thanks for your help.

Q: Do you have a preference between XBB and VAB?

Thanks as always

Q: In the description of the ETF, it mentions the following: "The Fund will invest primarily in debt instruments of Canadian corporations that are not investment grade." -- I have difficulty reconciling the "not investment grade" with your previous comment "solid, fairly conservative ETF, especially considering we are entering a tarif war. What am I missing?

André

Q: I'm impressed by the performance of the Hamilton Etfs, managing a crazy high 'dividend' and not really losing price. How will the Hamilton covered call ETFs (I've listed only a couple examples) do in a down market -- will they outperform or underperform the market ? I know they are new products; are these ETFs at risk of 'bait and switch' in terms of some unseen fees or reduced distributions?

Q: Is the interest subject to withholding tax on the US side? (held in TFSA)

Q: Is there any withholding tax on an ETF like VGG in a TFSA when you sell it?

Q: Your thoughts on ZFH.

Thanks

Q: How safe is this ETF for monthly income. Been holding for a bit.

Q: Given the increasing focus on defence spending both in North America and Europe, do you have some conviction stocks (accessible to a Canadian retail investor) that will likely benefit from this trend?

Q: Hi. I recently transferred $20,000 into my RRSP Direct Investing account. I would like to invest the money into some quality ETFs, perhaps three or four. I know you are not clairvoyants, however based on geo-politics and recent tariff threats, which ETFs (either Canadian, American or other parts of the world) would you invest in at this particular time. It would be for a 2/3 year hold. Thanks for the advice in advance.

Q: Just a little more clarification on my question on GDXY . First what is a " synthetic call/write strategy " ? I suspect understanding that will help me understand the very large 32.5% yield ......And second the only GDX gold stock I can find is a 5 cent stock Goldex Resources Corporation ? Which I don't find encouraging for a purchase of GDXY . Could you elaborate on the relationship ? ..... Or if I have the wrong company point me in the direction of the right stock symbol ? .... Thanks again for your terrific service ......

Q: Are these dividends eligible for the dividend tax credit even though the fund is largely composed of US preferreds.

Thank you

Q: further to my question which you answered very quickly, thank you. The information was from your website"Business Description-
The investment seeks to track the investment results of the NYSE FactSet U.S. Tech Breakthrough Index. The fund seeks to track the investment results of the NYSE FactSet U.S. Tech Breakthrough Index (the underlying index), which measures the performance of U.S. listed companies engaged in cutting edge research and development of products and services in the areas of robotics and artificial intelligence, cyber security, cloud and data tech, financial technology, and genomics and immunology. It generally will invest at least 90% of its assets in the component securities of the underlying index. The fund is non-diversified. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the ICE 0-3 Month US Treasury Securities Index, which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of less than or equal to three months." I don't understand why the TBills are related to this index. Is the debt incurred by these companies comprising the index?

Q: Is this ETF less secure because it follows bonds from "breaking edge technical companies index" even though they are T-bills. If one were looking for a relatively secure Tbill ETF to gain modest income and possible currency benefits in a RRIF which would you chose.

Q: Thank you for your list of available covered call ETF's . A bit to unpack here . Could 5i give me some assistance doing it ? .....

The current Yield of each ?

The structure of each ? .... { for example part of your answer was " GDXY may be of interest. " I'm assuming some leverage here as the yield shown in TD Waterhouse is 29% . How much leverage ? And what is the structure of this and the other ETF's ? }

The risk profile of each ? ...... { for example on the Yieldmax website they outright tell you GDXY is high risk . I would like to know why and what that risk is ? And a similar assessment for each ETF recommended ? }

Also if 5i were going to hide in some high yield covered call gold ETF's until after April 2/25 { tariff day } and likely longer as I'm convinced it isn't going to be a good year for Canada. Put a numerical value for each ETF listed from one to ten with one being most favored and ten being least favored and why ?

Also if there are any tax consequences inside a RRIF ?

Thank you for your terrific service .....

Q: Just a comment with regard to RoC paid by ETFs...if there is a large inflow of new funds between the payment declaration day and the date of record that can result in RoC. For example, an ETF such as PSA declares a 9 cent interest payment with the date of record 2 weeks in the future. If the 9 cents is 100% of the interest earned but a large inflow occurs before the record date, the ETF would likely have to pay out the extra interest as RoC. I imagine this can be minimized by holding back some of the interest earned in case that happens.