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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: Peter and Team,

I was curious on your thoughts on the HYLD ETF managed by Peritus. Tim Gramatovich seems like a smart guy with a cautious approach. The yield on the fund is high (approximately matches the yield of the bond/loan book based on a cursory look) and it appears that one would make some money on this holding for the last while considering the NAV and the yield. Your thoughts and a quick confirmation of what you see as the total annual return of this ETF for the last few years would be much appreciated! Looking back 5 years, it looks like the NAV of the ETF got hit pretty hard by the High Yield crisis that was going on a few years back.

Thanks,

Marc
Read Answer Asked by Marc on October 04, 2017
Q: Are there tax implications with holding HXS in a TFSA given that the dividends are not distributed? I have no US holdings, and in my (latish) retirement, I've decided I could use some US exposure. Would it be a suitable single ETF to hold? I could hold it in my non registered account if that would be better, or if you can suggest another suitable ETF that could go in the TFSA, that'd be great. Many thanks.
Read Answer Asked by M.S. on October 03, 2017
Q: I am a retired non-resident and living on dividend income. My portfolio is a collection on higher yielding dividend stocks such as TD, BCE, FTS, AX.UN, ENB etc. (80% of portfolio focused on income)
I also have some lower yielding but higher growth stocks such as SIS, GSY, CCL.B, PBH, WSP. (20% of portfolio focused on growth)
To offset the lower yield of my growth stocks, I am looking into covered call ETFs such as ZWU (yield=6.6%) to bump up my income. I am not concerned with capital appreciation with the covered calls, only safety of dividend. Is a covered call such as ZWU for utilities as safe as it appears for dividend income? Are there any additional risks to be aware of holding a covered call such as ZWU vs the individual holdings within its portfolio?
Are covered calls the safest strategy to generate a 6-7% yield in a portfolio? Any other recommendations for higher yield (such as CEFs, BDCs)?
I am considering investing 10-15% of the income generating portion of my portfolio into higher yielding investments.
What 3 funds/stocks would you recommend I invest in to bump up the yield and thus offset the lower yield of my growth stocks?
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on October 02, 2017
Q: After building a portfolio in a TFSA account from a mixture of your portfolios I would like to broaden my exposure with these three ETF's. Is their any considerations when purchasing a fund like IWO that is not sold on the tsx?
Read Answer Asked by Matthew on October 02, 2017
Q: Just a comment. You recommend without caveat HFR as a short term hold for cash. This ETF does fluctuate and with just a 2.1% payout annually can negate this modest payout, just like any other equity. I held this for a year and broke even on distributions/capital gain but paid higher taxes on the distributions than the capital gain so overall lost on a full year hold. This is not for short term holds any more than BCE would be.
Read Answer Asked by Terry on September 28, 2017
Q: Thanks very much for your recent reply. I’d like to get your opinion on the Active Beta ETFs from Goldman Sachs, particularly GEM (Emerging Markets) and GSIE (International). They charge a higher MER than Vanguard funds, but would you say it’s worth it because investors benefit from the expertise of top managers? Between VWO and GEM, which would you prefer and why? Thanks again.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on September 28, 2017
Q: In addition to Canadian stocks, I hold a few ETFs for US and International exposure. In order to get a clear understanding of my sector allocations, I would like to incorporate the sector contributions from these ETFs. But when I look at VDU, for example, instead of consumer cyclicals and consumer staples, it lists consumer goods and consumer services. Do you have a suggestion for how I could incorporate these different categories into my sector allocations?

Thanks.

Alan
Read Answer Asked by Alan on September 28, 2017