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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: Good afternoon,
You recently responded to a question concerning put write etfs. My understanding is that such an etf may perform poorly in a bear market. Is there an etf trading in Canada employing an option strategy that would benefit from a bear market, apart from the highly leveraged short term products?
Thank you for your advice.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on October 07, 2016
Q: Why are the put write index etfs so far under the radar? In Canada there is only ZPW which has a market cap of 110 million, and in the U.S. there is only HVPW with a market cap of 38 million. There is also ZPW.U which accepts only U.S. funds but it's extremely small at 5 million. The dividends on these etfs are over 7% and they don't seem any more unsafe than a covered call etf, though it is clear that the share prices could deteriorate as much as any etf under certain market conditions.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on October 06, 2016
Q: I am supposed to increase my fixed income exposure via one or more ETFs. I see you usually recommend CBO, but what about VSC. VSC seems to be a better performer over the last 1, 3 and 5 year periods. Which is better in your opinion and why?

I have about $21K in cash in an RRSP to invest in fixed income products. Should I buy two or 3 ETFs, or all in CBO or VSC is sufficient?

Should I buy now, or wait until after the US election, or even after FED meeting in December to see if they increase interest rates? Does it really matter at this time?

p.s. I have been invested in over 90% equities for the last 25 years (now 53 years old) so I am struggling to get myself to buy fixed income products. I am reluctantly buying fixed income products only because I know I am supposed to have better asset allocation and not be so heavily equity focused, but today the returns are so small I wonder if I would just be better off buying stocks like BCE, T, SLF, FTS, IPL, PPL that pay around 4% dividend.
Read Answer Asked by Paul on October 04, 2016
Q: Good Morning: I want to realize some capital losses on the above energy positions (and others) but do not want to lose exposure to the energy asset class in case of a sudden move upwards (even though I don't expect that in the short term.) So, my plan is to sell all or parts of my losers and buy something else that will give me the same effective exposure. My question is as follows: First, what four stocks in the Cdn. energy sector would you recommend for a purchase at this time; and second, would an etf like XEG be an effective alternative for all or part of this strategy. I may even buy back some of the positions I am currently selling after the 30 day wait period has passed. As always, many thanks. Don
Read Answer Asked by Donald on October 03, 2016
Q: If you were asked to create a Canadian dividend Aristocrat ETF what holdings would you include? Would you equal weight the holdings? Would you diversify it across sectors? How would you base your selections against payout ratios or higher dividend payers? How often would you review the selections and how many names would you hold. Why might you want to do this type of ETF over another example such as growth, small cap index, value , GARP, etc.? Also please compare your Model portfolio to such an ETF. What makes the model portfolio different from this approach? Sorry for the longer question. To sum it up I am hoping to get a feeling of your strategies from the answer. Thank You Jeremy
Read Answer Asked by Jeremy on October 03, 2016
Q: Hi Peter and Team,

In today's Financial Post, there's an interesting article called "Betting on the U.S. election via the ‘Trump ETF’"

If one wanted to "bet" on a Hillary victory, would a small purchase of EWW be a wise move? Any hesitation I have is due to currency risk, but I am unsure.

Thanks for any advice.
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on October 03, 2016
Q: I have no exposure to the oil and gas sector. I am thinking of going 3% to 5% and would like your opinion on whether now is a reasonable time to re-enter this market. If so, would looking at the U.S. market be better than the Canadian Mkt. Any suggested companies or ETF's would be appreciated.

Cheers, Bob
Read Answer Asked by robert on October 03, 2016
Q: I really enjoyed your presentations at the World Money Show. Many people were talking about ETF's at the show this year. I was thinking about buying a percentage of ETF's in my portfolio. I'm with TD bank and I know they are very new again to this.
I'm a 45 years old and have mostly CDN equities.
I heard that you only need 3 or 4 ETF's to balance out. I would consider putting 20% in ETF's

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Terry on September 28, 2016
Q: Hello 5i,
I have had a bit of VPL:US for awhile and am just beginning to see the light of day on it. It is not really something that I want to keep, I don<t believe. But, I was wondering whether, after waiting so long for it to come back, whether it might be too early to sell. Also, what would be a good replacement? I already have VWO. I would rather go wider in geography rather than too specific.
thanks
Read Answer Asked by joseph on September 28, 2016
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