Investment Q&A

Q: I have some cash parked to build a house and am wondering if I should keep this as cash or invest these in bonds to get some interest. If the latter, what do you think of 50% in XSB and 50% in XGB?

Q: I have some US $ sitting in my RRSP account which I am looking to invest. Preservation of capital is important and I am looking into this preferred share etf. Your thoughts please.

Q: I have made some good gains on XCS(24%) and XIC (10.5%) from the market runup from January. Thanks to your article about small caps stocks from last year. Now I am wondering if I should take the gains, wait for a sell off and buy in again. With most of my stocks I never time the market and its all buy and hold but with XCS and perhaps XIC I am considering taking profits. Or mayble I should just take profits from XCS..Note that the holdings are in a registerd account so tax is not an issue. Your opinion is most valued. cheers, Shyam

Q: Your opinion for this stock is appreciated.Thanks.Ebrahim

Q: Sorry, I should have clarified in my previous question, that I was looking for a Dow etf on the U.S. exchange as I want to purchase it in usd. Can you recommend one?

Since I currently only own IWO i thought the Dow would add a bit more stability and income than an s and p etf. Is this a good strategy?

Q: If Harry Dent is right and we are in for a few years of deflation, which Canadian stocks/ETF's do you recommend to see us through it?

Q: Hola amigos. Is there an index fund, ETF or mutual fund that I can buy to invest in Mexico?

Q: Can you please recomend a good DOw etf?

Q: I have some money that I will be putting into an RESP for my children: while it is roughly 0.5%-0.75% of my actual total investment portfolio, I would prefer to avoid more volatile companies in this particular account. I do have a long time horizon (about 6 years before I start to have any demand for the money), but have been burnt before in this particular portfolio by trying to "hit a home run" with an investment play, and am looking for slow, steady growth.

I have listed three companies above, with ATD.B as my first pick as I only have roughly a 2% overall exposure (between all of my collective accounts) to the Consumer Staples group (I assume that ATD.B would be under Staples rather than Discretionary). If you would recommend something else in this space, or another sector, rather than the companies I have mentioned, I would be most grateful for the suggestion. In any event, I look forward to your thoughts. Thanks so much!

Q: I am considering buying VAW Vanquard Materials on the premise that material stocks should do well with upcoming infrastructure spending both in Canada & the US. Would you agree and if so, would there be an Canadian ETF you would prefer or another US ETF? With thanks, Bill

Q: Much has been made of the emergence of "fintech" as an emerging sector with substantial upside. Can you recommend an ETF that covers this area....or absent that, a few recommended specific companies

Clay

Q: A question related to portfolio weightings. I used to only have individual stock names and a fairly equal balance across various sectors. I just purchased an market ETF the other day (VUN) to get additional exposure and classified it as "other", but it didn't feel right when I noticed that the weighting of my other sectors went down.

As an example, if I had x% in a particular sector, but made a large contribution due to new cash into a market ETF, the original x% in that sector would now show up lower in my own calculations. How do you account for this? I don't want to be overleveraged in a particular sector by mistake.

Q: I am currently moving some of my portfolio from stocks to ETF's. I want only a plain vanilla flavoured portfolio. I have been going through your questions and answers regarding ETF's, and given the diversity of situations and dates, I am getting a little confused. i wonder if you could suggest the best for broad canada, broad U.S., and international?
thanks

Q: Hi Peter,
DBA is actual agricultural commodities while COW is companies involved in agriculture. Any Canadian listed company closer to DBA than COW ? Thanks.

Q: Hi Peter,
Is there a reasonable Canadian listed equivalent to the NYSE listed PowerShares Agriculture Fund ? Thanks.

Q: Hi,
Would like to start an RESP for my grandson. I am looking at the new TD series of EFTs which started in March 2016. Specifically THU and TPU (TD S&P 500 CAD Hedged Index ETF and TD S&P 500 Index EFT). The cost of these EFTs are only $15. Similar hedged and unhedged ETFs at Vanguard,BMO and I-Shares are trading at about $30-$40. Please advise if these TD ETFs will be just as good or should I stick with the tried and true ones mentioned above.
Thanks

Q: Peter and team:
In my kid's RESP, I am trying to transition away from individual equities into ETF's as we approach the time that it will be required.They currently hold ZWB, ZRE, ZLB & ZLU. I was thinking of adding ZDV to this. Would this be redundant, or help in diversity along with increased yield.

Thank you as always.

Phil

Q: My son is in his mid-thirties and has very limited time available to actively follow/trade the markets. He is looking for a simple, passive investment portfolio with very broad exposure, a modest dividend focus, and that is rebalanced, ideally, once a year. Can you comment on the following proposed portfolio and allocations, assuming about $100k? Are there any alternatives he should consider? Should he modify his approach in a TSFA/RRSP? Thanks.

VAB - 20% (Canadian bonds)
VCN - 15% (Canadian equity)
VDY - 15% (Canadian dividend)
VXC - 50% (Global equity excluding Canada)

Q: Bought a small portion of ZWU(covered call utilities with 0.72% mer) @ $15.04 in mid 2013(now$13.33) & loss is covered by the 0.08pm distribution.Please advise if I should switch to T,BCE.FTS, CDZ(0.67% mer) or Zlb(.39% mer)In 2013,I did not know what stock in the sector to buy.Since I joined 5I,I learn a lot & now tend to prefer a stock that is suggested by You.Thanks for your usual great advices & services.

Q: Hi 5i:

I have a set percentage of my portfolio dedicated to fixed income, with a primary focus on safety, but also with the hope of some return. I have focused on short term bond ladder ETFs, corporate and gov't. Over the last few years I have seen the reported distributions drop, slowly but steadily, and also the price of the ETFs drop steadily. For example, CBO now shows a dividend of about 3.6% wile I'm down about 3.3% on the market value of the ETF. I would have been much better off over the last few years in a GIC. I have some of the latter and like the ETFs because I can redeem them at will. Is there any other alternative to these bond ETFs (most that I have looked behave similarly)? What about RBC's Target Bond ETFs? These are held to maturity, though it seems to me that this might not help if the main problem is that the bonds included in the ETFs are bought at a premium. Your advice would be much appreciated.