Investment Q&A

Q: currently have only Canadian index funds in bulk of portfolio;
plus a dividend fund... am considering the addition of the banks and insurance etf to take advantage of the pull back in the banks and the long range benefit the interest hikes could give impetus to the insurance industry. your thoughts??

Q: What are you some of your recommendations for $US denominated bond etfs? Should I be selecting short, intermediate or long term bonds (or broad-based)?

Q: I respect the opinion of David Rosenberg at GS as an astute macro economic observer. He is quoted in the National Post saying "Eurozone financials, meanwhile, are much cheaper after severely lagging in 2014. As a result, the strategist thinks the group has more upside potential than downside risk since some trade at single-digit multiples.

He also pointed out that European stocks as a whole offer a 3.7% dividend yield, compared to below-60-basis-point yields on German 10-year bunds.

“The ECB has no choice but to get more aggressive so the euro remains vulnerable, but that should be positive for large cap exporters,” Mr. Rosenberg said.

It's hard to believe European stocks as a whole offer a 3.7% dividend, so he may be referring to Eurozone financials here. What ETF or other way of investing would you suggest if one wanted to follow his advice to get this kind of yield? Thanks, J.

Q: Last year I asked you what foreign stock market would be the best performer for 2014 and suggested ishares Japan or Germany as options to buy. You went for Brazil which didn't work out too well, while my own prediction for Japan was only slightly better. What is your prediction for the country ishares to buy in 2015?

Q: Hi Peter. I have $US to invest and am interested in US ETF's. I'd appreciate a recommendation for a US broad market ETF. Thanks.

Q: This year, I would like to increase the US equity weight in my family portfolio to approximately 15% of our overall family portyfolio and am considering the purchase of CLU with a MER of 0.72. I already own some VIG in US$ and believe that the spread between the US$ and Cdn$ will continue to increase in 2015. Do you see any better choice of ETF than CLU to achieve my objective. Thank you.

Q: Would you consider this etf in hedged cdn funds to be one that could be held in an unregistered account and used for u.s. exposure as it has performed very well as its cousin zlb that I have owned for a long time...I appreciate your thoughts on this ...thanks

Q: Which of the following etf's holding emerging market securities would you recommend.... HAJ, VEE or ZEM? Most of my other ETF holdings are Blackrock iShares with some BMO products, so I would like to diversify into Horizons, Vanguard, or BMO on this one. Many thanks!

Q: Hello 5i Team,

I am searching for a healthcare ETF, and see that you normally suggest XLV, and sometimes ZUH. However, what is your opinion of FXH? It has performed better than XLV over the last 5 years, but has a higher (0.66%) expense ratio (which may be worth it).

What are the major differences between XLV, FXH, and ZUH, and if you were to choose one for a medium risk investor with a long term (3+ years) hold which one would it be?

Paul J

Q: Can I have your opinion on this ETF for the US portion of my portfolio. The returns seem to have been quite decent and wandering if the low volatility would protect my portfolio on the downside.

Thanks for the great work and have a happy new year.

Q: I am looking at investing money in health care , would you recommend ETF to do that and if so what US and Canadian ones. If not can you recommend two stocks (US and CDN) . I do not have any health care exposure and would like to allocate 5% of my portfolio to either stocks or the ETF.s, thank you and Happy New Year.

Q: Peter
The following are a mix of “fixed” income ETFs listed in the Nat Post's article on Robo-investors from last November sorted by decreasing yield. I am trying to shore up the fixed income portion of my portfolio and unsure of the rationale and safety of these ETFs.

Just how safe are these instruments? If there was a meltdown, could their values collapse accordingly?

At the lower end, isn't just worthwhile to buy a GIC, it looks as if they net bigger returns than the lower return ETFs?

What distribution of these ETF's would you recommend for a retiree portfolio?

ETF Ticker Institution MER% Yield% Net Distribution %

ZHY BMO Corporate Bond 0.55 5.77 5.22
XHY I shares US Bond .66 5.46 4.8
PBD Purpose Total Bond .45 4.47 4.02
CBO I shares 1-5 Yr Corp Bond 0.27 4.1 3.83
XCB I shares Corp Bond .44 3.38 2.94
XBB I shares Univers Bond .33 3.16 2.83
XSB I shares Shrt Term Bd .27 2.91 2.64
VAB Vanguard Ca Bond 0.12 2.71 2.59
VBU Vanguard Us Ag Bond 0.2 2.6 2.4
XRB I shares Real return 0.39 2.4 2.01
VSB Vanguard Shrt Trm Bond 0.1 2.2 2.1
HFR Horizon Float Rate 0.4 2.17 1.77
PSA Purpose High Savings 0.12 1.34 1.22

1 year GIC 1.9%

Regards

Q: Given the importance of cyber security this new etf just launched in the us seems like a good place to invest instead of trying to find the right stock. They have 20 stocks in the portfolio including Cisco fire eye Symantec palo networks fortinet. No track record but would you consider it a good bet on cyber security. I am thinking this would be a good place for a percent of my US portfolio.

Q: Most analysts warn that you should never hold leveraged ETF's long term. But I see some very large annual returns that are very close to the "three times" the return of the underlying ETF. Is there anything wrong with setting aside 10% of one's portfolio to try to supersize returns in sectors of high conviction. I am thinking of FAS (financials), TECL (technology) and CURE (healthcare).

Q: I note that VUS appears to use derivatives to underpin its investments. Given the role played by derivatives in the 2008 debacle, how safe is this ETF?

Q: On the above mentioned ETF's, which are supposed to pay a dividend monthly, these ones did not pay anything in December. It appears that they will pay in early January. Will I expect two payments in January then? How can an ETF quote that they pay monthly when they do not. This could impact investors who depend on fixed income. Thanks for your response.

Q: could you please recommend one or more etfs that would target US banks in Canadian fund. Do you think it is a good move having limited exposure to the above.
as always thanks
yossi

Q: Hi and Happy New Year
Would you lease recommend a Technology ETF as well ans a US large cap ETF for my TFSA. Thanks for helping me to finish 2014 in great shape.
Guy R

Q: What is your opinion of the TD's e-series funds, specifically of TB900 (TD Canandian Index) and TB902 (TD US Index)?
Would you recommend them?
Many thanks,
Jose.

Q: Hello,

I have some cash in my registered account that I would like to invest over the next few months. In the meantime where can I "park" the funds so that I can earn some interest/income/dividends while having minimal risk of capital erosion? I assume certain ETFs are suitable but I am not sure which. I am also open to other suggestions.

Thanks