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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: I have a large sum of money to "hold" for about 3 months with the purpose of buying a property. I'll be paying about 3% interest on it and am wondering if there is a short term place to hold the money and earn a bit of interest to offset that but not have too much risk of losing principle. I could just put it in my banks savings account for the time being (at 0.1%...) but thought I would pose this question in case you had any better suggestions. Thanks very much.
Read Answer Asked by Dustin on January 19, 2021
Q: Happy new year!
A general question. I'm keeping 15% cash in my TFSA. I'd like to spend them whenever the market drops. However they don't generate interest. I'm wondering if there are anything such as bonds that gives me daily interest, or at least short term interest. If so could you suggest what bonds would be a great buy.
Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Yongwei on January 13, 2021
Q: Hi 5i team.
Re ZTL, this long term US Treasury Bonds ETF has been declining since May. With the blue sweep in the US, additional benefit spending to come, possible rate increase and inflation in a year or two, would you recommend to sell this ETF now? What needs to happen to see this ETF reverse the fall? Given the current world economic situation, what other bond etfs would be safer bet? (amount of interest income is not important) Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Willie on January 12, 2021
Q: Hi there,
I see I have quite a backlog of question credits so, I thought I should put some of that to work. I have a general question about rate reset bonds. I have been thinking about reset bonds in etf form if there is such a thing. This would be for using new money to start a small quarter of a position over the coming year. I am closing in on retirement within the next few years and would be interested in hearing your thoughts when compared to preferred shares or laddered bonds. Maybe resets are similar to taking a laddered bond etf - but I am not sure of the merits given the paltry income for bonds. My concern is this market cannot keep up this parabolic growth much longer and the market appears to be pretty frothy right now. As a survivor of the tech wreck, I am worried about what I see as a significant correction (up to 20%) within the next 24 months or so. I am not afraid of risk but I do want to explore a variety of hedging options out there without exiting some of my growth stock positions. Cake and eat it too I expect. I still have about 6 or 7 years in the market. Thanks as always for your thoughts.
Read Answer Asked by Erna on January 12, 2021
Q: Hi Team,

Like many I am trying to figure out what to do with cash on hand with interest rates near zero. I am trying to generate income while managing risk/volatility for this "low risk" part of my portfolio.

After some research I have come up with what may be three "best of breed" places to put some cash to work: REITs (e.g., RIT), preferred shares (e.g., HPR) and real return bonds (e.g., XRB).

What are your overall thoughts please on these securities at this time? Do you see any better alternatives in this market and interest rate cycle? What are the main downside risks you see for each security? Would you consider blue chip, high yield common shares more attractive or is there a diversification benefit here?

(Please deduct as many credits as appropriate for this compound question.)

Thank you so much, Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on January 07, 2021
Q: TPAY is a TD income ETF. Do you have an opinion re: a place to store cash for 6 months? Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Paul on January 06, 2021
Q: Hi,
On Jan. 5, Paul asked about an alternative to PSA at TD. Your suggestion was HISA but as you say, you don't know all the products at each brokerage. HISA is not available for online trades. All I've found at TD in this category is TDB8150 TD Investment Savings Account (no load) under mutual funds, which pays only 0.25% right now.
Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on January 05, 2021
Q: Hi 5i research team - Can I have your opinion on the ZCM, ZCS, HFR ETFs?
I am looking for ETFs in the bonds category that do not fall much if the market tumbles (relatively safe) and at the same time pays a good interest compared to money market funds. I dont have any in the US market.
Any other ETFs you can think of in the CAD and US markets?
Thanks for your input!
Read Answer Asked by Ahmed on December 23, 2020
Q: Fixed Income portion of portfolio is 40% and some deposits came due so need to deploy that cash into fixed income. Thinking of putting 25% of the 40% FI into these two ETFs. I would appreciate your thoughts on this plan please. Alternatives are welcome. Thanks again.
Read Answer Asked by Danny-boy on December 21, 2020
Q: Just wondering about the suitability of Fidelity’s Global Bond ETF (FCGB-T) for foreign fixed income exposure? There had been a question before about VGAB which I think is smaller, newer, and less indicated yield. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks,
Read Answer Asked by Stephen R. on December 17, 2020
Q: Rightly or wrongly, I believe a market downturn is coming with negative rates a possibility. I have raised cash by selling many of my equities. I'm not confident in the health of the corporate bond market but was wondering if you can suggest a government bond fund/ETF (US and/or Canadian government) or other government fixed income strategy that may benefit from negative rates?
Read Answer Asked by Neelesh on December 16, 2020
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