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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 see IFC has issued a subordinated Note which acts like a rate-reset preferred. It has an 80 year maturity with resets every 5 years based on the 5 year GOC. Is there a movement away from preferred shares as a source of capital or is this just another alternative? Put another way, should I as an investor include these notes in my toolbox for future capital allocations?
Read Answer Asked by Greg on April 01, 2021
Q: Looking to establish a portfolio of higher yield equities. What are your thoughts on the above ETFs as part of the portfolio and which would be a preference if choosing only one? Have just started building recently with 1/2 positions in each of POW, PPL and BCE so far. Expect to hold 7-10 positions in total.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Robert on March 31, 2021
Q: Could you give me an analysis of PTY vs PFL and their respective risk profiles in this environment and the eventuality of rates rising? Which would you recommend?
Thanks for your service!
Read Answer Asked by Ozzie on March 22, 2021
Q: Suppose an investor believes that the US Treasury market is at the end of its multi decade rise and likely to collapse within the next 1-3 years. Is there a low cost way to short US Treasuries you could recommend? If so then what about at different maturities? What would be your opinion about this strategy and its risk?
Read Answer Asked by Steven on March 22, 2021
Q: Hi!

I used to own these ETFs for my fixed income exposure. I went to 0% fixed income during the downturn last year, instead using the proceeds to buy stocks that were crushed. I'd like to slowly start to build a position again in my RRSP. Am I too early? It seems like rates have started to rise and where they go is anyone's guess, but if bonds have an inverse relationship to rising rates, aren't I setting myself up to lose money? Does a laddered approach negate that somewhat? Maybe its best to start with CBO since its Corporate credit and laddered? How would you rank these in general and in order of which I should accumulate first. I realize XHY is riskier than the others.

Thanks,
Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on March 19, 2021
Q: Morning 5i Team, in order to add some torque to the fixed income portion of an RRSP, what do you think of the combination of these two @50% each? Better alternatives?
Thanks, Lavern
Read Answer Asked by Lavern on March 11, 2021
Q: As a follow up to my earlier question, where in you mentioned "if the focus is on bonds....", last line. I am looking for opportunities in fixed income investments. So where should the focus be, other than fixed deposits . Thanks for the excellent advice you have consistently provided over the years.
Read Answer Asked by Vinod on March 10, 2021
Q: Hi-5i,
Could you please tell me why the 10-year Bond yields are increasing? I understand the inverse relationship to the actual value of the bond, so I guess I should be asking why are 10-year bond prices decreasing? Are the holders selling? Are governments simply not buying them?
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on March 09, 2021
Q: I need to add some bond ETFs to my portfolio. Could you give three US dollar and
three Canadian dollar funds that you prefer .
Read Answer Asked by Roy on March 08, 2021
Q: As a follow-up to my question last week on interest rates up/down, please also advise which funds/ETFs perform best when interest rates move in either direction.

Thanks again.
Read Answer Asked by Arthur on March 08, 2021
Q: Hi,
Could I please have your opinion about the iShares Core 1-5 Year USD Bond ETF (ISTB). YCHARTS shows a 1 year return of 2.59%, MER of 0.06% and AUM of $4.856B. Shown as well is a 47% allocation to 1-3 year bonds and 43% to 3-5 years with only 6% long-term.. Do you think this is a solid choice for a US bond fund if one is looking for an intermediate term fund?
Thank you, Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on March 06, 2021
Q: I am not familiar with fixed income investments. I am looking at investing 30k in fixed income . Your portfolios show investments in CVD, CPB, and XHY. Looking for best optimization of rising rate environment and falling bond prices in the future. Just going through your question answer background material , I find VGRO, ICVT, and CSU.DB, very interesting. What would be the best combination in addition to any suggestions you may have. Thank you for your valuable guidance and a great job 5i is doing.
Read Answer Asked by Vinod on March 05, 2021
Q: Good morning team,
A few years ago I purchased ZAG as my bond portfolio for a long-term hold. It did will rising to $17.15, but as interest rates rose and it declined to my purchase price of $16.40, and given that I am over 70 years old, I sold out to preserve capital. I am looking for an alternative, safer place to put the fixed income portion of my portfolio. GICs and money market funds offer weak returns. I am looking at ZST (and ZUS for $US). Do you think these are a good places to go for safety of capital and rising return assuming interest rates continue to go up?
Read Answer Asked by Ken on March 05, 2021
Q: Hello, How come I do not see you recommend ZAG for bond exposure? I saw a recent question where you recommended ZCS for bond exposure. When I look at a 10 year chart, ZAG seems to have outperformed ZCS. Is it because of rising bond yields that you recommend holding ZCS as you predict better performance over ZAG?

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Alex on March 04, 2021
Q: hello 5i:
Many moons ago, we bought CSU.DB as a fixed income part of the portfolio for its (large) interest rate over prevailing rates at the time. All that was expected was a steady, relatively safe interest payment. The fact we've now got a very good capital gain as well, is a real bonus.
So, the question: is there a debt instrument, currently, that you would put in the same class as CSU.DB, that still has decent liquidity?
thanks
Paul L
Read Answer Asked by Paul on February 26, 2021
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