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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'm impressed by the performance of the Hamilton Etfs, managing a crazy high 'dividend' and not really losing price. How will the Hamilton covered call ETFs (I've listed only a couple examples) do in a down market -- will they outperform or underperform the market ? I know they are new products; are these ETFs at risk of 'bait and switch' in terms of some unseen fees or reduced distributions?
Read Answer Asked by Patrick on March 26, 2025
Q: I hold the following High dividend players: CALL, DGS, GLCC, HDIV, HMAX, HPYT, QQCC and QQQY. Can you please rate these as safest and best for growth. I am down on HMAX, HPYT and QQQY. I hold so many as I am leery to place all dollars on one player. Or are there some I should sell.
Read Answer Asked by John on March 04, 2025
Q: Hi Group looking for some direction on following stocks. Looking for growth along with some dividend return. \plse give me a couple (5) of your suggestions that fit the guidelines lastly please rate them all 10 being best
Read Answer Asked by Terence on February 18, 2025
Q: Would Canadian funds such as ENCC, BANK, HMAX which hold Canadian stocks be taxed as dividend income or as capital gains income by the CRA ?
I believe that similar funds holding US stocks would be taxed as capital gains.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Catherine Ann on January 24, 2025
Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. Sitting on roughly 5-6% cash for topping up existing positions to, over time, hit Asset Allocation targets.

Candidates = BCE, GSY, HHL, HMAX, XST, ZUT. If I was deciding to deploy funds to create the largest total return over the next year or two, from their existing valuation, a) in what order would you deploy the funds and b) a short qualifier for each position?

My view = buy in this order:
ZUT = good momentum, room to run before hitting earlier peak
GSY = good value, $150-155 should be excellent value
XST = graph against 50 and 200mda...very tight chart....could buy anytime
HMAX = good value, banks should run
HHL = healthcare stocks should get over their fear of their new boss in a few months....or not. Give it some time.
BCE = last on the list. Just rebought after cap loss capture. Give it even more time.

Thanks for your help....Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on December 16, 2024
Q: Retired (70 yrs old), dividend-income investor. Been meaning to ask this question for a long time. We run a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10 ETFs and 10 stocks, plus fixed income on top. Our pro-rated MER for the equity ETFs is 0.64 and for the entire portfolio is 0.38.

I use the ETFs above that are sector ETFs (like HHL, NNRG, XIT) as my proxy for the sector and am ok with the trade off of paying fees for a sector ETF instead of having lots of stocks.

I then add my individual stock selections to achieve my targeted Asset Allocation for the entire portfolio (like AD, BCE, FTS, GSY, RY, NWC, PBH, TRP, WSP, etc). I weight each of these relative to my risk tolerance.

Does this make sense to you? Does my "sector ETF" make sense, especially with a potentially large weighting in one ETF. Virtually all of my ETFs are capped at around 7% of the equity portfolio and the stocks are capped at 5% max.

Your thoughts on my strategy and on my MER....thanks...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on December 10, 2024
Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I have spent a bit of time using your chart feature, which I think is excellent. I like the feature of it being total return (CG plus dividends).

Comparing total return for ZEB vs ZWB over various timeframes is easy, since they both have adequate history. The complication arises when adding HMAX to the comparison, due to it's very short history and therefore not being through a full cycle. It is apparent to me that the covered call ETFs do indeed give up total return for higher steady income.

To my amateur eyes, it appears that ZEB is the clear winner over 1-3-5 year timeframes, with HMAX taking over 2nd place in the 1 year timeframe.

However without the benefit of a full economic cycle, I can not come to a final decision. I have started building a position in HMAX, but I am now wondering if I should have been building a ZEB-ZWC position. I know that ZEB is banks, whereas HMAX is financials (banks, ins, etc).

Any thoughts you could throw in the mix would be helpful. Any indication of how it might perform over the longer term, based on the history so far....thanks...Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on November 01, 2024
Q: Please advise if HAMILTON covered call ETF (QMAX, EMAX and others) eligible for the Canadian dividend tax credit.

Thanks for the great service
Read Answer Asked by Hector on October 08, 2024
Q: In my RRIF I hold the above 5 stocks in the "financial" sector:

1) What impact, positive or negative will interest rate reduction have on each of the stocks?
2) Would you please rate the 5 for total return possibility over the next 12-18 months, and
3) They represent about a 25% of the RRIF - would you be comfortable with this level of allocation n the current environment?

Thanks,
Terry
Read Answer Asked by Terry on September 20, 2024
Q: I'm considering buying HDIV ETF. On the ETF website it shows a 2023 total distribution of $1.974 and a ROC (return of capitol) of $ 1.66201 . After watching a video of ROC sometimes the ROC is not a reduction of NAV but just for tax purposes. And in some instances it is actually a return of your own capital and your NAV is reduced. Can you give some clarity on ROC. And how to determine if an ETF in my investment account has dropped in value from return of my own capital or loss of the underlying securities of ETF? My personal situation all my investment accounts are RRSP and TSFSA.

Thanks, Brian.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on September 19, 2024
Q: Retired dividend income investors. We prioritize asset allocation in all of our portfolio decisions. We plan on capturing some income tax savings by selling the remaining shares of my wife's BNS, thereby offsetting other capital gains. I need to replace these funds in the same sector...ie: financials.

She leans more on the conservative side. Combined, we already have a full position in RY and other financials contained within ZLB, CDZ, ZWC, as well as AD.UN.

In the current declining interest rate environment, does HMAX fit the bill? As interest rates decline, what impact will this have on the share price? Should I assume that the capital appreciation will be fairly minimal, while the dividend maintains roughly where it is now?

I appreciate your help...as always.
Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on September 16, 2024
Q: Holding the following Financial sector stocks: BAM, BN, BNS, GSY, PRL, SLF, TD, X for a total of 20% in TFSA & RIF combined. Would like to reduce # of holdings to 5 or 6 and Financial % to about 15% . Your comments/suggestions/alternatives on the following setup would be appreciated:
RIF = HMAX, BAM, X
TFSA = BN, GSY (or BN, PRL or BN, PRL, GSY??)
As always, thank you for helping to provide clarity.
Read Answer Asked by Alexandra on September 13, 2024
Q: Value investor with some growth, 78 years old with good pension. I am slightly overweight in financials as above. I now see that I own both BKCC and HMAX. I do not seem to need both. I intend to sell BKCC and buy AW.UN to take advantage of its current situation. Does this sound like a plan or are there pitfalls?
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on August 27, 2024
Q: Good morning,

What an amazing job done here. My son is enrolled in a private school starting this year.

I'd like to tailor my non-registered to an income account to cover his monthly payments with capital preservation in mind.

I am comfortable with any and all options including covered call.

Rough metrics for this are 120k. Yielding 6% and greater.

Thank you very much.
Read Answer Asked by Jay on July 08, 2024