Investment Q&A

Q: I currently own CLF,CPD,ZAG and HLY in a LIRA account. The weight of these 4 ETFs are all 2 %. each. I would like to sell 2 and then use the cash to increase the weight of the other 2 that I will keep. Which 2 ETFs would you sell?

Thanks

Q: I have the following bond ETF's: HFR,VSC, ZAG and XHY. They total 22% of my portfolio. My question is do I move out, reduce or shift into different bond investments. I am 70 and they are split evenly in registered and non registered accounts.
Cheers and thanks for your great work. Bob

Q: Is this a good bond ETF to buy as a starter Bond Fund for my Portfolio? Looking for a 2-3 year hold.

Q: Hi,

How would you allocate a 20% and a 30% position to the income portion of a portfolio? If one dumps it all into a well diversified bond fund like ZAG be too much in a single ETF?

Thanks

Q: What are your top 10 ETF’s to hold forever?
Would you buy them on the US or Canadian markets if available. I know some of the US listed ETF’s are more liquid. Thanks

Q: The short duration bond ETFs like these have declined in last few months with possibility of increased rates. If these are held for five years, would there still be loss of principal, if interest rates stay higher than today. I was assuming if bonds are held to maturity, there is no loss of principal. Hopefully, my question makes sense.

Q: Making some adjustments based on portfolio analytics.
Whats your best growth suggestions for:
Health care (us/ international)
Industrial (us/ international)
Consumer defensive (us/ international)
Consumer cyclical (us/ international)
And what is your favorite way to add a fixed income component?
Take appropriate credits as nessacary.
Thx for the great service.

Q: About 1 year ago you provided some general guidance on a retirement portfolio and I’m wondering what changes, if any, you might recommend given another year has passed. I’m not looking for specific guidance but rather suggestions for me to investigate further given how the investing landscape has changed this past year. Retirement horizon is 5 years and the portfolio has the following holdings: ZAG(26%), ZSP (3%), CDZ(65%), ZEA(6%). We have a large cash position that we’re ready to deploy. First, what is your take on the viability and allocation of the current holdings? Second, what are some ETF suggestions for the cash - add to existing ETFs or do you have alternative funds you’d recommend for us to investigate. Thanks so much!

Q: Can you explain why ZAG is going down the last few days?
Is it related to a normal cycle change or change of fundamentals?

Q: About 25% of my portfolio is in cash, enough for 5 years of cash needs. The problem is that it earns only 0.2%. Now I am thinking of putting this cash in 5 or more high quality Bond ETFs. Is this a right move? If so, could you give few names? Thanks.

Q: I’m 71 years old. As I get older I’ve tried to simplify my portfolio, going from about 50 stocks years ago, to my current portfolio of about 16 stocks, 3 ETFs and 15% cash.
I am a subscriber to your Portfolio Tracking and Analysis service and I’m told I need to make changes to reach a suggested asset allocation and portfolio diversification. Right now I’m tech, utilities and financial services heavy.

Here’s what I’d like to do:
The following set up gives me an allocation of 70% equities, 20 % bonds and 7% cash. I’m comfortable with this and have gone through many 20 and 30% corrections in the past 30 years without too much despair.

In my Canadian cash account I’d have CDZ, FTS, AQN.
Locked in RSP (LIRA) I would have AAPL, ZSP, ZEM.
Unlocked RIF I ‘d have CLF, ZAG.
TFSA would have QQQ, ZEM, ZDI, CSU, TOI, SIS.
I’d like cash around 8% of portfolio.

I’m wondering if I have my portfolio diversification covered and if the right stocks or ETFs are in the appropriate accounts for best tax efficiencies?
Your input would really be helpful.
Thanks
Frank

Q: Thank you for the reply to my recent question. Unfortunately the question pertained to the 5i balanced etf portfolio not the balanced equity portfolio. May I please have to top five etf positions to add new money at this time.

Q: I'm helping a friend set up a "couch potato portfolio". I noticed a while back that you commented on such a portfolio. I am suggesting the following to my friend. What do you think? Is there any of the ETFs that you would swap out? And why?

XIU S&P/TSX60 total return for Canada 25%
ZSP BMO S&P 500 Index ETF for USA 25%
XEF ishares Core MSCI EAFE for Europe/Japan 25%
ZEM BMO MSCI Emerging Markets Index ETF for emerging markets 5%
XGD iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold for gold exposure 5%
ZAG BMO Aggregate Bond ETF 15%

It appears that both ZSP and XEF offer USD versions. What are the pros and cons?
Thanks

Q: I had a portfolio review many years ago when you did them individually, personally by human! At the time your suggestions were right on and cleaned up my ETF's. Now I have over ten and according to your metrics it should not be so. Given those above, is there anything that is not required? I am up 25%- 150% on all of them. I am happy with all of them. I have a balanced portfolio in all 11 sectors with 44 stocks all doing quite nicely thank you. Following the income portfolio with some of my own additions from 15 years ago. I do not see any major conflicts.I am s a buy and hold dividend investor with some growth ( lightspeed, Leon's).
Thank you for your million dollar service!
Stanley

Q: With interest rates probably going up in the next year or two, what ETF bond funds do you suggest would be suitable investment for this type of environment? Thank's.
Ronald

Q: I see the weighted average duration of ZAG is 7.93 years. Does that mean for every 1 % increase in interest rates the price will fall by 7.93%. If so I feel I should get out of ZAG with anticipation of increasing interest rates.

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

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 .

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?

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!