skip to content
  1. Home
  2. >
  3. Investment Q&A
You can view 3 more answers this month. Sign up for a free trial for unlimited access.

Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: Growth investor, high risk tolerance, who enjoys dividends as well. Im currently sitting close to 21% in Financial Services, a combination of long held holdings with big gains; GSY, SLF, newer purchases down slightly; ZEB, HCAl, and the newest and worst performer ECN. Stock positions are close to 5% each, I add or trim accordingly, ETF's are smaller. I wrestle with knowing holding good companies long term is the way to outperform, against opportunity costs of holding underperformers and or overweighting the wrong sectors for the year. If you managed your own $, what % would you hold here, if trimming, what order ? Emotionally it's much easier to trim GSY with big gains than ECN at a loss, but then there is the trimming the winner and holding the looser thing?
Read Answer Asked by Charles on January 17, 2023
Q: Good morning,

I'm considering adding a Financial ETF to my overall portfolio and would appreciate your thoughts and preference between a US ETF and a Canadian ETF along with your best idea/recommendation for each.

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Francesco on December 15, 2022
Q: I am new to the forum and 5I. Thanks for your great information! I wish I had subscribed earlier.
Can you give me a long term chart on the value and or return for these 2 ETFs? Because of the different dividends it is hard for me to value the two investments. Do you have a preference?
Thanks again
Richard
Read Answer Asked by Richard on December 07, 2022
Q: Do you think these ETF's are worthwhile investments in the Cdn. Bank area?
They both have high yields - are they sustainable
What is difference between the two? Which one is the preferred investment?
If neither are preferred - can you suggest an alternative?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Reg on December 05, 2022
Q: Which etfs/mutual funds do you suggest to get exposure to the Cdn banks/financials?
Read Answer Asked by Gary on November 11, 2022
Q: Hello

Want to sell GOOG and AMZN in my cash account for the tax loss.

Replace them with FTS, PPL and ZEB. for dividend and safety.

Your comments thank you.

Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on November 03, 2022
Q: Which Canadian and US financial/ bank etfs do you recommend? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Gary on August 25, 2022
Q: I noticed that ZEB..holds the six major banks. However, its dividend distribution is 3.33%. The lowest of the dividend from TD and RY are 3.8/ 3.9. and the others are 4%+ . Any reason for that? May be a good reason to switch over?
Read Answer Asked by DAVID on June 13, 2022
Q: Any issues I should be aware of in switching from ZEB to HEWB in a taxable account other than taxable capital gains on the sale of ZEB? I am trying to lower taxable income which is impacting OAS payments.
Read Answer Asked by Earl on April 13, 2022
Q: As concerns ZWC vs ZEB: I had assumed that the former's high return-of-capital component were accounting-speak for capital gains from the sale of covered calls - essentially, a way to defer capital gains taxes until the position were closed. So what's not to like about deferring capital gains taxes, particularly for an stable, NAV-appreciating, income-oriented instrument like ZWC, which we would expect to hold for a long time? I.e., what am I missing about why lower return-of-capital should be 'better' - or, more generally, is there a threshold above which high return-of-capital creates some sort of weird risk?
Read Answer Asked by John on March 28, 2022
Q: HI!
In an income seeking portfolio, if one has a portfolio that is overweight financials, do you think it makes sense in the current environment to lighten up and add to pipelines and utilities due to the geopolitical events and risk of recession down the road. Thought in rate rising environment assets that benefit from rising rates were in favour but it seems telcos, utilities, and pipelines are moving more now. Obviously with price of oil, increase in pipelines is understandable and clearly yield curve is playing a role. What are your thoughts on whether increasing rates will eventually hurt utilities/pipelines. Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Neil on March 08, 2022
Q: Hi, Market drop in the morning, Today and complete reversal after President Biden's briefing about Russia invasion of Ukraine was simply Extraordinary. Nasdaq, of course was the huge winner. Banks, on the other hand, were really weak at the open and did not gain much traction, during the day. Could you try to explain the disconnect, please.

RBC results were quite impressive, but it did not help the stock, Today.

CNBC, Bob Pisani commented that US Financials have been under pressure, the whole week.

We added some CM,RY,TD and BNS in the morning, for dividends and additional exposure to financials, to take advantage of market drop and due to expectations of the sector benefitting from rising rates. Do you consider it a wise move?

Thank You
Read Answer Asked by rajeev on February 25, 2022
Q: Hi,

I am interested in $Cdn ETFs that are designed for inflation and where the underlying securities have pricing power? If any, do you have a favourite? If you have a favourite, the reasons why?

Many Thanks,
Derek
Read Answer Asked by Derek on February 15, 2022
Q: Hi,
There were a few questions in January 2022 about both the US/Canadian banks. Your answers seem to be favour holding some banks b/c of rising interest rates and more recent earnings results.

What are your favorite bank ETFs in Canada and in the US? (US ETFs are a lot cheaper to buy and hold). Do you still feel optimistic about this sector?

This is for my RRSPs. So, withholding tax is not a factor.

Thanks in advance.
Read Answer Asked by Savalai on February 08, 2022
Q: Hello Peter,
For an RESP today and future contributions with focus on Canada and USA, I was thinking of allocating more monies to indexes such as xic and xsp and less to sectors such as xfn or zeb , and xit. What are your thoughts? Also, i noticed that xsp has not done as well as SPY. i am assuming it is do to currency. In an RESP, I would think xsp on toronto and SPY on NYSE, both have withholding taxes.. Please comment. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by umedali on January 20, 2022