Investment Q&A

Q: This is a follow up to my question yesterday about fixed income investments and inflation/ interest rates.

If one is of the view that interest rates will increase, what is your advice about real return bonds, versus regular bonds. Does it make sense for most investors to hold real return bonds in their fixed income portion of their portfolio? If so, what is the maximum percentage of their fixed income portion that you would recommend that real return bonds take? How best should an investor buy fixed return bonds - does an ETF make sense, and which one would you recommend?

Thank you again for your wonderful advice.

Q: Do you see any need to include real return bonds as part of a fixed income portion of a portfolio? If so what percentage of ones fixed income portion makes sense?
Are there any unexpected risks to holding real return bonds compared to normal bonds? e.g. compared to zag/xbb/vab.

Q: Can you provide your opinion on inflation linked bonds and what role (if any) they should play in diversifying a long term portfolio. What is your preferred ETF for this? Are they redundant if you have gold?

Q: Please recommend Canadian and US ETFs that invest in inflation linked bonds.
Thanks as usual.
LSM

Q: Are there Canadian equivalent to TIP and STIP. I don’t want to add to my risk by not being hedged. I’m looking for a way to protect against inflation at some point. Is there another way besides inflation protected bonds?
Thanks as always for your insight

Q: Hi team
looking for an etf for real return bonds (short term) vs XSB which is also short term
what is the main difference in terms of safety and returns between the 2 ? it is meant to be in a RRSP
thanks
Michael

Q: Many high quality bond ETFs are trading at substantial discounts to their NAV. How can this be as the ETF should be representing the value of the underlying bonds? Are bonds being sold so fast that the market makers just can not keep-up with the pace? If XCB and XRB return to their NAV value this could be a buying opportunity? Thanks Ron

Q: XRB is 100% government bonds and is now trading at a substantial discount to NAV. How can this be as the bonds are all government issue and (hopfully) the government is not going to default? Is this another case of dumping anything for cash or is something else happening? Would you enter a small position here as hedge against inflation down the road?

Q: Another re-balancing questions as my “fixed income” levels are about 20% below where they should be .... as a retiree. And am holding 20% of my portfolios in cash.
My question is regarding XRB and if that would be an appropriate diversifier to a bond portfolio consisting mostly or your previous recommendations: XLB - CBO -XTR - TLT - CBO and VSC.
At some point interest rates will go up and in the meantime XRB has a 1.86% yield which at least beats cash.
Buy? Pass on this - at least for now? Buy something else as a fixed income diversifier.
As usual thank you for your any guidance you can provide here.

Q: On Friday David Rosenberg was interviewed by Andrew McCreath. He expects inflation to increase due to global debt and recommended real rate return bonds. While I do have some bond exposure I have never owned any of these bonds. Your thoughts please. As always, thank you for your excellent service. Nigel

Q: Greetings 5i,

My question is twofold, so please deduct two credits if you see fit. I have some cash to deploy into the bond portion of my fixed income allocation, and would like your advice about how to proceed. Currently, I have VAB.TO and AGG for broad based bond market exposure, and XRB.TO for inflation linked bonds. To this, I am considering adding an ETF strictly devoted to Canadian government bonds in an attempt to add increased long-term safety (I am becoming a little skittish of corporate bonds).

This addition would be a very long-term hold (likely 20 years or more), and would bring my bond allocation to roughly 15% of my total portfolio (the majority of my fixed income investments are comprised of GIC ladders).

I am 37 years old, debt free, and fairly conservative in my risk tolerance. My investments are solely for the purpose of providing for my retirement, and I will have no need of their funds for the foreseeable future.

My research has led me to either an overarching fund such as XGB.TO or VGV.TO, or to one with laddered maturities like CLF.TO or CLG.TO. Given my situation and style, do you feel as if the addition of a Canadian government bond ETF makes sense for my portfolio (as opposed to simply adding to VAB and AGG)? Moreover, if you do approve of said addition, which of the aforementioned funds would you consider to be the most beneficial?

Thank you.

Q: Hi 5i,
If one was concerned about inflation, it has been suggested that real return bonds could be something to consider investing in.
What is your opinion of these as an inflation protection? Do you currently have a view on where inflation is headed?
I have listed a couple of ETF's I might consider. Can I get your view and the pros and cons of each please?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Dan

Q: Could you please name a few monthly high dividend bond etfs the would protect form a down turn in the markets. Both canadian and us.

Q: Hi Peter and the 5i team,
The last question about XRB was in November of 2016. What is your take on XRB and real-return bonds in general?
Thanks as always for your insight.

Q: Soooo many questions regarding bonds ... not surprising when so many of us have enjoyed the "safe" dividends.

My question: given the concerns regarding bonds in general in a rising rate environment, would you recommend this as good time to add XRB or a similar/better product to the fixed income portion of one's portfolio?

Thanks for your guidance here.

Q: I am considering selling XRB. Is this a good time to hold or get rid of a real return bond index?