Investment Q&A

Q: Good morning,
I need to increase the Health Care and a Tech sectors of my portfolio. Given that I wish to invest in Cdn$$$, my research for one ETF in each sector leads me to a choice among the ETFs listed above and 5i may have others that may be a better choice.
Question. What would be 5i's best of class ideas for a Health Care and Tech ETF to add to my portfolio and is there a preferred location (TFSA/RRSP/Non Reg acct) for these ETFs?
Thank you and I will await your valued suggestions/recommendations.

Q: Thank you for for answer yesterday about setting up my parent's investments. To summarize, they are very conservative, above 80 years old, and looking for safety and income.

I would now like to ask you about the distribution of the equity component of the investments (composing only 17% of the total, the rest being in bonds, preferred, and GICs). Those below are all in equal weight. What do you thing?

BEP.UN, BCE, BNS, CM, CU, ENB, TRP
XHC for healthcare exposure
IWO for US growth
VGG for US exposure
XEF (in a half position) for international exposure
VEE (in a half position) for emerging market exposure

Could you please suggest some more to round things out? I need another 5 or 6 stocks.


Also, do you have any objection to using ZAG and HYGH as bond substitutes for their conservative portfolio? I am buying individual preferred shares for that component.

Thank you once again,

Fed

Q: Hi.

Currently moving my portfolio from mostly stocks to mostly ETFs. Was reading your latest ETF & Mutual Fund Update newsletter (February 10 2019 I Volume 25 I Issue 2) where I read this under 'Exchange-Traded Funds For Your RRSP':

'When it comes to Canadian-listed funds that hold U.S. equities or hold U.S.-listed ETFs it is best to avoid them because U.S. dividend income is taxed on your behalf.'

I also see XHC (CAN), listed in your Growth ETF Portfolio (Oct/11/2018), has only one holding: IXJ ETF (USA). Based on above, would it then not be better to hold IXJ directly in a USA $ RRSP account), if one is not concerned about CAN/USA $ hedging?

Thank you.

Q: I very much appreciate 5i along with your ETF site. From your ETF site, I have been playing with the ETF sector balancer and have found it quite useful to see the % of the sectors my postions occupy .
My questions
1. I am considering a 1/2 position of XHC, XGI, and XCD and a 1/4 postion of VUN and XQQ. Is now the time to buy these or should I sit on my cash for a while or should I be considering some alternatives to these within their sectors?
2. If I execute #1 above, my overall holdings will be 57% CDA, 29% USA, 14% INTL and my portfolio will consist of 2% materials, 13% consumer cyclical, 5% financial, 3% communication, 10% energy, 10% industrials, 6% technology, 17% consumer defensive, 13% healthcare and 18% utilities.
I would very much appreciate your critique and observations.

John

Q: Hi 5i- The 4 etf mentioned are all ca. hedged. As such my concern is the cdn. dollar direction going forward. I don't see any good non hedged options. Should I stay the course or do you have a better suggestion. thanks for yur input.
peter

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

I manage a TFSA for my daughter-in-law. She holds 165 shares of GUD and is presently down $419. I know that you're still positive on GUD, but she's beginning to lose patience. Would you be OK with selling GUD to buy COV (realizing its size makes it more risky) or perhaps buying XHC (which we can do commission free) to stay in the same sector in an otherwise balanced portfolio?
She's 49 years old and is using her TFSA as forced savings by adding $100 each month. (I invest the $100 in a commission-free ETF by looking at the 'best ones' and invest in the one that's down the most on the day that the $100 appears in her account.)

Thanks in advance for your insight.

Q: In my balanced portfolio, I think I am underweight in the following sectors: Energy 2% [ENB], Healthcare 3% [GUD], Telecom 7% [T, VOX], and perhaps overweight in Materials 10% [AEM,CCL.B, SJ, MX] and Tech 18% [CSU, DSG, ENGH, SHOP, PHO]. What is your opinion, and what should I buy or sell to rectify this? I have cash available. Many thanks, as always.
Ellen

Q: I have a question about 1536 how does Xhc look to invest in today

Q: I am looking for a health care ETF. Right now I am looking at ZHU and XHC. One is global and one is US focused.
ZUH has a MER of 0.39 and a yield of 0.42.
While XHC has a MER of 0.65 but a yield of 1.49.Which I think cancels out the higher MER.

I am not sure which one is right for me or how to choose. Could I use growth potential? Does one have more growth potential than the other? Or what other factors could I use to help me decide?

Q: Since tere are few healt care companies in Canada wouldnt it be better to invest in XHC, if not what company would you suggest

Thanks

Q: Last February you did a portfolio review for me and it has served me very well. At that time ETF ZUH was recommended for healthcare exposure. Subsequently, I have recently subscribed to ETF & Mutual Fund newsletter. I noticed ZUH is not in your list of recommended healthcare ETFs but XHC is on the list. It has probably been so for a while and just did not notice. Should I switch out of ZUH and into XHC?

Q: Ryan,
I appreciated your recent blog post about the rebalancing trade potential for health care. Given there is so little to choose from in Canada would it be wise to look to US listed companies who have suffered as well. If so would it be better to go the etf route or do you have any company specific recommendations. Thanks again for your great service.

Q: Which of these ETFs would you prefer for a TFSA, XHC or ZUH?

Thanks

Q: Hi folks
Two questions.
I have held both these for some time in my wife's LIRA account. She can not access this for about 12 years, so a long term hold is very possible. Have held these for a couple years. Both are down about 10%, I have held on because I see the ETF as a long term play on our aging population, and ACHN (hopefully you have a little info with this) as a risky but likely takeout target down the road. I have trimmed this one down and made a bit of $ in another account with it, so it isn't as bad as it looks.
Looking back, which is always easy, there are better options, however I am in now and wondering if I should stay the course.
Don't mind volatility, actually kind of drawn to it. Any thoughts?
Excellent job btw, your cheap at twice the price!
Cheers ;)

Q: I read with interest your recent article in the Post and was intrigued by the comment that research shows 90% of portfolio returns come from sector allocation - if a person wanted to take advantage of that, in a simple, easy to manage and inexpensive way (ignoring taxes for the moment) what would be your view be on an approach where one's equity component of their portfolio consisted entirely of a number of ETF's with each one of the ETF's focused on a particular sector, with a periodic (say quarterly) rebalancing? What specific ETF's would you suggest for such a portfolio? Thank you.