Investment Q&A

Q: Hello
The existing Canadian tech fund XIT is almost 60% CSU and Shopify.
is there an equal weight tech fund in Canada?
Thanks

Q: Hi Peter: When I sit back and take a look at the big picture and review how my portfolio performed during COVID-19 (so far), I try to see what lessons I can learn, then turn to how to apply those lessons to make my portfolio stronger.

I am a retired, dividend-income investor. I am a huge believer in asset allocation and have designed a portfolio, in my opinion, to be reasonably well diversified, although heavy to Canada. It WAS roughly 70% equities (including 32% foreign content) and 30% fixed income (roughly 15% insured annuities, 15% Fisgard Capital...both averaging in the 5-6% pre-tax range and minor cash). My equities are mostly blue chip, dividend payers, as you can see above. The 3 mutual funds are a very minor part of my portfolio, especially Eric's Energy Fund (<2%). I also receive a company pension and CPP-OAS which, when included, drops my equities to roughly 32%.

I use various metrics to monitor my portfolio, such as P/E, P/BV, P/CF, P/S, Beta, ROE, Div growth, Payout%, technical indicators like 200 mda. I am normally a buy-and-hold investor who trims/adds around a core position.

Periodically I measure how "at risk" my portfolio is relative to the overall market. I do this by prorating my portfolio using Beta. Based on equities only, I averaged 0.68 and for my entire portfolio I averaged 0.44. So, one would think that if the overall market (TSX) was to drop 30%, then I would have thought my portfolio would drop 44% to 68% of that, being in the range of 13% (overall) to 20% (equities only).

In actual fact, my entire portfolio dropped 27% from peak to trough vs the expected 13%...over double! I understand that EVERYTHING was sold off...almost no exceptions. So what do we learn from this and what changes should we consider? Do we accept that "sxxt happens" once in a while...you can't predict every event, accept it and move on? Should we consider increasing the cash component as a buffer? Or...is there something else to be learned here?

Thanks for you help...much appreciated...Steve

Q: Hello 5i!

Appreciate all the great work.
I am looking for a canadian as well as US listed tech ETF. And semi-conductor fund to be held in my RRSP. Diversification and of course hoping for long term growth.
Currently XIT (TFSA). Using the room in RRSP for US listed dividend stocks/ETF's. Or whichever is the most tax and growth efficient.

I'm wondering what your top picks are in that sector and why? One concern of mine is some have a much higher mer. Is that worth the performance in the long run?

Or better bang for your buck on keeping fees low as usual and the most diverse fund. Company and cap wise. Hence holding a primarily large cap and semi conductor. Or just 1 solid all around.

If I'm missing a far better pick please enlighten me.

Thank you for putting together such a great site and program. Info is fantastic.

Q: Good day team, with current environment for context, and looking at tech/big data companies: Are there etfs (Canadian but with CDN/US/Global exposure) that cater to broad based tech. I feel once we are out of this, technology will play an even greater role in our lives and in industry, healthcare, security etc etc

Q: Hi Team,

What are your thoughts on purchasing at these levels? What are your thoughts on the long term potential of the underlying holdings and do you see any significant risks other than possible over valuation?

Deduct as many credits as you see fit.

Thanks!

Q: Retired dividend-income investor. I'm sitting on 15% cash that I created by taking profits and harvesting some losses. I have mapped out how to redeploy this cash to hit my asset allocation targets, both by sector as well as by individual holding. I had originally designed the re-entry on spreading the purchases over 6 months. Given that we now have information on different countries indicating that they MIGHT be showing signs of COVID slowly recovering and that the stock market is forward looking, would you adjust the 6 months time frame to 4 months? What's your crystal ball tell you...redeploy a little faster?

Also, the above equities are those that are candidates for topping up. Which would you hit up first?

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. I currently own ZLB (RRSP, max'd out), XIT (RRSP-TFSA, max'd out), ZRE (Cash, 3/4 position, will add to over time), ZWC (Cash, close to max'd out). I also have some legacy positions in RBF1018 (RBC Cdn Equity Income-D...MER of 1.0) and CIG50217 (Sentry Cdn Income...high MER), both of which I have averaged roughly 7-8% return over the last many years, prior to this crisis. On top of the above I own AD, AQN, AW, BCE, CSH, CM, FTS, NTR, NWC, RY, TRP, WSP in various amounts to achieve my overall asset allocation targets (not to mention my fixed income portion of my portfolio.

I normally like to run a concentrated portfolio of around 20 positions, composed of +/- 6 ETF-MF and +/- 14 stocks. I have mapped out the use of my current cash (15%) into monthly repurchases over the next 6 months. My question relates to the combination of ETFs, but focusing on ZWC. I own ZWC for its high CC dividend, but recognize that the upside is potentially limited in a recovery. Also, when mapping out spending my cash, I reach an uncomfortable level of too high an allocation per individual stock. That led me to consider adding another ETF. I looked at several, and filtered them down to CDZ, XEI and XDV. I have chosen CDZ as my candidate to add. Looking under the hood at the ETF holdings, they appear to not overlap too much with my own individual stocks.

Do you like this strategy? Does it result in a significant overlap in stocks, held either individually or within the existing ETFs?

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: First off I just want to say thank you so much for your special report you issued last week. For a young investor like myself who has never been through events like we currently are experiencing your advice has been extremely valuable to help navigate these uncharted waters.

I have been sitting on some cash and would like to increase my technology (both Canada and the US) exposure as it is low right now. I am comfortable with moderate risk. I have a few questions on this subject so feel free to subtract as many credits as you see fit:
1) For Canadian tech companies, after reading your special report and the Q&A's, it seems you like CSU, KXS, DSG, and SHOP. Would you recommend buying these individual companies (or others?) or would XIT be a reasonable alternative with these 4 companies composing ~61%? Or is there another tech etf you would suggest?
2) For US tech companies (or any US company for that matter), with the Canadian dollar being low, would you recommend looking at specific US companies or a Canadian ETF that holds US tech companies? I am worried the exchange would eat into possible returns. Do you have any recommendations (e.g. I have seen you mention XQQ for an etf, SKYY highlighted in etfupdate, and companies like MSFT, GOOG, TEAM, etc)?

Thanks for all that you do.

Q: SHOP is almost 30% of this ETF now. Shouldn't the "manager" be adjusting the weightings of this Fund? I realize it's slim pickings in the Cdn Tech sector but the other holdings could be beefed up and SHOP could be shaved back a bit. With a bad Q, SHOP could drag this ETF thru the mud.

Q: Hi
Looking at a trade XIT for SKYY
Made money on XIT but only 17 or so holding some having very high weightings 20% plus, where SKYY has 60 plus.
Comments please
Thank you
Mike

Q: I HAVE VERY LITTLE EXPOSER TO TECH AND I WOULD LIKE YOUR OPINION AS TO WHICH IS A BETTER BUY AND WHY. THANKS, JAMES

Q: I have, for me, significant positions in the US technology sector with decent positions in Apple, Microsoft and XQQ, and a smaller position in Cisco. As the new year begins, I am evaluating my holdings and I notice that, even though I like many of the Canadian technology companies, the only position I have in Canadian technology is a small position in Shopify through a Fidelity mutual fund. Given that I like many of the Canadian companies (Enghouse, Kinaxis, CGI, Constellation, Descartes, and Open Text) what is my best strategy to enter this space? As I am not sure it is prudent to create enough space in my portfolios to buy all of these at one time, is there a Canadian technology ETF that holds a number of these companies?
Thank you for your advice.
Don

Q: I am a retired, dividend-income investor. Assume asset allocation is not an issue. I already hold positions in Nutrien, XIT (technology ETF) and Eric's NinePoint Energy fund (proxy for the oil market). I have this year's TFSA monies to put towards one of these equities.

Please rank for total return (best to worst) for 2020 and a short explanation as to why.

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: I am interested in an ETF approach to investing in Canadian tech and of course helpful at a price per share at $30 vs lofty prices that some of the tech stocks are trading at. Thoughts & thanks!

Q: XIT: We have a very large portfolio made up in RRSP, TFSA, & Non -Registered Accounts (biggest holdings). My investment style over many , many years has been to buy large cap "dividend growing" stocks which have served us incredibly well. Because technology stocks usually trade a high P.E. multiples, most are not dividend growers; but, most of all, the arena can change on a dime - just look at all the tech stocks that have gone bust over the last 20 years or so. In any case, I was thinking of buying XIT to add to our "dividend growers". I already own a small holding in my USD account of IGM.

Q: 5I Team,
I own IHI etf, I like it's limited number of stocks (10 top stocks 70%)
Can you please suggest few ETF that have limited number of stocks (any sector, US, Can, Global) ?
Thanks
Best regards

Q: My daughter holds RBF1018 (series D units) in her RRSP. I plan to sell all of it and buy XIT to improve her overall asset allocation. Are there any issues with pending year end dividends for either securities? Should I wait until Jan 01/20 or go ahead now?
Thanks...Steve

Q: I manage my daughter's investments and will be selling a mutual fund (RBF1018) and plan to purchase XIT, as her asset allocation is light on technology.

86% of XIT is made up of SHOP, GIB.A, CSU, OTEX. P/B = 5.3 and P/E = 35.2. Technology has had quite a run this year...the chart looks parabolic and might possibly be forming a double top. I heard years ago that after a big run, stocks may settle back roughly 1/3 of the recent gain. This would put the "settle" price to be around $25.

I know this is the same as market timing. OR....just buy it now. Your thoughts?

Thanks...Steve

Q: Afternoon 5i.

I'm looking for the top 3 sectors to buy into today.

Q: I am looking to take on some technology exposure in my RRSP, and leaning toward ETF rather than individual stocks. Would appreciate a couple ideas for core holdings in this sector. Thanks