Investment Q&A

Q: Please rank the above ETFs in order of preference for income and safety. 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: Given that the CDZ ETF holds companies with a 5 year record of raising dividends, I am wondering if there are going to be very many left after this crisis. Best case scenario I think for most companies would be to hold their dividend due to the uncertainty. That leaves a small universe of possible companies to hold and may lead to concentration in Banks and Telcos, maybe pipelines. Any comment?

Q: Good morning,
This past week, I've been reviewing each holding in my Non Registered account to identify suitable tax loss harvesting candidates. Before selling any of these tax loss harvesting candidates, I must identify the best proxy replacement.
One my tax loss harvest candidates is XDV which I've held for many years now but like so may other stocks and ETFs these days, is now quite underwater. Although I still like XDV as a core holding and it pains me to sell it, I'm looking at selling XDV and purchasing CDZ as a proxy. Your thoughts on this tentative plan would be appreciated along with any other proxy that you would consider more appropriate. Thank you.
Francesco

Q: Hi 5i - I have 5% cash left and was thinking of allocating it to CDZ - it yields 5.8% and is it would be a 50% gain if it gets back to its highs. I know dividend paying stocks have taken a beating, but does this seem to be an excellent long term investment? Thanks, Neil

Q: Good morning,
Is there an ETF of big cap Canadian dividend stocks equivalent to PDC but without the large energy component? On the other hand, have the pipelines in PDC suffered enough that I shouldn't worry about the energy component going forward.

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: Hi folks, I would like you to reco some good dividend ETFs in the Candian space that you think are potentially a good buy for now. By 'good', I meant the company should have solid fundamentals, and the price should be low so the yield is high. I do not expect the US tech to boom forever, I would rather reap my 7 to 8% percent and hope it last forever. Thanks :) Tony

Q: Retired dividend-income investor. I currently own ZLB (in RRSP, max'd out, love it) ZRE (Cash account, purchase for LT hold-distributions, plan to add to it over time) and ZWC (Cash account, purchased for LT hold-dividends).

I have a sizeable capital loss in ZWC....2 choices. #1 = Keep it, top it up over the next several months. #2 = Sell it, save the capital losses for future years (don't need them for 2020) and replace with either CDZ or XDV. I flushed XDV right away due to the very skewed asset allocation (to financials & utilities).

So that left the comparison between ZWC and CDZ. Their metrics are, for the most part, similar (beta, P/E, P/CF, ROE, MER).

ZWC is down 39% YTD, pays a current yield of 11%, has a reasonable asset allocation (the 22% energy allocation initially may seem high but might be good for the eventual rebound). However, I don't have the knowledge on how the Covered Call part of ZWC may impact the comparison with CDZ.

CDZ is down 43% YTD, pays a current yield of 6%, but has a slightly more diverse asset allocation and has performed better than ZWC over a 3 year period, but has a higher Beta.

I entered the comparison exercise believing I would conclude to sell ZWC. Now however I might just periodically top it up. Your thoughts please?

Thanks....Steve

Q: Dear 5i
I'm always a little confused as to which companies are CDN hedged and which are not . Just because it's listed on the TSX doesn't` always mean that it is hedged I'm guessing . I'm also assuming that it looks like the CDN dollar is going to be weak compared to the US dollar for awhile .That being said which of the ETF`s listed above are CDN hedged and is it wise to have a balance of hedged and unhedged anyways ?
Typically you expect share prices to rise as earnings increase . With the state of the economy ie covid19 it is likely that earnings will be lower for the next couple quarters at least so there are few expectations for higher earnings from most companies .Given this , would you expect the market to rebound higher even before there are rising earnings simply on the anticipation that higher earnings will eventually happen once covid19 is proven to be under control , or do you think we would actually have to wait for increased earnings to occur before we would see any meaningful bounce in the markets ?
Please deduct points appropriately .
Thanks
Bill

Q: My wife has this mutual fund with a 2% MER, very little growth and a small dividend. Would you kindly suggest a couple of replacements (ETF or Index fund or Mutual fund) with a similar risk level and sector coverage but without the high MER.
Many thanks

Q: what are your favoured Precious metals ETFs and you favoured CDN Dividend ETFs?

Q: Hello Peter , I like divi , performance and low fees on this. What I dont like in VDY is high concentration to FINANCIALS ( and then ENERGY). Do you have any alternate suggestions with bit more rounded of sector holding and offering similar benefits.
Thanks

Q: I am looking for a low fee Canadian equity fund or, preferably, ETF with good diversification. More specifically, less financial content than the TSX.
In 2017 you seemed to like MKC but there are no recent comments on it. What do you think of it today?
Are there better options I should look at?

Q: Hi gang, I own this funds. TML735 & AIM24823. Both have not done well for me . I would like to switch to another family fund or should I just cash out and buy an ETF . Your thought please. Thanks

Q: Have $20,000.00 sitting in a LIRA account. Please recommend 3-4 ETFs that I can hold for the next twenty years. and drip (no bonds) would like to double every 10 years. Would Dividend Growth ETFs a good choice over that time frame or just growth stock ETFs?
Thanks Cec

Q: I have about 150k in an RESP account for my 2 kids ( grade 9 and 12) so next year kid 1 will start withdrawing funds and kid 2 in 4 years. I've maxed out the match up grants so no new contributions. I hold mostly global growth mutual funds and am thinking I should shift to a more conservative dividend aristocrat type of holding. This would maintain equity and start generating some income vs more global growth focus I have used to get to this point. Do you have a suggestion for 1-3 low cost mutual funds or ETFs to generate some income and be good holdings for the drawdown period over the next 8 years.

Q: Most of my information is supplied by your insightful replies in this form but now require a little more direction.
Need to convert about 105000 from rrsp to rrif .
Am looking for 4 or 5 ETFs that are dividend payers as all our needs are covered with
oas and cpp plus company pension.
We also have tfsa, US and Canadian trading accounts so this would be for discretionary spending.
Thank you
Barry

Q: I have the following ETF's in the noted ratios and dividend yields %: HDV (3x) 3.32%, ZDV (2x) 5.37%, XTR (1.8x)5.88%, ZWU (1.7x) 6.60%, and CDZ (1x) 4.66%. I'm a dividend investor and good for 3-5 years. If we hit some hard times which of these would be hit the hardest? Any duplication? Should I drop one or more and add to others?

Q: I am looking for an ETF for my TFSA that has broad coverage and that is not so heavily weighted in financials and energy. Would you have any concerns with owning these two ETFs.