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Investment Q&A

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

Q: Are there US withholding taxes associated with the ETF's that are offered by Vanguard Canada (or any other Canadian ETF issuer) that pay a USD distribution??
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Gary on December 16, 2024
Q: I am looking at hedged ETF's and specifically VSP. I was interested to see how well the ETF tracked the index and found that over a 5 year time frame - it underperformed by about 11%. (Total return for VSP is 81.0% and SPX is 93.33% - The Vanguard US ETF - VOO tracks SPX almost exactly.)

I am assuming that this underperformance is because the hedging strategy is not perfect?? .......or does the 11% difference represent the cost of hedging?? Also - would other hedged ETF's have similar comparisons??
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Gary on December 05, 2024
Q: Can you please recommend 3 hedged CDN ETFs that follow the S&P 500, but with less % ownership of the 7 high tech companies such as owned by: ZUE, XSP, and VSP? I'm looking for 10% profit over one year including both dividends and capital appreciation.
Read Answer Asked by Ron on July 23, 2024
Q: I looked up a statistic from Morningstar called "Annual Portfolio Turnover". For VFV it is 3.47% and for VSP it is 26.1%. The passive index is the same but VSP is hedged to the Canadian dollar. Can you help explain what is included in this statistic? (AUM changes?, stock additions/deletions?, hedging? etc)
Could you please give me an example of situation where one might see 150% for an active ETF or aggressive mutual Fund? Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Ian on May 08, 2024
Q: hi, can I get your top pick(s?) for a US market(s?) ETF CDN$ hedged long term hold.
cheers, Chris
Read Answer Asked by chris on January 09, 2024
Q: My company has a one year horizon before we need the money that is currently invested in stocks and for the better part are under water. We are currently sitting on 50% cash and would like to invest the money to try to make some capital gain to offset the losses. I know as we all know that one year is very little but we trust that the market will be higher in April 2024. Do you agree with that thesis and if so where would you invest money in order to keep a safe and optimal return? Please answer by percentage of where through index funds and secondly would you put time horizon to invest in slices or all in now?
Thanks for your precious help.

Yves
Read Answer Asked by Yves on February 06, 2023
Q: Dear 5i
The above noted ETFs are the ones i commonly use in my RRSP , TFSA and non registered accts .
CDZ and ZLB are used for CDN content and the rest for US content.
I believe there is probably some redundancy in these and was wondering which ETFs could be left out .
Which ETFs would you use for RRSPs , which for the TFSAs and which for the non-registered acct .?
Thanks
Bill C
Read Answer Asked by Bill on May 25, 2022
Q: Hello Peter,
Are both etfs providing similar exposure to US 500 index (similar to SPY) and are they hedged? Would you recommend one over the other or both are about the same? Thanks very much. Does hedged mean the securities are protected if Canadian dollar goes up or down?
Read Answer Asked by umedali on February 23, 2022
Q: Is there any difference in performance between between a US listed ETF and the equivalent Canadian TSX listed ETF? Is it best to keep it in Canadian currency?
For example: VOO// VFV/ VSP or QQQ// QQC.F/ QQC
Also what would you recommend for hedged vs non-hedged and also market weight vs equal weight?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Ben on October 01, 2021
Q: Hi team,

I currently hold TD e-Series Funds in my RRSP and plan to replace them with other index ETFs. What would be your top 5 picks for this?
I have a high risk tolerance with a 25 year timeline.

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Patrick on July 05, 2021
Q: This is a list of the ETF's in my portfolio, (I have omitted the fixed income ETF's that comprise of about 20%).

Do you see any issues with the selection? Any overlap? Perhaps there are better alternatives than the ones chosen.

Thanks for the great service.
Read Answer Asked by Robert on June 30, 2021
Q: My 50 year young daughter is adding $100,000 to a balanced $1m conservative portfolio. Which 2 or 3 etfs (your suggestion or ours) would you suggest that fit a post pandemic world.
Read Answer Asked by joe on May 25, 2021
Q: Some recent news about the concentration of top five companies holdings on the S&P500. I hold VSP looking for inexpensive, easy, and broad diversification. I've looked at VUN in the past for same and not a big difference in relative concentration. Do you have any particular concerns in general for the concentration and secondly, any thoughts on VUN vs VSP over a 10+ year horizon. Welcome your thoughts on any alternatives that might come to mind as well. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Jordan on July 24, 2020
Q: I have 4 questions:

1. I have not diversified my assets outside the TSX and would like to do so. Between a TFSA, an RRSP, and non-registered account, which is best to purchase US stocks (for tax purposes)?

2. If I wanted to buy an ETF on the TSX for US exposure, what would be a good one?

3. If I wanted to buy an ETF (also on the TSX) for exposure to emerging markets, what would be a good one?

4. Would you buy an emerging markets ETF in your TFSA, RRSP, or non-registered account?

Thank you for answering my questions. The information you provide is very valuable.

Best wishes,
Terri
Read Answer Asked by Terri on July 23, 2020
Q: I am beginning to swing trade ETFs. Which do feel more closely mirrors the SPY since one cannot buy the SPX? Feel free to mention others I may have excluded but should be considered.
Putting aside any tax implications or type of account (ie: registered vs non-registered)
Considering the state of the C$ and the price of oil, it would seem more logical to go unhedged , what are your thoughts?
Read Answer Asked by Larry on April 06, 2020
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