Investment Q&A

Q: I am curious to hear your views on the WXM momentum ETF in the current market environment. I'm looking for an ETF to round out the portfolio and it appears to have a better balance of sectors than some other Canadian dividend and broad market products. Thank you.

Q: I am following the ETFMU Balanced ETF Model Portfolio. WXM has a high MER at .66. Could you recommend another ETF from one of the model portfolios that would give me about the same level of potential and risk? It could be either Canadian, US, or international.
thanks

Q: The following holdings in a TFSA are underwater. In your opinion, which ones are worth keeping for a potential near future recovery? AW, BATT, BTO, BTE, WXM, ILLM, GUD and LSPD
Thank you!
CC

Q: Hi 5i. I hope all is well and you took a break at Easter.
I have noticed in the G&M that john heinzl reports on a dividend portfolio. I like his sense of humor on Stars & Dogs but I really wonder about his dividend hog portfolio. The same newspaper lets me create portfolios for comparison. I started with the same about of money (about $116K) and pretended to invest in October 2017 like he did. I made three one ETF portfolios. Made one portfolio with ETF HXT, One with VDY and One with WXM. All three of these one ETF portfolios beat JH’s significantly and WXM was a clear winner beating it by about $50K i.e., turning $116K into about $200k from Oct 2017 to now. The other two ETFs were not far behind. $50K can pay for a few dinners!
My question is whether you see any issues with WXM in the current investment environment and with the above comparisons.
Thanks as usual for this great service and patience with my questions. Thanks Danny-boy

Q: Performance of WXM (momentum ETF) is (almost) always very good. It is not easy to build a Canadian portfolio than beat it.This index is composed of 31 “liquid equities of Canadian companies displaying above average return on equity, with an added emphasis on upward revisions of fiscal earnings estimates, and positive technical price momentum indicators”. On the web site of CI global Asset only the top 15 holdings are listed. Is there a way to know all of the 31 holdings ?

Q: Hello, I just read an excellent article in today’s Globe & Mail written by Norm Rothery. He discussed how a momentum investing strategy has significantly beat benchmark indexes for many years. I would not be able to run the numerous screens and perform the frequent rebalancing that this strategy requires. Are there any Canadian ETFs that follow a US or Canadian momentum investing strategy? Many thanks for the great service that 5i provides.

Q: Dear 5i team.

Further to Cyril's question where you "hand selected a few of your favs from the three portfolios", is this a diversified enough list to put a small ETF portfolio together based on? Can you suggest which ETFs may be appropriate?

I recently upgraded to include your ETF portfolios. Can you "handpick your favs" in these given the current market backdrop, risks, and opportunities ahead?

Many thanks.

Q: I am a big fan of factor/smart beta investing, but I am having difficulty identifying Canadian made etfs with both adequate size and daily volume. Please suggest etfs sold in Canada to build a couch potato diversified portfolio covering a Canada, US and global geographic area. I am quite impressed with WXM and ZUQ. I am a senior with a conservative growth inkling. Please charge question credits approriately based on your time to provide a workable response. Thank you.

Q: I have some new money to invest in my TFSA. I am well diversified in my other accounts, and am now wondering what to add to my TFSA. I am a senior so I would say about a 5 year time frame that this would stay in the TFSA, maybe more.
Any suggestions you have would be helpful.
Thanks so much for your help in the past, it has always proved very lucrative.
Shirley

Q: Can you recommend a Momentum ETF for both Canada and the US?

Q: Are the following ETFs sufficiently diversified to form a balanced-growth portfolio of $100K - ZAG 25%, QEF 15%, WXM 20% and XAW 40 %. If not, what would you recommend?

Q: Setting up an 40K RRSP with a 6 to 10 year time frame. What is your opinion and/or alternatives to ZEB, VXC, ZDV, XBB in equal proportions.

Q: The mutual fund of PH&N has many of the shares used by 5I Research . Mawer also uses many of those companies.
Do you know any ETF that would be similar to those funds?
Those 2 funds are not available to individual investor.
Do you know any similar fund that is available in serie D or A?
Thank you.

Q: Hi,

When I read this article in this morning's Globe and Mail, I thought of an excellent question by Dale on August 6th and your equally excellent answer. In some ways I was surprised by your answer. You chose "momentum" as the single most important factor in investing and pointed out to difficulties in defining "quality". (I thought you would choose Value and management as the most important factors!!)

With this in mind, and reviewing today's article in the Globe, would you say VMO.TO or XAW.TO, VXC.TO are good choices for a 10% position to cover this "momentum" factor? Or any other ETF that you feel is superior to these? Not sure if these are covered in ETF Mutual fund newsletter. I have to look the past articles up.

Here is the link to that article.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/investment-ideas/number-cruncher/article-nine-global-equity-etfs-to-augment-your-portfolio-and-reduce-home/
Thanks in advance.

Q: Can you comment on these ETF's I presently hold in a corporate unregistered acct. I have a large amount in DVY.US - not sure why (previously with a FI ) Looking to update this portfolio based on present times. In At least a 5 year hold. Please take as many credits as needed.
Thanks so much.

Q: Thank you for answering my question yesterday. You guys are the best. If you could choose 5 ETF's for a 40,000 RESP for a 8 and 10 year to hold and continual buy for the next number of years - which are they?
I appreciate it,
Brent

Q: What is the one stock you would suggest to go all in with this correction?

Q: I see your 5iresearch ETF growth portfolio holds WXM. I also separately asked if WXM was a income or growth ETF. Your reply included comment that WXM fee of .65 % was high and the 5 yr ROR not very impressive at 5.12 %. Is it an ETF worth holding or not ? I am confused

Q: Considering holding this ETF as a portion of my Cdn equity weighting. Is it considered an income generating portfolio or more growth?
Is WXM considered large cap or mid cap holdings ?

Q: Once the current rout in the market bottoms, please suggest the best ETF's listed on the TSX to ride the market back up, purely for capital gains, covering both the TSX and the Dow. These would be short-term investments during the recovery mode.