Investment Q&A

Q: What’s the advantages or disadvantages in holding an s&p500 ETF in Canadian dollars (XUS) vs holding it in US dollars (SPY)? Which would way do you recommend? Would you still recommend buying in US when the Canadian dollar is so weak like it is right now?

Q: I'm planning on purchasing some additional US investments in my RRSP. I already own QQQ, which represents approximately 38% of my US holdings. I was planning on dividing the remaining 62% between SPY and VTI. I'm described as a growth investor with a 5-7 time horizon before possibly beginning withdrawals. May I get your thoughts on this division? Should I consider cutting back on QQQ to redistribute to the other two? The US represents 45% of my overall RRSP holdings.

Q: Donald Trump is causing so much uncertainty in both Canadian and US markets. Canada might even go into a recession.

I know that you mentioned that we should not react to the Trump threat.

However, if I had to sell all my stocks and ETFs ($400k) and start from scratch today, what would be the top 20 stocks/ETFs ( US and/or Canadian) that that you would invest in.

Would you just buy SPY/ZSP.to/ VGT/ SCHG ETFs in the USA market for safety?

Fyi, I don't like bonds.

Q: What are your top 3 ETFs (US dollars) for general market exposure?

Q: My portfolio is now heavily weighted to the US.

Can you recommend an ETF or 2 that would compliment my existing investments?

Thanks
Mark

Q: I am still toying with RRSP strategies - I have about 50% of my RRSP in US funds and 50% in Canadian funds. I plan on starting to draw my RRSP down in January and need about an 8% annual return, including dividends and growth for the next 10 years. I have slowly been rolling my Canadian side toward your income portfolio, and am about half-way there. On the US side, I hold the above positions. What are your thoughts on the following - mirroring your income portfolio with the Canadian side, and on the US side hold a combination of ETF's/Equities, or just ETF's. I have been actively growing my RRSP (with success thanks!) But hope to be able to spend less time on it once I retire. The above idea means, for the Cdn side, I can continue to follow your moves on the income portfolio. For the US side, I will continue to monitor/rebalance, but I don’t want it to be a daily task - please suggest a tactic, including whether to mix equities/ETF's, or just go to one or a few ETF's, and please suggest holdings in either tactic. Thanks!

Q: Hi, I am new (about 1 year) to investing. After being approached from the branch level financial advisor, I figured it might be best at the time. He put all my funds into two items namely:

BMO Covered Call Canadian Banks ETF Fund
and
BMO U.S. Equity ETF Fund. This one had the most funds.

Since that time I have redeemed some funds and opened BMO Investorline account and purchased about 10 different stocks/etf's. The branch level financial advisor never calls or emails any advice period other than to say I am making about 18% and should be happy with that. Really??

2 days ago a lady from BMO investment center calls me and tells me I am paying 1% in management fees and can save ~ 0.66% by purchasing BMO95722 which shows up as BMO U.S. Equity ETF Fund. Yesterday I put in a redemption request for the balance of the BMO U.S. Equity ETF Fund (on my bank account page that name doesn't have any stock symbol) and the funds will be in my bank later this morning.

What I am trying to accomplish right now is to just make enough via investments to pay for living where I am. And hopefully some growth in the value of the investments.

The question I have is, would buying BMO95722 be the right or best choice of investments.

Thank you for any assistance with this.

Q: If u were to buy only one all in one etf what would you suggest - for longer term 3-5 years growth

Q: What is the best s&p 500 etf?

Q: I’m considering setting up a TFSA for a spouse who is not interested in selecting stocks/managing investments.
Should I stick to ETFs or mix ETFs with a few conservative stocks?

Q: Hi 5i Team,

Based on the webinar that Chris presented it appears that the equal-weight S&P 500 has lagged compared to the market-weight S&P 500. Based on this I suspect you would recommend having some exposure to the equal-weight S&P 500? If so, what would be a good ETF that you would recommend or are there any individual stocks within the equal-weight S&P 500 that you think might have a bit more upside than the average?

Thanks as always,
Jon

Q: what percent of an all equity portfolio would you be comfortable allocating to an ETF like SPY or an Asset Manager like BN or Berkshire?

Currently my BN/BAM allocation is about 15%, i'm contemplating bringing it up to 20%

Q: Why are the markets so insensitive to what’s going in the world? Near war in the Middle East, genocide in Ukraine, far-right parties everywhere in Europe, vicious comments in the US . Not close enough yet to North American pockets? Publish if you want. Thanks.

Q: which index fund do you feel has the better chance to outperform over the next 1, 3, 5 years? Normally i would side with SPY but considering current valuations i'm wondering if XIU might be the better medium term performer

Q: what etfs do you currently like the most right now from a standpoint of mers, how market is priced right now. Also can you tell me being new to etfs can you buy a stock etf that has u.s. stocks in canadian dollars and if yes what is your favourite.

Q: Always looking for the best of all worlds - but find myself thinking "safety first" right now given global circumstances - and the US election.

So the above ETFs all yielding over 14% right now - too good to be true or a legitimate and safer way to go given their use of options - and 5i has clearly made us aware of the pros and cons of options (Thank you) .... but how about this combination of ETF's

As always Thank you.

Q: With a long term view, what proportion would you allocate to each of the above to make a balanced portfolio?

Thank you

Q: This is a similar question to Craig’s question on August 8, regarding several mawer funds
I have held the above funds for a few years, and they are all positive still
Do you see underperformace of these funds in the past five years and if so would you advise replacing them with an ETF?
can you recommend etf replacements in Canadian dollar
Much appreciated

Q: Question about discrepancy in price action between these two SP500 index ETFs.

As of 10:50 AM, SPY is up 1.45% while VFV is up 1.23%, lagging SPY by 22 basis points.

What explains the discrepancy in price action between these two very liquid funds? For index funds such as these, is there a mechanism that exists to correct and adjust these funds to the actual price movement of their indexes? Especially when it comes to VFV.

Thank you for your excellent service.

Q: Hello Team,
What would your favourite etfs for this security be, both market weighted and equal weighted?
Thank You,
Barry