Investment Q&A

Q: If held in a TFSA, I believe RSP would be exposed to an American withholding tax. If this is the case, can you recommend a Canadian based equivalen that wouild not?

Q: I understand that you recommend VOO for S&P 500 coverage. I understand that this etfs weighting of companies is based on capital value. Which equivalent-weight etf would you recommend in its place?

Q: Earlier today you mentioned tech as a pretty good etf for holding mainly fang stocks. It got me thinking about my own situation. I own both voo and rsp partly to balance out my technology holdings. I am wondering whether I might be better with something like tech and rsp and selling voo? I like the idea of being a bit overweight in technology stocks and this might be a good way to achieve this. What are your thoughts on this ? Also, i note tech is a Canadian etf. What would be a good US denominated possibility?
Thanks for your expertise

Q: About 2 years ago I invested in RSP the equal weight SP 500 etf. Since that time SPY the cap weighted etf has decreased about 10% more than RSP. Now that tech valuations have come back down I am considering selling RSP and buying SPY. I recall reading here that you expect tech and consumer discretionary sectors to lead once inflation starts to move down and interest rates peak. You have also mentioned that markets look ahead.

It looks like both tech and consumer discretionary are down more than 11% in the last month.

Could you give me your assessment of this trade?

Q: I only invest in Canada so know nothing about US stocks. What would be the US equivilant of XIC, broad based low cost exchange traded fund?

Q: Hello 5i
I recently asked a question regarding US stocks and etf positions. You suggested that I could easily go with the stocks I have plus something like VTI. I currently hold RSP ( as I like an equal weight approach and it maybe more readily balances my overweight in technology) and IWO for small caps. Do you think that this would serve as well as VTI?

Q: Will these 2 ETFs have the same performance? Or will one direction better?

Q: Is it better to invest in equal weighted index ETF rather then index ETF?

My concern is that high concentration of handful highly successful companies in regular index based ETF that defeats the safety of diversification offered by ETF.

What is your opinion?

Q: Looking into your crystal ball which of these 2 etfs might grow better in the next few years?

Thanks

Q: We are typically buy and hold investors. It has been suggested that we sell our Capital Market Weighted Index VTI (unregistered) and purchase RSP which is Equal Weighted (unregistered). Apparently, the larger companies in VTI are getting very expensive and have started to under-perform since November 2020. Other than capital gains from the sale of VTI what are the advantages and disadvantages of switching?

Q: Can you suggest an US Equal Weight trading on TSX or on US Exchange? BEP.UN or BEPC for non-registered account? Thank you

Q: I listened recently to a discussion involving Cathy Wood and the principal of the Van Eck fund. Cathy Wood said that she thinks possibly fifty per cent of the s and p 500 could be negatively affected because they failed to invest in innovation. A bit scary when you own rsp or voo. On the same interview was van Eck, who seemed to agree with her. And partially for this reason they have developed MOAT. He seems to think that with these companies he circumvents the problem. Perhaps this is my reading into his comments. Wondering whether you might think it would be worthwhile to trade out of rsp and voo and into most
Thanks as always

Q: So I'm a lot less diversified than I thought and have something like 35+% of my investments in Tech. I have a good deal of money in XUS, XUU, and XAW. I thought I was getting diversification, but I didn't realize how heavily weighted in Tech (25% or more) these ETFs were. A few smaller investments (SKYY, IGV, GOOG) put me far more into the Tech space than I realized.

What's the best way to invest in broad ETFs without being so heavily invested into Tech? I feel like 20% is already a high weighting for this sector

Q: What would be the best equal weight TSX ETF (CDN $) and also S&P (US dollars) Low fees for both.
Thanks!

Q: Like an older Robin Hood I have been buying the fang stocks and selling covered call options since the Covid arrived. Well, not quire like the Robin Hood kids, I suppose. I have done quite well with this strategy. But, I have been worrying that the fang's are flying pretty high and might be ready for a fall. Especially with a volatile US election on the near horizon. I also wonder there might be a shift to value as the economy might start to kick in before too long. So, l am thinking about selling a lot of my Fang stocks before the election and waiting till after it is over and buy RSP, the equal weight S and P etf. Even if it doesn't work out as I have envisioned, this is pretty much the direction I had planned when l started buying and selling the tech stocks. I have always found it informative and usually profitable to get 5i's reaction to my plans
Thanks

Q: Good morning 5i,
I appreciated your recent article, as usual. I find them helpful to understand what is going on in the investing world. You mention that the fang stocks comprise most of the gains over the past few months and that much of the market hasn't kept up. Some people are talking about a rotation out of technology into I suppose, more value oriented stocks. I don't know if this thesis is true. The Fangs seem to keep going up. But, do you think it might be a time to start a switch for a cautious investor? If so, would rsp , an equal weight US market etf, and brk, probably the definition of value, be a good way to approach this change
thanks

Q: Thank you verymuch for your answer to my rather meandering question the ther day. I suppose the gist of the question was whether, given the dangers of these two etf's in the present context, whether i should move away from indexing and pick individual stocks. You say that if i pick a good selection of ten individual stocks, i should have good diversificatin and might not benefit that much from an etf. The big fear i have of individual stocks, though, is of one of them blowing up or being severely disabled. That is in my view the main thing that an etf would help me with. Now, i know that no one else can make these decisions for someone else. It helps me to clarify the problem by running it by knowledgable people like yourselves. Thanks

Q: I found your article regarding the difference between the Fang stocks and a small cap stock index very informative and interesting. Perhaps an even more interesting comparison, at least for me, is the difference in performance between VOO and RSP. One a market weighted US etf and the other an equal weighted. There is quite a large divergence between these two in the past while. VOO has the top five holdings as Fang stocks--over 20% of the total portfolio. RSP has no fang stocks in the top ten.
It has me thinking. But, what conclusion to draw? I have been wanting to move away from individual stocks to etf's, especially in my US holdings. But, this makes me wonder whether I wouldn't be a lot better with individual stocks, say the top ten that you mentionned in response to a question today. In that way I wouldn't be burdened down with a group of non performers, as in RSP, nor too heavily invested in Fang stocks, as in VOO, in the event of a future crash.
I know that it is not too good to change strategies often but I am quite perturbed by this. I don't know if you can offer a comment on this or not. But, I appreciate 5i as a sounding board and any comments you have are always helpful and useful
thanks

Q: You don't hear often about this one, but it was a solid performer over the years. Equal weigh and reballancing appeal to me .
Any comment'd be appreciated.

Q: Hi All at 5i! Any advantage to holding one ETF over the other. Which one do you favour? Cheers, Tamara