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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: I am a 49 year old Canadian with $50,000 Cdn in TFSA and $25,000 in RRSP. I would like some names to build a portfolio. High growth. Risk tolerance high. How much cash should I hold for dip buying. Right now I am overweight TSLA. It seems to me MSFT is a very good stock and I like its outlook and steady growth. A trusted friend recommends TSLA. Please suggest other names including ETFs. Could you rank the names with percentage allotments? 15 year outlook.
Read Answer Asked by Daniel on December 06, 2021
Q: FTEC now makes up almost 12% of my portfolio and wondering if you would recommend trimming a bit and investing in an ETF like ARKK? I also hold ZSP which is about 10% of my portfolio now and maybe there is a bit of overlap between the two ETFs? Looking for growth in my RRSP, 10+ years and I don't need any dividends.

Do you think there is still some upside left to an industrial ETF like VIS? And do you have any other sector ETF recommendations that will complement FTEC and ZSP?

Thanks in advance. Please deduct credits as required.
KD
Read Answer Asked by K on November 05, 2021
Q: I have the time and interest to invest in individual stocks and have benefited greatly from your advice, My 28 year old son is looking to me for investment advice and I was hoping that you could help me. He is young with a long investment horizon so he is not interested in any bond or fixed income components and is comfortable with a portfolio holding a diversified mix of 100% stocks in various geographies. He wants to control his own portfolio but does not have the time to research and stay on top of individual stocks and is leaning towards an ETF portfolio. I am not well versed in this area and was hoping you could provide some guidance.

He is looking at XEQT and VEQT as possible one stop solutions. There are some minor differences between the two, but overall they appear very similar. XEQT has a MER of 0.2% and VEQT has a MER of 0.25%, VEQT holds more stocks than XEQT and XEQT is weighted a bit more towards US stocks and a bit less towards CAD stocks compared to VEQT. Would you recommend one over the other, or hold both?

Instead of buying one of these he is also considering holding a two (or more) ETF portfolio using VCN and XAW ETFs. VCN tracks the Canadian market, XAW tracks the global market excluding Canada. A portfolio of 25% VCN and 75% XAW would replicate XEQT/VEQT very closely, but would have a weighted average MER of about .18%. The trade off is that this one would need to be rebalanced, whereas with XEQT/VEQT all rebalancing is done automatically. Would a 25%VCN/75% XAW be preferable to XEQT/VEQT?

If it was you at 28, would you do either of the above or would you prefer a portfolio of other ETFs and if so, what would those be?

Many thanks

Scott
Read Answer Asked by Scott on October 19, 2021
Q: What technology stocks or ETF would you suggest for a TFSA? It can be either Canadian or USA.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Donna on August 06, 2021
Q: Hi,

keeping in view the US Withholding tax on canadian investors.

If one has to hold US S&P 500, US mediam &small cap, US IT/technology ETF in canada.

Then which ETF would be be the best for a TFSA and cash account. ( I believe in a RRSP it does not matter ).

I currently hold SPY,VFV, IWO, VGT and QQQ in my TFSA and cash account. Do you think they are OK, or will you recommend some equivalent more efficient ETF's for exposure these sectors.

Keeping in view the difference between a TFSA and cash account, please suggest suitable ETF's for each, which would mirror SPY, VFV, VGT, IWO and QQQ.

Thanks
Harry
Read Answer Asked by HARRY on June 14, 2021
Q: What is the difference between
QQQ vs VGT
VFV vs VGRO

From a pure growth perspective, if you had to choose one from each groups, which would you choose.
Read Answer Asked by HARRY on May 11, 2021
Q: I had a portfolio review many years ago when you did them individually, personally by human! At the time your suggestions were right on and cleaned up my ETF's. Now I have over ten and according to your metrics it should not be so. Given those above, is there anything that is not required? I am up 25%- 150% on all of them. I am happy with all of them. I have a balanced portfolio in all 11 sectors with 44 stocks all doing quite nicely thank you. Following the income portfolio with some of my own additions from 15 years ago. I do not see any major conflicts.I am s a buy and hold dividend investor with some growth ( lightspeed, Leon's).
Thank you for your million dollar service!
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on April 26, 2021
Q: Good morning,

Could you please suggest a couple ideas for tech and health care exposure within a TFSA. I hear there are advantages/disadvantages of different type of ETFs.
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Steven on March 18, 2021
Q: As a follow-up to my question last week on interest rates up/down, please also advise which funds/ETFs perform best when interest rates move in either direction.

Thanks again.
Read Answer Asked by Arthur on March 08, 2021
Q: Hi team,
Being overweight in the tech sector, which ETFs of my present portfolio (above) would you suggest to drop either because they are too similar or not representing strong growth ?
Which of these ETF you would consider « Buy and forget » type ?
In addition, I hold the following tech stocks: TOI-T, CRWD-Q, NVDA-Q, TTD-Q, LSPD-T, ENPH-Q, QCOM-Q, SHOP-T, APPS-Q, SEDG-Q. As I need to raise cash, is it better to sell ETFs or individual stocks and which ones ?
Please use credits as you see fit.
Grateful for your attention,

Jacques IDS
Read Answer Asked by Jacques on February 24, 2021
Q: I have a target allocation of 40-45% for total portfolio US exposure. Which ETFs would you suggest (either currency) to form the core of this allocation? Could you also please provide a handful of individual US picks to supplement. Aiming for long term growth with 20+ yr time horizon. Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Matthew on February 17, 2021
Q: Seems bewildering to choose among so many types of Tech stocks. Looking for 3 names...would CRM, ADBE or any others you would suggest be worthy at today’s values or should I just run to the SMH ETF? Help and thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Michael on February 10, 2021
Q: Am replenishing my wife's empty TFSA with CAD.76,000 from home loan 2.95% p/a variable.
My Strategy: I believe in VGT or IYY held over many years, last 2 years MV42% +/- per 2years don't count on repeat..
Drawback : need to convert into USD plus risk currency fluctuations +/- over many years
Question: have a soft spot for ZUT as no exchange costs.
your critical reply/
Art
Read Answer Asked by Arthur on February 09, 2021
Q: Going through the ETF section but can’t find which etf would be invested in square, PayPal and the fang stocks. Can you direct me to a few to research.
Read Answer Asked by Helen on February 04, 2021
Q: I am overweight in Tech in my TFSA account. The tech stocks I own are: CSU, DSG, KXS, QCOM, VGT. What would you sell first or would you just reduce weightings? I have done very well with CSU, DSG and QCOM but I am wondering if they have run out of steam.

My second question relates to increasing holdings in Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Communications and Health Care. Please suggest your top pick (Canadian or US) in each of the above sectors. My preference is for growth in my TFSA.
Read Answer Asked by Ron on January 11, 2021
Q: Hi,

Can you name a few CDN etf's that you'd recommend for a long term hold that emphasize CDN high growth companies?

Can you name a few US etf's that you'd recommend for a long term hold that emphasize CDN high growth companies?
Read Answer Asked by Graeme on January 04, 2021