Investment Q&A

Q: If you were adding a dividend producing ETF to a pipeline, insurance and bank-focused portfolio (North American bias), which ETF would you use for:
a) dividend/total return
b) diversification?

Q: I would like to invest using only 4 ETFs. One for short bonds, one for all Canadian stocks, one for emerging markets, one for the whole US market, and one for the developed world (as wide as possible) excluding Canada and the US.

Which ETFs should I use?

Thanks

Q: Hey guys,

We already own DXG, would you recommend any others instead of DXG for international exposure? Also, a full position on individual stocks is between 4 to 5% (hopefully letting them grow to 7 to 8%, ), what about etfs?
Thanks

Q: Last year, I purchased ZDH in my mother's retirement account. She is close to 80. It has been a very poor performer, significantly underperforming the international indexes. Performance seemed to be reasonable prior to the market drop in the last few months. Morningstar now rates both ZDI (unhedged) and ZDH (hedged) as two stars, and it now falls to the 4th quartile for most time periods.

I would appreciate your views about ZDH. Would you continue to hold this ETF expecting that it will start to outperform the market, or would you sell it? Do you feel that it has dropped a lot since January due to its sector composition, and will bounce back? If you would sell it, what would you recommend? Dividends are not a priority, but looking for low to medium risk.

Thanks for your excellent advice.

Q: Please provide your suggestions for non US investments of above 3.5% yield and some growth and somewhat protected from volatility in Canada and internationally. Thanks.

Q: Hello,
I recently asked a question regarding a substitution for vea. You mentionned that a high dividend might be a good approach currently, and you suggested vidy.ca. I was wnting to do this in US dollars, however, and i cannot seem to find the US vanguard equivalent of this etf? Is there one?
Thanks

Q: Good morning 5i
In a recent question asking what regions you might underweight you mentionned that you were agnostic on Europe. I have been concerned about Europe myself. But, i need to increase the foreign content in my portfolio and this is where it is lacking. How would you approach this under current conditions. Thanks fort he great service, as always

Q: I currently own ZDI. I would appreciate your views on this ETF as a long-term hold. I am considering replacing ZDI because it has a higher MER, and it is overweight both financials and energy.

What ETFs do you recommend which hold international equities and focus on a dividend growth strategy? Preference is for Canadian currency ETFs, but would appreciate recommendations on US currency ETFs if you feel there is sufficient additional value-added to warrant the currency conversion fee.

Thanks again for this excellent service.

Q: My international allocation currently resides with VI and VIU. What are the downsides of switching these two for VIDY for more yield?
Thx.

Q: I'm interested in this ETF for the international portion of our portfolio because I like the dividend yield as well as the countries it is invested in. But it is very small and only recently opened by Vanguard in August with very low trade volumes. What happens to investors money if an ETF folds? What are your thoughts on this ETF? Are there other ETF's with similar yield and country diversification?