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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 will be providing some funds for my grandson to invest in the market. My grandson is 13 years old and has indicated that he has a moderate to aggressive investment risk level. He would like to invest funds and hold the investments for approximately 10 years. For a 10 year hold, would you recommend moderate to high risk companies/ETFs over low risk companies/ETFs? My grandson is considering investing in ETFs and/or individual companies. Please provide your top 5 moderate risk ETFs, top 5 high risk ETFs, top 5 moderate risk companies and top 5 high risk companies with a brief comment on each investment. Please provide a general comment on the typical performance of ETFs vs individual companies. Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Don on July 02, 2024
Q: What is your current opinion of EIT.UN.ca - is it a good investment or would you have alternatives that are better?
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Reg on June 28, 2024
Q: I'd like to assess the following group of ETF's I am considering purchasing from a conservative and safety point of view ...... HYPT has been used as the fixed income part of the portfolio . Please advise if this is appropriate and if not a suitable replacement ? The 5i income portfolio has Canadian preferred, convertible bond, and high yield US bonds for around a 15% weighting as the fixed income section ...... Please give a rating of between one and ten with one being the most " conservative and safe " for the following group of ETF's . I will assign the 5i income portfolio a four just so I can see how my choices rank against it using the criteria I suggested ...... Also everything I have chosen is a Hamilton product. Does 5i consider that problematic ? Thanks for your terrific service .....

FMAX 10%
HMAX 10%
QMAX 20%
HYPT 15%
SMAX 20%
LMAX 10%
HYLD 10%
HDIV 5%
Read Answer Asked by Garth on June 26, 2024
Q: I hold psa in my tfsa for cash purposes. I am looking at moving proceeds to either hdiv or Dxq for cash holdings. Would you please compare these 2 etfs and would you recommend one over the other for stated purpose. Thanx.
Read Answer Asked by Steve on June 25, 2024
Q: I'm curious as to the lack of a high dividend paying etf in your Income portfolio? Also curious as to your thoughts on the partial use for these in a RRIF or PLIf account ( I am in MB and we have PLIF's). I'm setting up a PLIF and considering having more than a full position of HDIV, along with big stable dividend growers I'd pick from your favorites. I have a RRSP of the same value of the PLIF and investments in TFSA. I've been 100% equities all my life, eat volitility for breakfast. If you were setting up your own PRIF, looking to make significant income, what would it look like?
Read Answer Asked by Charles on March 26, 2024
Q: Just noticed that management fee of HDIV is 0.65, but MER is 2.39. Management fee for HMAX and UMAX is 0.65, but MERs are unstated presumably because it's early days. Do you expect that the MERs of HMAX and UMAX will be over 2%?
Read Answer Asked by Roderick on July 19, 2023
Q: I have a sum of money lying in a savings account earning neglible interest.
I would like to invest this money in some sort of interest bearing etf or portfolio.
My options would be to invest the money in:-
1) 5i Research Income Portfolio.
2) Hamilton ETF's HDIV and HYLD. I would put equal amounts into each ETF My thinking is that HDIV would give the income yield and HYLD would supply the growth.
I already run your 5i research Income Portfolio which I could add to
Read Answer Asked by John on June 05, 2023
Q: Did you happen to read the article in today's Globe & Mail "Don’t be seduced by the juicy yields of covered calls " by Dan Hallett?

I have recently invested in HDIV and HYLD just for those juicy yields produced by the covered call stratagey. Now I am second guessing this idea tempting as the yields are.

What are your thoughts?

Thank you as always for your input.

David
Read Answer Asked by David on May 11, 2023
Q: Your thoughts on these funds from Hamilton. Would be for an income portfolio. HYLD in an RRSP which will transition to a RRIF in next few years. HDIV would be held in a non-registered acct.
Yield is attractive but are they sustainable? Is a fund of fund and fees for Hamilton are stacked on top of fees for underlying ETFs.
Read Answer Asked by Bruce on January 23, 2023
Q: Hello 5i
In one of the recent questions it was said that you do not like covered call etf’s. I didn’t know that was the case. Maybe it isn’t, even i don’t know. I have concentrated my covered calls on American companies that i own. Also many uncovered puts. I have concentrated on the US because the premiums are much higher than on Canadian stocks. I have quite a few Canadian stocks, however. And i hate to see them languishing and unproductive. I have therefore been thinking of a way to make some money on them. The premiums are so low that it doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. But, covered call etf’s would be easier. I don’t know much about them, however. I wonder whether you might provide some information and some pros and cons. Whether you like the idea or not.
Thanks for the excellent service.
Read Answer Asked by joseph on November 24, 2022
Q: Hello
There are Youtube Investment Advisors pushing the theme of income investing. Nothing else matters, just the income. Not taxation nor ETF price action (Capital Value).

Given this ETF Theme of Covered Call Strategy (some leveraged 25%) are paying such a high distribution, in the right set of market events (down excessive period) can this strategy trade itself to zero?

They are certainly not making 15% income from dividends and call writing. So capital erosion must be the outcome in today's market.

I was holding covered call etfs from BMO during Covid crash. The strategy performed worse, even after distributions, than straight equity holdings. It was a terrible experience as there was zero downside protection and the strategy seemed to accentuate the drawdown.

Given the current environment (more downside in my opinion) are these ETFs setting investors up for an ugly awakening? ( distribution cuts, return of capital (One's own money), price decline and slowness to recover when markets come back)

Thoughts
Read Answer Asked by Dave on October 03, 2022
Q: How would you suggest a 70+ participate in this market,if at all?
Read Answer Asked by TERRY on September 19, 2022
Q: I am a vlaue investor, 76 years old, good pension. 43 stocks, 16 ETF's including the above covered call ETF's. I do have some growth holdings (IWO, LNF, WSP).All are doing well except ZIM and SYZ (not worried). My question is the covered call holdings are 10% of my portfolio. Is 10% too much? I do enjoy the $650 a month dividends which have been consistent for the past five months.
Thank you
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on September 07, 2022