Q: Can you please give me what you would consider the “best in breed” ETF’s that are essentially 100% US that focus on:
- dividend appreciation/aristocrat
- momentum
- growth
- income
- balanced
These would be held in registered accounts and I’ll add the proviso that I am less concerned about a low MER than historical performance/active management. Thank you!

Q: I need to raise some cash and am considering selling one of the securities listed. I have a well-diversified portfolio with a slightly overweight financial sector, hence the choices. Which of the three listed ETFs (I treat BRK.B as an ETF) would you sell? The criterion is the lowest anticipated return over the next 3–5 years. Thanks!

Q: Please see below some recent commentary from The Economist. Can you please provide your thoughts? Could you also please suggest one or two US listed ETFs that fit the bill and ideally have worldwide coverage?

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From: How to Hedge a Bubble, AI Edition

“Some of the most effective hedging strategies the Goldman analysts found fell into the third category: combinations of stocks and non-bond diversifiers. In fact, the best diversifiers were mostly filtered baskets of stocks, such as the S&P 500 “low volatility” subindex, which includes the 100 least volatile stocks in the main index. A 50/50 split between this and the S&P 500 would, from 1996 to 2002, have generated nearly twice the annualised excess returns (over cash) of the S&P 500 index alone. So would a similar split with the S&P 500 “dividend aristocrats” index, which includes only companies that have increased their dividends every year for the past 25. Diversifying into “quality” stocks (with high returns on equity, stable earnings and low net debt) would have brought similar returns.
Today, the idea that the best way to hedge equity risk is with equities feels unsatisfying. Considering the alternatives, though, it might just be the best shareholders can do.”