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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: Your response to Denise’s inquiry on crypto was very unsettling to me,

I quote a snippet of your answer: ‘if crypto recovers’

Can you please expand on this? What is your outlooks on bitcoin and ether? Do you estimate there is a market probability that we are entering a long winter, or do you see this as portending something worse; a total value destruction?

Please be as sobering as you feel it necessary.

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Karim on February 05, 2026
Q: Hello, I have a small position in ZST . I like to add more bonds for safety and income .
I have been looking at : XSB and XBB and ZAG as they hold Government bonds . Can I assume that by holding one of these to diversify or a combination will do the trick !! ?
Thank you
Carlo
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on February 05, 2026
Q: In my RIFF, cash from income and some sales are put into the BMO HISA or ZJK to accumulate enough for my annual required withdrawals. My ZJK holdings are only touched if I am short when December comes and I enjoy the 6% distribution. I am flat or slightly to the positive at the current ZJK market price. I am wondering if the rising CDN dollar this year and the possibility of settling CUSMA will eat into the yield on ZJK to the point that the BMO HISA (1.95%) might be the better option this year. What would you do and where would you store the cash needed for annual withdrawals? Thank you for your great service.
Read Answer Asked by Earl on February 05, 2026
Q: Hi gang, 66 year old dividend investor here. I own both FIE @ 6.57% of my portfolio and XEI @ 5.1%. The big difference I see is that FIE holds 18.99% Canadian preferred and 9.1% Cdn Corp bonds. FIE also has a much higher MER at .74% vice .22% for XEI. Both hold all the big banks. Both have dividends roughly the same and pay monthly. I'm up considerably with both.
I'm wondering if I should sell XEI and dump into FIE. Would it be worth it to save the .22% MER on XEI and not pay the MER on both. Or should I just carry on with both. Thanks for your thoughts, Bill.
Read Answer Asked by William on February 05, 2026
Q: UMAX has been going straight down since 2022. Time to let it go? I have individual utility stocks ( ACO.X, BIPC, BIP, BEP, CU, FTS,
H.TO ).
If so what dividend paying replacement would be suggested, or just keep it, or sell it and add to my winning covered call ETF's ( NXF, HDIV, HMAX, HYLD, IWO, NXF, QMAX, SMAX, VDC, VDY, XLY, ZQQ, ZRE, ZWE, ZWH.U)?
Healthy 80 year old value /dividend investor with stocks and ETF's in all sectors with an outlook of 5-10 YEARS (I hope).
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on February 05, 2026
Q: NXF is a covered call EFT. Do you have a recommendation for an energy sector ETF that does not sell covered calls? Within my RRSP, I would like to own two ETF’s, the energy sector, to hold my energy related investments. Is there a rule of thumb to guide the percentage one should put into each (ie: 25% in a covered call ETF; 75% in an ETF which does not sell covered calls)?

Thanks for your help.
Read Answer Asked by Donald on February 04, 2026
Q: What would be your top pick for the best ETF's in the following categories:
AI
Robitics
Consumer Staples (US)
Consumer Staples (Canada)
Software (after the sector bottoms)
Read Answer Asked by Larry M. on February 04, 2026
Q: Over the past 3 years, I have converted my portfolio to ETFs. I currently hold ZWU and UMAX at 10% of the portfolio. I plan on adding 5% HUTL to have some exposure to International Utilities. Your comments please?
Read Answer Asked by William on February 04, 2026
Q: I want to enter into small position in an India etf . I have 2 suggestions of FIH .U.CA and ZID from BMO . Which would you feel most comfortable with ?
Cheers, Doug
Read Answer Asked by Doug on February 04, 2026
Q: Dear 5i
I`m interested in investing in the copper and uranium theme via ETFs .
What ETF would you recommend for CDN and US . Would your recommendations differ for different accounts such as unregistered . RRSP or TFSA .
Thanks
Bill C
Read Answer Asked by Bill on February 04, 2026
Q: Hi 5i, I have a family member who has retired and is interested in buying a growth portfolio of ETFs that is US currency based. They have bought an annuity that will support their lifestyle for 10yrs. If you were building this portfolio what ETFs would you chose and what percentages would you allocate to them?
Read Answer Asked by Mark on February 03, 2026