Investment Q&A

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. Not a market timing question...ok maybe it sort of is.

Looking to potentially add to ZRE and just wondering where we are at in the investment cycle and if now is a reasonable time to be adding to ZRE?


Also, is there a seasonality to REITs? When looking at a 10 year chart, it appears to my amateur eyes that the last portion of the year looks to be trending down most of the time? It looks like the January to early fall period is usually positive?

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: do you recommend Canadians buying US bond ETFs? Is there a Canadian hedged version of TLT?

Q: Hi,
Is there a small cap focused ETF that trades in Canada that you can recommend?

Thanks
David

Q: How do you determine what the total holdings are of this and other etf's above and beyond their top 10 holdings. Also is their an easy way to determine whether an etf's payout is partly return of capital. Thank you

Q: I am a retired income investor. All my income except CPP comes from my investments. Right now I am quite well diversified and I did not go to much cash so far nor do not intend to. However, I am now thinking that I should make some changes to be underweight some sectors and overweight others. Right now I am overweight ENB (I consider it a utility), BEP.UN, T, SLF, the Cdn banks and BCE. I also own a lot of the various BMO covered calls ETFs. Two areas I am light is Consumer Staples which the gurus say will hold up well now and I hold no US stocks. One can argue whether we are now in recession or it is coming but I am sure it is or will be real especially since our government says it does not think about economic policy. I am thinking of reducing the covered calls and increasing my exposure to stocks because I believe the stocks will perform better during and as we come out of this. This will further skew my diversity but these are not normal times.
I would like your thoughts on this and a recommendation for "safe" income producing Consumer Staples and a US ETF.
Many thanks

Q: Can you explain the extreme volatility of KRBN in recent months. Is this a safe long term investment? Your thoughts please.

Q: Can you recommend a diversified etf with a high dividend that targets canadian market. Looking for sectors that are not to voltile.
T Steve

Q: Own both ZDI and PDI to cover international divs, Was going to sell PDI as a tax-loss and put proceeds into ZDI. Do I need both ZDI and PID or does ZDI provide enough diversification? Thanks Ron

Q: It pays monthly distribution. It works out 7.41% at the current market price of 17.81. Is it considered as good income generating holding? If not then can you suggest a name? I hold ENB and ALA.
Thanks

Q: Historically, how important has investing outside of North America been for portfolio performance? Could one do just as well or better by ignoring international markets?

Thanks.

Q: Hi 5i team.
about 6 weeks ago sold AQN for a tax loss and increased position in FTS and bought some BEPC on top of BEP.UN as I am thinking of switching to BEPC to make life less complicated tax wise.
Problem (and a good one to have) is that I have a large capital gain in BEP.un.

Utilities portions as total of all portfolio.
BEP.UN is about 2%
BEPC about 1%
Fortis about 2%
Polaris about 1%

Question is what to sell or reduce to add in AQN back at about 2%?
Would you suggest a different mix?
I like the dividends and am OK w slow to moderate growth - retiree and looking at conservative ongoing investment. (I like all of these stocks.)

I am willing to pay some taxes as I worry about the capital gains tax rate rising at some point under our current government.
Subtract as many questions as needed.
Thank you.

Q: I have been a multi year holder of CLF and CBO in my Non Reg account and I would like to take the loss, and find two comparable etfs for my fixed income portion of my portfolio. Suggestions please.

Q: I am currently somewhat overweight bank and gold stocks. Would these covered call funds be complimentary or simply increase sector exposure even more?
It's very hard to ignore the 11% yield with GLCC and BANK for an income seeking investor.
Why is ZWB 7% while BANK is 11%

thank you

Q: Hi Group what the heck happened to ECN they announced a bought deal and it has gone down since? I see the CEO is loading up on shares He just bought over 1m this week also can you supply your thoughts on TCN seems to me rentals should go up in this environment so what gives with TCN? lastly is it time to take a small position in US and Cad EFFs

Can you give me an entry price on all 4 stocks and your reasoning or should i just wait for markets to shows signs of recovery Was June the lows or are we going to retest June lows (just you best guess I know you do not have a crystal ball

Appreciate your help with my questions

Q: The Harvest Healthcare ETFs appear to be a good way to diversify into American healthcare and get a "healthy?" income too. The MER is a bit high.
In a small very conservative TFSA would this make sense? Are there concerns, flaws, issues with this particular ETF series to watch out for?

Thanks

Q: Could you suggest a few dividend focused ETFs for a taxable account to 'park' money that will not be needed for a few years ? I purchased UTIL because I liked its holdings but am concerned about its trading volume. I already own XEI and ZDV.

Q: I have run Portfolio Analytics and it shows that I am overweight by region in Canada (5%) and the US (10%) and underweight in International (15%). Can you suggest 3 ETFs that will increase my International exposure in a non-registered account and include some details on these ETFs (projected performance, fees, yields, etc)?

Q: Can I have your opinion on the risk/reward for Small Caps in general right now? Some analysts are suggesting Small Cap valuations are currently low based on their historical position relative to larger cap companies and should “revert to the mean” in the medium term. If you were to invest in this theme what ETF would you use? As always your insights are greatly appreciated.

Q: Dear Peter et cal:

Two part question. You may dedut as many credits as you feel fit.

1. There are a few experts who predict 60/40 portfolio is finished for several years! I was a subscriber to Portfolio Analytics for a while and it repeatedly told me that given my answers to your algorithms , I have to stick to 60/40 split.
What do you think about 60/40 portfolio in general,, especially for the many in the pre/semi fully retirement stages. No need for personal answer. Just a general overview answer would be fine.

2. If you were to construct an ETFs based portfolio TO-DAY from scratch, would it be different from the one that we see in Canadian Money Saver? What would it look like ,if it is different? 80/20? or 70/30?

As you have indicated that you can give personalized answers, please feel free to answer in general/overview/big picture terms.

Thank you in advance
Mano.

Q: I own an Ishares all in one ETF to round things out. I just found out they hedge the currency on the non Canadian holdings. I tried to find out the cost to hedge but was unsuccessful. After doing more research I found the costs to hedge can be 1-2% a year. When doing a back test between IVV and XSP the hedged EFT lagged by 1-3% a year over 20 years. From 2002-2012 the lag averaged 2.1% a year but in the last 10 years the average lag was 1.1% a year. Do you know any all in one Canadian ETF's that don't hedge the currency?

Thank you.