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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: Hi,

In a previous response you indicated that you would use ETF's to complete the fixed income portion of a portfolio. Could you explain your rationale for this as I have been under the impression that any ETF, even a bond type, carries substantially more risk that purchasing a bond directly. I have a couple of short term bond ETF's but have more money allocated directly to bonds/GIC's in my portfolio.

Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Sue on July 20, 2021
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
Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 19, 2021
Q: In my balanced cash account I hold CBH as the fixed income portion and while I thought the laddered approach would be beneficial, it has not performed well over the past years. After reading about Real Bond ETF's, I am wondering if I should replace my CBH with a real bond ETF (either XRB or ZRR) for the next few years. What do you think of that strategy? FYI, I also hold XBB in my RSP.
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on July 16, 2021
Q: My wife and I are in our mid-late 70's and only have investments in RRIFs.

We don't have any stocks in the materials sector and I would like to add something that has either solid growth potential or pays a dividend to add a bit more balance. I once invested in gold (BTO) and didn't do well, so I'm not particularly interested in that unless it meets the criteria above.

I am, however open to all suggestions. I have 6% space to allocate to your recommendations, so please advise accordingly.
Read Answer Asked by John on July 16, 2021
Q: My question has to do with technical indicators that may signal bearishness. In particular, I'm looking at the "unusual short interest" in the mentioned ETFs. Some popular "influencers" indicate they hedge when a market turns downwards by shorting these ETFs. This, the logic goes, is a way to protect the downside without liquidating high growth holdings.

Right now, my intution is that there is a "de-risking" going on in the markets (away from high growth and speculative cyclicals to blue chips and large cap tech).

My questions: Do you see unusual short activity going on in these ETFs, is it a fair indicator of broader bearishness, and do you think the strategy of hedging by temporarily shorting these ETFs is sound?
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on July 14, 2021
Q: you recently suggested soxq as a reasonable investment in the semi space.
I looked at their listing and noticed that they are currently averaging less than 30,000 daily transactions. As you mentioned, their charges for both the balance of the year(zero) and only .17 points for the future seem to make this an attractive etf to invest in. Does the low amount of daily transactions affect your outlook.
Ed in Montreal
Read Answer Asked by ed on July 13, 2021
Q: If a person was looking for income only with a lesser amount of capital gains what are your thoughts on these candidates for 20 % of an overall portfolio ?
Read Answer Asked by STEVE on July 13, 2021
Q: I do not have technology shares in my RRSP. I'm well covered in energy, financials, utilities, transportation, tel coms and an ETF US equities. There are quite a few techno companies out there. For a long term investment, any suggestions and why.
Read Answer Asked by Jacques on July 13, 2021
Q: What would be your top 2 -3 picks of ETF's to buy now and hold them in Canadian Margin Account that will not need to be reported on T 3511.

thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Andrzej on July 13, 2021
Q: With regard to any ETF, do you prefer CAD hedged or not?
Read Answer Asked by Brenda on July 13, 2021
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