Investment Q&A

Q: Which one of these two cloud computing ETFs you would prefer and why?
Thank you!

Q: Is this Solar ETF a buy, hold or sell ? Or would it make more sense to add to my existing positions in BEP, FTS and AQN ? Thanks for this great service.

Q: What are the Can ETFs that cover the main US ETFs, like SPY? And what are their mers?

What are the advantages of using these Canadian versions?

Do you still require W-BEN forms if you buy these?

Thanks for all your help.

Q: Hi. I want to buy an ETF for US or International exposure and therefore need to understand the impact of the withholding tax. In doing so, I need to determine the type of ETF they are such as; Canadian equity, Canadian dividend and income, U.S. Equity, International Equity Fund or Can Bon fund. So, wow do I determine what type of fund XAW or QEF fall under such that I can understand the withholding tax implications. Looking at the website/fact sheets/etc is still difficult to determine the "holdings" which has a direct correlation to the with holding tax.

Q: Hello 5i,
Do you think Metaverse is a better investable theme compared to Crypto?
Facebook seems to be allocating capital to Metaverse.
Can you suggest some stocks in US or Canada that give exposure to this theme. Can you suggest any ETFs other than META that invest in this theme? Do you think this is best held in a TFSA or NonReg account?

thanks

Q: I would like to exit my brokerage RRSP to a self directed RRSP and I am looking for 4 to 5 Canadian EFT's to provide balanced diversification across sectors, nations, Portfolio Analytics suggests 70 equities/30 fixed income. Other ideas you have to create a balanced diversified ETF RRSP would be appreciated.
Are there any strategies( eg time of year) to make the switch or just do it.
Thank you for your service.

Q: What are your thoughts on this ETF as a place to park money

Q: Dear 5i team.

May I please have your recommendation for exposure to Materials and Industrial ETFs please.

Thank you.

Q: I need to raise some cash which one can be trimmed today? Thanks.

Q: My question is more about safety and minimizing some risk. Hypothetically, if there was a market correction of say 20%, which of the above would be the safest in terms of net change (dividends and share price) say 6 months and 1 year later? I realize there are many issues with this question (they are all different, the need for crystal ball or time machine, etc) but I really value your thoughts. Thanks again!

Q: I have about $100K to invest in the US stock market to bring my portfolio closer to my intended US weighting, and I am looking for some US stock/ETF ideas.

My portfolio is already 25% Technology, and 16.5% Financials. So I don't need suggestions from those sectors. I was considering more VFV, but that has 25% Technology in it already, so maybe an ETF to complement that.

Can you suggest some US stocks that are not in the Technology or Financial sector that you would consider for a US style model portfolio. And also some ETFs holding US stocks that are light in Technology and Financials.

Thanks,
Paul

Q: Thank you for your answer on my inquiry on these new leveraged ETF's HCAL and HDIV ..... Your answer showed HCAL beat both the covered call bank ETF and the bank ETF { albeit under the short one year time frame of the ETF's existence } ...... A while ago I asked 5I to crunch the numbers on all of the big five banks from the turn of the century to the date of the question and give the annual return { dividend plus capital gain } .... The answer I got was an annual return of 11% on the low end to 14% on the high end ..... Your answer to my question on HCAL included the following quote .... " But we would cautious on seeing them as 'safe'. In a bad market, or course, weaker returns will be worsened with leverage. " ...... It is my understanding that these securities are not structured like the 2X and 3X leveraged ones that rebalance daily to achieve the required return ...... My question is regarding your caution on safety ...... Can I not ignore the down turns in favour of the long term return of the banking sector while collecting a superior return ? Those historical 11% to 14% annual bank returns are averaged including the down turns .... It seems to me looking at the sector's long term history the security would offer the same safety as the banking sector with a superior return ..... Please advise if I am looking at this correctly ? I am considering the security to represent my weighting in the banking sector ...... I am delaying my purchase until I fully understand your remarks on " safety " ....... Thank you for your help .....

Q: Could I please get an opinion on this fund; including how you think it might perform in a lengthy, rising interest rate trend and also if you have any similar alternatives of this type of fund worthy of consideration?
Thank you in advance.

Q: My 22 year old daughter has $7G to invest. She has dual citizenship with the US and has been told that she will be taxed on TFSA gains. Do you have any recommendations for her based on this?

Also, could you recommend some ETF’s for her?

Thank you so much.

Q: I am looking for an ETF that has a focus on energy excluding or mimimizing solar and wind.
With appreciation for your great service.
Ed

Q: I asked a question about XSTH a few days ago. Your main concern was the fact that it was new and very small asset wise. What about if I bought STIP on the Us exchange instead? It has been around since 2010 and has more assets. What would your opinion be on this?

Q: Hi,

It seems to me that the good days of the above ETFs are now behind them. They have been loosing speed, as for instance ARKG going from a yield of 33% over 3 years to 18% over 1 year.

What is your assessment of these ETFs at this time. Would you hold or sell to remplace them by ETFs with better growth potential ? If so, which ones would you suggest ?

Thanks a million,

Jacques IDS

Q: My 28yr old son is looking to build a diversified ETF portfolio with 100% equity exposure with a bent towards growth given his long investment horizon.  These will be spread across his TFSA, RRSP and Non-Registered accounts.  Since he will be contributing smaller amounts on a regular basis a zero commission platform such as Wealthsimple is appealing.  However, they charge 1.5% fee for all currency conversions making it only practical to hold Canadian traded ETF's.  As a result he is considering the following:

ZSP 40%
XIC 25%
TEC 20%
VIU 10%
VEE 5%

ZSP + XIC + VIU + VEE together create a mix of ETFs that are globally diversified and very similar to the structure of XEQT/VEQT.  Versus XEQT/VEQT This portfolio has a slightly lower weighted-average MER at 0.16% and also has 20% in TEC (in place of something like QQQ) which is more growth oriented. Here are how the sectors would be weighted with this portfolio:

Info 31%
Financial 15%
Cons Disc 11%
Industrial 9%
Healthcare 8%
Communica 7%
Cons Staples 5%
Energy 5%
Materials 4%
Utilities 2%
Real Estate 2%

These would be the top 10 holdings with this portfolio and these top 10 would account for 24% of holdings in this portfolio:

AAPL5.1% MSFT4.9% AMZN3.2% GOOGL1.8% FB1.7% GOOG1.7% TSLA1.5% SHOP1.4% RY1.2% NVDA1.2%

If this was you at 28, can you please comment on
- are the 5 ETFs he has chosen ones you would go with given his objectives, if not, what changes/substitutes would you make along with recommended % allocations?
- is his % allocation across the 5 appropriate or would you make changes? For example I thought there might be too much overlap between ZSP and TEC as they are both highly invested in AAPL, MSFT, AMZ and FB and he is looking at 60% going into these 2 ETF's. That may well be what you want at his age but  I wonder if he is better served by reducing ZSP to 25% -30% and TEC to 15% and add  the remaining 15-20% to CDZ or VGG (or something else?)
- given he will be making contributions to his TFSA, RRSP and Non-registered, which ETF would be best in which account and why? 

Thanks for all your help, 
Scott

Q: Curious what your thoughts are on this Canadian hedged inflation protected TIP ETF? Would it be good for part of the fixed income part of a portfolio during rising interest rates?

On the shares website the distribution yield is listed as 7% but the real distribution rate is listed as minus 2%. What does this mean?

What are the risks of this type of investment? What is the downside?

Q: Hi 5i - I’m looking for ways to invest in the ever growing focus on ESG and carbon emissions. Are there any ways retail investors can access the space? KRBN is one idea I’ve found. Are there any investable companies who are focusing on creating carbon offsets?

Thank you!