Investment Q&A

Q: I am two years before retirement and have a moderate risk profile. My current allocation is 25% Canada, 70% US, 5% Developed, and 0% Developing. Considering the state of the economy in Canada and Trump's threats about tariffs, I am wondering whether it's a good idea to decrease my allocation for Canada to 20% and instead allocate 3% to VWO and 2% to ILF. What's your opinion on this? Where do you anticipate better returns—in Canada or in the emerging markets covered by VWO and ILF?

Q: Can you suggest an us etf, where I can park us cash while waiting to invest? Thank you Ruth

Q: Merry Christmas to the staff.
i'm 81 just floating until the end of the road,I'm considering adding to my TSFA only for income purposes, PDO , PDI.CAN., and or ZWU which of the 3 you consider the safest bet,Are these US.income funds affected by N.R. tax .

Tnks.

Dan

Q: Hello,

Thoughts on long term durations in Canada? Good entry for XLB?

Thanks.

Q: Which one do you prefer for a 3 year hold? Thanks

Q: good morning:
if you were going to start buying a etf today that had low costs [mer] in canadian dollars and invested outside of canada and paid a decent dividend which 5 would you look at? can be small cap, european, etc

Q: Out of these three all-in-one ETFs:
1) Which one is most tax efficient in a un-registered account?
2) Which one is most tax efficient in a registered account?
3) Which one is better to invest for longer term of 10+ years?

Q: What etf (s) do you like US small cap for a USD account

Q: I currently hold CALF and SLYV-A as part of my small-cap part of my portfolio. SLYV is up 21.05%, while CALF is only 5.21% in one year. IWM is up 28.42% in the same period. I want to sell CALF and buy IWM. Alternatively, buy IWR as a mid-cap may have better potential.

Q: Given current market conditions, what would be the major headwinds facing ZCS? It seems fairly resilient during Dow declines. Thanks.

Q: What do you think of the 30 stock holdings in this etf, cover most bases for a good etf holding?
Thanks again

Q: Looking at your income portfolio I see CPD is down ~24% but when I look at the chart it has never been higher, how can that b

Q: Most of my TFSA is in Canadian stocks (plus some US CDRs GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN). Now I'm thinking of adding 2 ETFs to my unregistered account. So far, my first choice is VFV, because I know you like it. But you mentioned another one that broadens out from the S&P 500. Not sure about that one: thoughts? But I want one more, particularly with dividend and some growth. If there is a USA one that, like VFV, trades in Canada TSX but pays dividends in US dollars, that might work nicely. Alternatively, maybe a Canadian one that is not too focused on Financials and Energy, one with which I could get dividend tax credit, may work. Between dividend and growth, I would lean toward growth and sacrifice some dividend. Between Canada and USA, I'd like USA, but only if I can buy on TSX. I'd like to stick to just two, but maybe three would work best? What say you? Thank you, yet again, for such a fabulous service.

Q: If I understand correctly, HHL is a Canadian ETF that holds US or maybe global Health Care stocks, and HHL.U is the same fund in US$.
For US$ Health Care covered call ETF, would you recommend the HHL.U or would some other similar ETF be more suitable?
Thank you
jerry

Q: On Oct 22, concerning ELV's quarterly results, you said, "a key issue was the 'timing mismatch' between Medicaid reimbursement rates and the higher healthcare needs of members" - an issue linked to post-COVID resumption of full-service healthcare.

But isn't this a case of 'one-off' cyclicality in an industry which was assumed to be secular? In which case, doesn't ELV become mis-priced as reimbursements and higher needs fall back into balance?

Finally, to operationalize this strategy, would it be preferable to seek-out the most beaten-down health insurer (perhaps you have suggestions), or to pick something like IHF (ditto)?

Q: Your recent market report suggested US small caps May out perform during the next few years. Can you recommend a couple of ETFs that trade in Cdn $

Q: Hello, last question on bond ETFs: for diversification purposes, having in my RSP individual canadian bonds, it might be interesting to invest in VGAB or VBU for additional money in fixed income products. For a long term investment, which ETF is preferable for the next few years: VGAB or VBU (given the interest rate context, etc.)? Thanks.

Q: What are your favorite ETFs in Utilities sector? In the US and Canada. Also in Europe.
(I have a small position in VPU. Not sure if it meets your approval)
Want to structure an asymmetric barbell, just in case there's more
than expected pullback!
Many thanks in advance.

Q: Retired (70 yrs old), dividend-income investor. Been meaning to ask this question for a long time. We run a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10 ETFs and 10 stocks, plus fixed income on top. Our pro-rated MER for the equity ETFs is 0.64 and for the entire portfolio is 0.38.

I use the ETFs above that are sector ETFs (like HHL, NNRG, XIT) as my proxy for the sector and am ok with the trade off of paying fees for a sector ETF instead of having lots of stocks.

I then add my individual stock selections to achieve my targeted Asset Allocation for the entire portfolio (like AD, BCE, FTS, GSY, RY, NWC, PBH, TRP, WSP, etc). I weight each of these relative to my risk tolerance.

Does this make sense to you? Does my "sector ETF" make sense, especially with a potentially large weighting in one ETF. Virtually all of my ETFs are capped at around 7% of the equity portfolio and the stocks are capped at 5% max.

Your thoughts on my strategy and on my MER....thanks...Steve

Q: Hello,
I’m not sure if this question is out of scope. However my daughter and son in law are moving from Switzerland to Canada in the new year. They have some questions regarding their investments so I thought I would see if your team can help with answers.
- We have UCITS Irish domiciled ETFs so that we don’t have to pay US withholding tax - are these available in Canada?
- If not, are there any options to invest in for example an S&P 500 ETF (or other US ETFs) without having to pay withholding tax?
- do you have a brokerage account that you recommend? We currently use CornerTrader/CornerBank but they are not present in Canada so we have to switch