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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: Greetings 5i,

I will be adding the following ETFs / Mutual Funds to my portfolio over time in order to round out my sector and geographic imbalances. Could you please suggest the prefered account to hold each of these in. RRSP, TFSA, or Regular Trading Account.

VXC, MAW108, ZWU, QQQ, VEE, ZCH, EWL, REET, ZDI, ZWE

Cheers!
Read Answer Asked by Duane on November 20, 2019
Q: Hello 5i,
To clarify my previous question: I hold bonds at 40% for my fixed portion of my value blue chip dividend retirement portfolio.These include CBO $30,000 2.31%, XHY $25,000 1.86% and XLB 87.000 6.76%. I also hold a $60,000 5 year GIC ladder. I would like to change the CBO for VCB for more income and stability instead of watching CBO's constant descent into the nether regions of the market.
Is this consideration appropriate, should I just leave things alone or can you suggest a better alternative given what I already have?
Thank you
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on November 20, 2019
Q: Peter and team
Not sure if you can answer this in a primarily equities forum, but here goes:
I have one account with PHN that is considered as "medium risk". As such it holds 60/40 equities/bonds
The two bond funds have done very poorly over the last few years. Are there better options while still maintaining a "balanced approach" ?
Thanks

Phil
Read Answer Asked by Phil on November 20, 2019
Q: Hello, I have about 10,000 in physical gold and silver (in safety deposit box) that I’am thinking of cashing in. Would probably buy one or two material or gold stock to collect small to medium dividend .
Question is would you just keep as is or switch to stocks ? And could you suggest two or three quality stock with good management, lower debt etc. ( maybe ETF?)
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Brad on November 19, 2019
Q: Hello 5i,
I am currently holding CBO at 2.3% portfolio weight. I would like to exchange it for XCB with higher yield and apparently not dropping like a rock as CBO has done. Would this be w worthwhile exercise, can you suggest a better alternative, or should I just leave things alone. I would be taking a $1,500 loss on $30,000 a holding.
Thank you for the great service
Stanley
Read Answer Asked by STANLEY on November 19, 2019
Q: Two questions: One, would you consider ZMI as "fixed income" for that part of my portfolio? Or is there too much of an equity component? Second, so many ETFs have a return of capital; when the fund reports a yield, does this include the roc? If so, isn't that reported yield misleading? Is there a way to learn what the actual yield ( ie without my own capital) being included? Thanks for your excellent service.
Read Answer Asked by Leonard on November 19, 2019
Q: There has been a lot of discussion in the financial press, including articles you quoted, on how value will overtake momentum strategies. However, when I check the holdings of US momentum ETFs, such as IVE, most of these holdings are juggernauts, some of whom have done very well. What am I missing in this interpretation of value stocks?
APPLE INC 9.24%
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO 3.38%
AT&T INC 2.35%
BANK OF AMERICA CORP 2.26%
UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC 1.98%
CHEVRON CORP 1.91%
BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC CLASS B 1.84%
WELLS FARGO 1.76%
WALMART INC 1.41%
CITIGROUP INC 1.37%
Read Answer Asked by Walter on November 19, 2019
Q: Dear 5i,

XUU has a reported MER of 0.07% and consists of 4 underlying US ETF holdings.
Is an investor paying two layers of MER's when owning XUU?
Vanguard has a competitive ETF called VUN which has a surprising higher MER
of 0.16%. Which ETF would you recommend and why?

thanks
Read Answer Asked by Ian on November 19, 2019
Q: Hello Peter and team,

Is there a tax efficient way to have US exposure in a taxable account? Would you recommend a ETF? Trying to get more US exposure in my sons portfolio and the taxable account is quite a bit larger than the RRSP's and TSFAs (both maxed) so if we want more US exposure, it has to be in the unregistered.

Thank you,

Wes
Read Answer Asked by Wes on November 18, 2019
Q: I am looking to take on some technology exposure in my RRSP, and leaning toward ETF rather than individual stocks. Would appreciate a couple ideas for core holdings in this sector. Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Steven on November 18, 2019
Q: 1. Could you please recommend stock or etf for global or USA real estate exposure. Well diversified TFSA, conservative investor.
2. Could you also please suggest how to reduce exposure in C Cyc space. and increase in Industrial. In C Cyc currently own own MG and NFI ( C Cyc / Industrial) and WSP in Industrial.
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Hali on November 18, 2019
Q: I did research on this ETF and like what I saw
1) 5 star MS ranking
2)Excellent performance
3)Good bid/ask spreads
4)Invests in some oversold sectors and I like their holdings

Although it's small in size, liquidity seems good (level 2) and I think it would be a good complement to VFV, ZLU.

May I have your analyis and recco on whether you think this is a potentially strong acquisition. Or, do you have anything better?

Thanks

Sheldon
Read Answer Asked by Sheldon on November 18, 2019
Q: Hi Team,

I am trying to help a family member with a simple solution for investing in stocks in their RRSP account. Im leaning towards VT due to no withholding taxes but I would like your opinion as well. Im thinking currency diversification is a good thing with VT too as there are other Canadian holdings (XDIV) in their TFSA.

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Keith on November 15, 2019
Q: hi guys thinking about buying an etf would like a clarification on the fees that are charged and when and how they are paid and to whom thanks as always
Read Answer Asked by michael on November 15, 2019
Q: For the moment, I'm satisfied with each of the CDN and US holdings in my portfolio. But I have nothing that is non-North American. So I'm planning to invest about $50,000 which would be 10% of my current portfolio. I haven't tracked international equities very much and am looking for recommendations. What do you think about purchasing individual stocks ... intending LT (5+ year) hold? Could you suggest 4 or 5 stocks I might look at? Asia? Europe? etc. Finally, if you're not keen on investing in individual stocks, can you recommend a few international ETFs for me to research? Thanks very much. (5i is an awesome resource for me).
Read Answer Asked by RANDALL on November 15, 2019
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