Investment Q&A

Q: Is EFR a good buy in the current environment if one is looking at a 3-5 year hold period? Note: although I prefer Canadian dividend-bearing securities, I am in a sufficiently low tax bracket for there to be no material disadvantage for purchasing a foreign asset with a sufficiently high yield.

Q: Just few more covered call gold ETF questions and I promise to stop flogging this horse and make a decision ..... Of the five ETF's 5i recommended { AMAX, CGXF,BASE,GLCC,GDXY } Could 5i give me the return, unit price gain/loss plus dividends for each ETF as a percentage ? .... As both AMAX and GDXY have only been around a year just go back for that period of time for each one. This will be long enough for me to assess as I am looking for gold volatility pre and post Trump's election.....

I notice all have an upward trend except GDXY. Could 5i speculate on the reason why ? Of course the question is does that 32.5% dividend more than make up for it ? I should be able to see that by your evaluations of returns for the other ETF's in comparison ......

And finally, hypothetically, if 5i were forced to choose one or two of these to " hide " in while assessing just exactly how bad Trump is going to make things for Canada . Which would be your two favorites, first and second, and why ? ...... Thanks for your terrific service ..... Garth .....

Q: Hi there,

I'm evaluating the fixed income portion of my portfolio and am debating between a ladder GIC vs a HISA ETF. I understand GICs are locked in rates and HISA etfs are floating, but can you provide any insight as to the general historical differences in performance over historical time? In other words, say 100k split into 5 rungs of 20k vs 100k in a floating rate HISA etf - is there any difference in performance historically?

Thank you!

Q: What do you think of HUBL for income generation and do you think the 9-10% yield is sustainable?

Any better alternatives in the 8-10% range?

Q: What US & CDN ETFs replicate the DJIA. Is there an ETF that you would recommend. Thanks … Cal

Q: What would the change of interest rates going up or down have on yield and the etf price on ZFH.ca. And the possible magnitude of yield and ETF price.
Thanks.

Q: Dear 5i team.

Looking at the chart of ZFH, it appears to be volitile around general market downturns. Can you explain how/why a bond fund like this has this much downside when markets panic and sell off? Looks fairly correlated to me.

Many thanks for your help.

Q: Do you have a preference between XBB and VAB?

Thanks as always

Q: In the description of the ETF, it mentions the following: "The Fund will invest primarily in debt instruments of Canadian corporations that are not investment grade." -- I have difficulty reconciling the "not investment grade" with your previous comment "solid, fairly conservative ETF, especially considering we are entering a tarif war. What am I missing?

André

Q: I'm impressed by the performance of the Hamilton Etfs, managing a crazy high 'dividend' and not really losing price. How will the Hamilton covered call ETFs (I've listed only a couple examples) do in a down market -- will they outperform or underperform the market ? I know they are new products; are these ETFs at risk of 'bait and switch' in terms of some unseen fees or reduced distributions?

Q: Is the interest subject to withholding tax on the US side? (held in TFSA)

Q: Is there any withholding tax on an ETF like VGG in a TFSA when you sell it?

Q: Your thoughts on ZFH.

Thanks

Q: How safe is this ETF for monthly income. Been holding for a bit.

Q: Given the increasing focus on defence spending both in North America and Europe, do you have some conviction stocks (accessible to a Canadian retail investor) that will likely benefit from this trend?

Q: Hi. I recently transferred $20,000 into my RRSP Direct Investing account. I would like to invest the money into some quality ETFs, perhaps three or four. I know you are not clairvoyants, however based on geo-politics and recent tariff threats, which ETFs (either Canadian, American or other parts of the world) would you invest in at this particular time. It would be for a 2/3 year hold. Thanks for the advice in advance.

Q: Just a little more clarification on my question on GDXY . First what is a " synthetic call/write strategy " ? I suspect understanding that will help me understand the very large 32.5% yield ......And second the only GDX gold stock I can find is a 5 cent stock Goldex Resources Corporation ? Which I don't find encouraging for a purchase of GDXY . Could you elaborate on the relationship ? ..... Or if I have the wrong company point me in the direction of the right stock symbol ? .... Thanks again for your terrific service ......

Q: Are these dividends eligible for the dividend tax credit even though the fund is largely composed of US preferreds.

Thank you

Q: further to my question which you answered very quickly, thank you. The information was from your website"Business Description-
The investment seeks to track the investment results of the NYSE FactSet U.S. Tech Breakthrough Index. The fund seeks to track the investment results of the NYSE FactSet U.S. Tech Breakthrough Index (the underlying index), which measures the performance of U.S. listed companies engaged in cutting edge research and development of products and services in the areas of robotics and artificial intelligence, cyber security, cloud and data tech, financial technology, and genomics and immunology. It generally will invest at least 90% of its assets in the component securities of the underlying index. The fund is non-diversified. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the ICE 0-3 Month US Treasury Securities Index, which measures the performance of public obligations of the U.S. Treasury that have a remaining maturity of less than or equal to three months." I don't understand why the TBills are related to this index. Is the debt incurred by these companies comprising the index?

Q: Is this ETF less secure because it follows bonds from "breaking edge technical companies index" even though they are T-bills. If one were looking for a relatively secure Tbill ETF to gain modest income and possible currency benefits in a RRIF which would you chose.