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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 guys
I know that you are not a fan of split capital shares, but I have had some success with them. With the oil companies being beaten down so much, I am willing to take a position and wait for a recovery. Are the underling companies solid in this structure. Are there any other vehicles that have a basket of oil companies that you would recommend
Thanks
Read Answer Asked by auftar on November 21, 2018
Q: I am holding 5% in XSP. VUN AND ZQQ ETF. I am planning to increase to 10% in each. Plus I hold FTEC and SKYY ETF 2% each. Planning to increase to 5%. DO you think there is overlap and is any ETF holding is to high. If it is too high what percentage do you think is appropriate.

Thanks for the great service
Hector
Read Answer Asked by Hector on November 20, 2018
Q: I currently have my 2 kids (2 and 4 years old) RESP's invested in TD's eseries funds (CDN, US, INT). The fees the last time I checked are 0.33, 0.35, 0.50 respectively. I chose e-series because of the low fees. I manage my own portfolio and don't want to manage stocks in 2 RESP's as well so I want to stick with Index funds or etf's for simplicity. I am wondering it if would save me enough money in fee's to change from the e-series funds to Vanguard etf's of the same category (CDN, US, INT) due to the lower fees. The Vanguard etf's range from around 0.05% mgmt fee and 0.06% MER for the CDN. Since the RESP's have many more years to maturity should I make the move to ETF's since they are about 1/3rd of the price or are we talking about pennies in the long run since the fees for both are already really low? Has performance been better in either?

Thanks,
Read Answer Asked by Adam on November 20, 2018
Q: As a retired person I am always looking for high yield investments.
So I look at something like HHL from Harvest. It holds 20 equal weighted mainly US healthcare stocks. A solid sector with good long term demographics. I see their current yield on what they are paying out is 8.67% - all capital gains - great! But I see the average dividend yield on the stocks held is only 1.96%. How can that be? Seems it’s done using covered calls Not sure how that works but sounds like it creates added risk. What if the covered call $ generated isn’t enough to meet their intended distribution? Where does the extra $ go if covered call exceeds the distribution.

So I investigate the industry a little more and I see words like- total return swap based, inverse, currency hedged, low/ high volatility, fund of funds, proprietary methodology, 2x returns etc., and I start to wonder what’s going on?

Then I remember the term “ flow through shares” of some time ago and say to myself “ it’s déjà vu all over again.

Derek
Read Answer Asked by Derek on November 20, 2018
Q: Dear 5i
I'm trying to understand how companies actually get paid when we own for example an ETF that has a MER of for an example .5%. If the anticipated yield is say 3% you had stated in an earlier question of mine that the 3% is inclusive of fees . So all yields posted are generally always inclusive of fees right ? This means then that the actual yield is 3.5% minus the MER of .5%. So its a matter of the company in question holding their fee back from the yield rather than a case of the said company getting paid the fee which comes out of my brokerage company account directly .Sorry if this sounds confusing . I'm just trying to understand the process and be sure about what yield I'm actually getting and what fees I'm actually paying .
Thanks
Bill
Read Answer Asked by Bill on November 20, 2018
Q: Greetings 5i,

Recent article I found had me thinking about iShares Global Gold Miners ETF (RING) as a decent large cap gold miner ETF. It's in USD unfortunately.

Could you lend your opinion on this ETF and is there a CDN denominated version or alternative? What weight in a diversified portfolio? Is there a small cap gold etf you like as well?

https://www.theinvestorspodcast.com/blog/gold-50-off-get-yours-before-the-sale-ends/

Cheers!
Read Answer Asked by Duane on November 19, 2018
Q: HPR has dropped from the 9.60-9.70 range to below 9.00 in the last while, including yet another big drop today. I always thought a managed Pref ETF would not drop as much as the overall market during a correction and that it would be a defensive holding. Apparently not a correct assumption. So, what is happening with this ETF - should I sell and buy something more secure like a Utility, buy more of this ETF or what? My goal with this part of my portfolio is lower risk.
Read Answer Asked by David on November 19, 2018
Q: Dear 5i;
With regards to the latest conservative ETF portfolio ;
With the average yield of all the ETF`s being 3.23%, is this before MER`s are taken into account or after ?
Also what's your rational for using HYGH vs XHY ?
Also tax loss selling generally only applies to non-registered accounts correct ?Please deduct several points .
Thanks
Bill C.
Read Answer Asked by Bill on November 19, 2018
Q: I’d like to invest in companies with excellent balance sheets, a clear catalyst for growth, and which are trading at a discount to their historic valuation. I’m hoping you can provide a list of stocks, both domestic & foreign, that meet these criteria. Are there any sectors or countries with an abundance of such companies right now? If so, please suggest some appropriate ETFs. Thanks very much.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on November 16, 2018