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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: Hello,
I am working on increasing my fixed income allocation by trimming some stocks. I have a number of American stocks in my RRSP with a good profit and I have been thinking about trimming here and buying fixed income. I had thought of selling an buying an American fund equivalent to xsb. Do you think this a reasonable stragegy? I can also buy a large dual listed stock such as RBC in U.S. funds and sell it immediatly with the proceeds ih Canadian, thus avoiding the exchange from us to cdn,in order to buy something like XSB. Buying the fund in US dollars would save a couple of extra transactions, but it would not be in my home currency. If you think buying a US bond index is a reasonable idea, do you have a suggestion as to which?
thanks as always, Claire
Read Answer Asked by joseph on May 21, 2015
Q: Hello, Can you give some suggestions and information on buying bonds as part of a diversified and a slightly aggressive overall portfolio. Since there are so many types of bonds I would welcome some guidance. Any suggestions on bond etfs are also welcome. Thanks. Shyam
Read Answer Asked by Shyam on May 21, 2015
Q: I recently read an article about this fund just arriving in Canada, May 6 I believe. What interested was: It is an international fund and it is managed by Joel Tillinghast (SP?) who was mentioned in the article as an excellent manager of this fund. What are your thoughts?
Read Answer Asked by John on May 21, 2015
Q: Please give your comments on ZST as an ETF to compliment XBB & CBO which I already own. Is this a good ETF to hold while waiting for a BOC increase? Also, can you explain why CBO & ZST share prices slowly erode over time while XBB has slow gains?
Thanks,
Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on May 21, 2015
Q: I am well diversified in the Canadian market, but own no US stocks and would like to buy some ETF's. I am looking at ZDJ, ZUE, VUN, AND ZSP, what is your opinion of these? or can you suggest others that will cover the US market and would you recommend that I also have a World ETF? Thank you for the great service and information you provide.
Read Answer Asked by Dorothy on May 19, 2015
Q: What other indexes would you recommend worth considering for a balanced investor. I currently have

Canada- 1) TSX, 2 ) TSX Small cap

USA- 1) Russel 1000, 2000 & 3000. 2) S & p 500

Europe - FTSE Europe

Asia- Ftse- Emerging Markets

Other - 1) MSCI small cap except north America 2) FTSE all world except USA.

Thank you

Paul

Read Answer Asked by paul on May 19, 2015
Q: The recent bond sell off is suggesting the much anticipated interest rate increase is around the corner. I have read that bond like stocks such as reits, pipelines, utilities and consumer staples will experience increased volatility in the coming months. I own a 20% weighting in the low volatility BMO etf ZLB. ZLB is loaded with the at risk sectors mentioned and could quickly become a high volatility etf. Would you please suggest several Canadian equity etf's as an alternative to ZLB that have low weightings in the interest sensitive sectors. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Richard on May 19, 2015
Q: Hello Peter and team,

My 20 year old nephew just opened a Scotia itrade account this week, how much can he contribute into his TSFA?
Scotia itrade has free ETF trading. For dollar coast averaging, which 4 or 5 ETF's would you recommend for a beginning investor?
http://www.scotiabank.com/itrade/en/0,,4200,00.html

Thank you,

Brent
Read Answer Asked by Brent on May 15, 2015
Q: You frequently recommend CDZ for dividend growth. CDZ certainly contains quality dividend growth stocks but it has a very irregular dividend growth history, unlike it's holdings. The following are the annual dividend growth rates for CDZ vs the Canadian Dividend All Stars (average of 65 stocks):
Year CDZ CDAS65
2008 21.2% 35.1%
2009 6.2% 10.8%
2010 6.0% 24.2%
2011 -25.1% 19.2%
2012 1.7% 14.4%
2013 8.2% 14.4%
2014 -9.1% 13.6%
Read Answer Asked by Bernie on May 13, 2015
Q: Would you please give me your thoughts about this US ETF. (It makes up about 3% of my portfolio, and about 20% of my financial services sector.)
Thanks for your great service!!
Read Answer Asked by Jim on May 13, 2015
Q: With the Globe and Mail reporting that bond markets are predicting a painful road ahead for shareholders, what can I expect from XSB? I bought the shares of this ETF for bond exposure with minimumal downside. Have I missed the mark?

Thanks in advance!

DON
Read Answer Asked by Donald on May 13, 2015
Q: Hello, guys.

Do you have a Toronto listed ETF that will capture gains in a rising Canadian or US bond yield environment?

Thanks.

John
Read Answer Asked by john on May 12, 2015
Q: Hi 5i Team,

Recently you recommended VGG ETF for US exposure as a portion of an RESP portfolio. I see Vanguard also has VIG. Both ETFs have the exact same top 10 holdings. Vanguard has a third ETF in VGH which is the hedged version of VGG. All three ETFs are called US Dividend Appreciation. My question is should I be purchasing VGG (sold in Canadian dollars -but not hedged (?))or VIG (sold in US dollars). It seems that VIG has a MER of 0.10% while VGG has an MER of 0.29%.
Thanks,
Richard
Read Answer Asked by Richard on May 12, 2015
Q: Good morning:
You recommended this morning DEM for an emerging markets dividend ETF. I have been holding EDIV for this purpose. I would appreciate your comparison.
Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Peter on May 11, 2015
Q: Hi 5i,

Just following up on my question about hedge funds and hedge fund ETFs.

I have found a list of some hedge fund ETFs that have over $100M US in assets and >25K average daily trading volume (for liquidity reasons) and was wondering if any of them would be an acceptable alternative to directly investing in an actual hedge fund. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated, recognizing this is a bit off the main track of your advice.

Here they are:

QAI - IQ Hedge Multi-Strategy Tracker ETF
WDTI - Managed Futures Strategy Fund
RLY - SPDR Multi-Asset Real Return ETF
ALFA - AlphaClone Alternative Alpha ETF
MNA - IQ Merger Arbitrage ETF

Thank you very much.

Michael
Read Answer Asked by Michael on May 11, 2015
Q: Hi Peter, what is your long term outlook for ZGI ETF. should i make it part of my retirement portfolio?
Read Answer Asked by vipin on May 11, 2015
Q: aRE THEY GOOD ETF AND RELATIVELY SECURE. hanks a lot.
Read Answer Asked by Denis on May 11, 2015
Q: Can you please recommend a couple of good global dividend paying (no USD exposure) ETF's for an older person 5 years from retirement--we already have canadian and USD dividend ETF exposure and wish to balance equity exposure globally.

Thanks for your help.
Read Answer Asked by joanne on May 10, 2015
Q: I am looking for diversification in our RRSP and TFSA accounts and would appreciate your thoughts on the above ETF's. My spouse will be converting to a RIF in 2016. I have an additional 5 years before having to withdraw funds. Thank you for all the valuable information I have received through your question and answer coverage.
Read Answer Asked by diane joan on May 08, 2015