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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: Last week I sent you a question about etfs and my portfolio. You answered my question and suggested I put some money in fixed income because I am 60 and retired. GICs currently appear to yield about 2.5%. Bonds seem to vary greatly. Can you suggest a fund where I would get a steady return.
Thanks Steve
Read Answer Asked by Stephen on January 22, 2026
Q: I am looking to establish a 10-year bond ladder within my RRSP as part of a broader effort to balance my portfolio. At present, I’m finding that my brokerage platform (BMO InvestorLine) does not consistently provide all of the details I need to make well-informed bond purchase decisions.

Question 1:
Can you recommend reliable sources or tools that provide key bond information such as credit rating, yield to maturity, seniority, and call features for Canadian bonds?

Question 2:
Is there a bond ETF you would recommend that closely replicates the structure and cash-flow characteristics of a bond ladder, as a DIY alternative to purchasing individual bonds?

Thank you for your guidance.
Read Answer Asked by Ronnie on January 22, 2026
Q: Hi 5i team,

I hold this US $ mmf for my US cash and now I am told I cannot buy more at TD DI because it has trailing commisions. What is a good alternative to hold us cash for a few years, safe and good return. Thanks, George
Read Answer Asked by George on January 21, 2026
Q: Could you help me to understand ZCS.L - accumulating units - ie. the nature and merits of " accumulating units ".
From the BMO web-site , this ETF appears to be identical to ZCS -their S/T Corporate Bond ETF except that distributions are made only annually .
Is this correct ?
Is this the only difference ?
For someone who does not need / want the income from ZCS's monthly distribution but just some FI allocation , is this a better option ?
Chart suggests so .
And would it also be a better option in this respect than HBB which makes no distributions but has a much longer ( undesired ) duration ?
Thank-you for the clarifications
Read Answer Asked by William on January 14, 2026
Q: Hello 5i Guys

I have GIC maturing soon and looking for substitute as rates are too low.

I've looked at ZCS and ZLC as replacement.

I understand Bond funds are not without risk compared to GCI

But do these 2 Bonds funds look like suitable (Low Risk) investments rather than a low rate GIC?

Thanks as ever
Ken
Read Answer Asked by Kenneth on January 13, 2026
Q: Hello 5i. I'm below on my fixed income. ZAG is almost 7% of my total portfolio but I am looking to increase this to almost 10%. Is this too high for a single ETF, and/or are you still happy with ZAG, or would you suggest an alternative. I'm looking for something fairly safe with a reasonable yield. Thanks again for your excellent service. John.
Read Answer Asked by John on January 13, 2026
Q: XLB and ZLC are my primary bond holdings. With the rather abrupt steepening of the yield curve, would you recommend selling both of these and replacing them with shorter term funds ? If so, which funds would you recommend ?

Thanks,
Mark
Read Answer Asked by Mark on January 06, 2026
Q: Hi, just starting to look at the bond market, do not want anything to do with U.S. tax filings. Would like like your three recommendations for Canadian bonds. Do you have a Canadian equivalent for BND? (Low mer and nice yield) also corporate bonds eg.XCB could you touch on risk compared to your three recommendations.
Thanks, happy, healthy New Year
Read Answer Asked by Brad on January 05, 2026
Q: Hello 5i team,
I have held HBND since Feb 24 and it has been on a steady slow decline (along with the payout) ever since. I think you mentioned that lower interest rates are always better for this ETF. In light of the US lowering there rates in the coming year, will this be good for HBND?

Net assets is currently 212 M according to there website. Do you have any knowledge if this is growing? I am asking this because although the payout is decreasing, it is still pretty good and would not want this ETF to close down like what happened to HYI.

Thank You,
Andrew
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on January 02, 2026
Q: Order Fill Limit Order Tips for ETFs. I have been placing limit orders to buy TCSH ETF which is a Canadian money market ETF. I have access to Time & Sales data using TD Advanced Dashboard. It looks like the transaction prices vary between 50.10 and 50.11 with "size" typically 100 to 200. I am not sure if "size" refers to lot size or quantity of shares (maybe you guys know?). I would like to buy 1,800 shares at 50.10. Will I have better success rate if I place multiple limit orders using lower quantities at 50.10 or likely the same result if I just place 1 limit order for 1,800 shares at 50.10? Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Read Answer Asked by Ian on December 22, 2025
Q: What are your thoughts on investing in private credit? Should it be part of a diversified portfolio? Are the above ETF's a good vehicle to invest in private credit?
Happy Holidays to the 5i staff!
Read Answer Asked by ROB on December 22, 2025
Q: Hello, Im looking for a conservative option to GICs
Would it be preferred shares ? Please help and avise

thanks so much

Tim
Read Answer Asked by Tim on December 22, 2025
Q: Will have to sell one of these to raise cash. Which one? Thanks and Greetings Peter.
Read Answer Asked by peter on December 20, 2025
Q: Thanks for answering my question regarding Premum/Discount for TCSH canadian money market ETF. In your answer you stated "Indicated Yield" of 2.63%. I looked at the TD web site and could not find this metric. Can you tell me where I can find this important metric as well as help explain what "Indicated Yield" means? TD only provides current yield to maturity on their web site. Many thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Ian on December 16, 2025
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