Investment Q&A

Q: I would like your thoughts on QTIP as a partial or whole substitute for funds like XBB or ZAG. Also going forward from now into 2022 how do you see bond funds performing overall. I currently have 35% of my portfolio in fixed income.

Q: Hello, could you please provide some of your favourite ETF's to fill the fixed income portion of a portfolio?

What about cash?

Q: In my balanced cash account I hold CBH as the fixed income portion and while I thought the laddered approach would be beneficial, it has not performed well over the past years. After reading about Real Bond ETF's, I am wondering if I should replace my CBH with a real bond ETF (either XRB or ZRR) for the next few years. What do you think of that strategy? FYI, I also hold XBB in my RSP.

Q: What are your thoughts on this ETF to hold cash that I'm not ready to put into stocks yet? I have some cash that I'm too chicken to put to work all at once with the market frothiness. Planning to invest in a few tranches.

Thanks.

Q: In a flat or a rising interest rate environment which ETF is preferable i.e XHY, PFIA, MFT, ZHY OR PYF?

Thanks for your service!

Q: Within a low fixed income component (10%), would half of that component in PFIA be too much? For the other half I’m thinking CSU.DB.

Thanks.

Q: Thanks for the great work in educating and helping us. Currently I have no exposure to Debt and all Investment is in Equity Stock or Pref. I was trying to use Preference shares as a proxy for Bond. Is that a wise strategy? Want to move some fund to Bonds/Debentures. With a long term view of 10 + years in a registered account can you recommend 2 bonds and 2 ETFs. Thanks

Q: Within my fixed income allotment I've recently favored short term bonds over long term bonds on the advice that they will react less to changes in interest rates. However, since the Fed's meeting last week the opposite has occurred, as there has been a flight from short term bonds into long term bonds. Can you please explain why this is the case and then, given the current environment could you also rank the above ETF's in order of preference. If there are better fixed income suggestions please indicate. Thanks.

Q: Hi, Iam having a hard time getting my head around how Bonds work. They are talking about a bear market for bonds these days, but when the price of bonds decrease then yield increases, so wouldn't the increase in yield offset the decrease of the bond price, Thanks?

Q: About 25% of my portfolio is in cash, enough for 5 years of cash needs. The problem is that it earns only 0.2%. Now I am thinking of putting this cash in 5 or more high quality Bond ETFs. Is this a right move? If so, could you give few names? Thanks.

Q: Since the yield of this fund is way higher than normal fixed income products, and uses hedging to mitigate downside risk will this a strategy work in reducing real risk long term as the fund only has a one year history

Q: Please provide a symbol for this ETF in Portfolio Analytics.
Would also like your opinion on this ETF for a portion of my RRIF fixed income.

Thanks

Q: Hello,
I am nearing retirement. I have CBO, CPD, VAB and XHY at 20% of my fixed income portfolio. All these ETF's exist in my unregistered account. I wanted to add XBB in my RRSP account. Any concerns about too much overlap by adding this position? This will add 7% to my fixed income position. Portfolio analytics recommends a 30% position.

Thanks for all your help.

Q: I have USA cash sitting in USA account. Any place I can collect a little interest? Thanks for all your advice over the years Harry

Q: Hello, when looking at investing in fixed income ETFs, such as XBB and ZCS, is the yield-to-maturity number more important than the current distribution yield (after looking at duration)? Thanks.

Q: I love investing in the market but was curious about what vehicle you guys would park cash in a TFSA account if you had to. GIC? Money market? Those are the only ideas I have but maybe you could educate me on other choices pros and cons. Thanks.

Q: HFR's indicated dividend is .01 per unit but it says it offers a 2.25% yield, what am I missing?

Q: I don't have any inflation protected bonds. Do they have a place in a portfolio do you think? I see ZRR got creamed in the last year, do you feel it is time to nibble at them?
Thank you

Q: I am just entering retirement and my financial advisor wants to increase my fixed income weighting to 55% of my portfolio, in order to reduce risk. My feeling is that this would be dead money (at best!) for some time to come because interest rates are likely to rise.. Can you get out your crystal ball and estimate the probability of each of the following annualized total return outcomes for a bond portfolio over the next 5 years. The portfolio would be geographically diversified, 70/30 investment grade vs, high yield and average duration of 5 years.
> +5% -
+2.5% to +5% -
0 to +2.5% -
0 to -2.5% -
-2.5% to -5% -
worse than -5% -
Thanks.

Q: I am hoping you can help with some suggestions for review for a RRIF portfolio. The plan is for one third to be invested in a 5 year laddered bond portfolio. Is it best to buy bonds or an ETF ? Please suggest a couple of bond ETF's for review.

The remainder would be invested in equity ETF's. Half would go to 3 or 4 ETF's which would pay dividends and would have some growth potential. The remaining third would be invested in 3 or 4 ETF's focused on growth.

Obviously the dividend tax credit is of no benefit in the RRIF but currency fluctuations would be a consideration.

Any assistance you can provide would be appreciated.

Mike