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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: I have held these three funds since early 2016 for the stability component (maintain capital and some income) in my portfolio. The annual MER's are .44, .86 and .84. respectively, I have series F in the PMO funds. Extra year end distributions for the PMO funds were nice but they stopped after 2018 year end.

Their total capital growth has been very modest, about 2-4% total over several years.

I am not too comfortable with the higher annual MER's.

Could you comment if I might see significant capital drop if interest rates go up? Also, could you recommend any different holding or stock that I may consider instead of these funds for stability and income?

Thank You.
Read Answer Asked by Brad on September 30, 2021
Q: Bloomberg is saying today "Tech stocks sell off amid spike in treasury yields". Can you please explain what the spike in yields is referring to, how much is the spike, will it move somewhat predictably with the withdrawl of govt liquidity from the market, etc?
For a retiree, should I do something?
Really appreciate your clear views. Many thanks
Read Answer Asked by TOM on September 27, 2021
Q: Long term bond prices rose during previous tapering periods (following 2014 QE for example). Given this, and the relative certainty tapering is coming soon, would now be a good time to add to one's long and short term bond holdings? If I'm incorrect, please explain why? Thank you, great service.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on September 22, 2021
Q: From your article:

Relationship Between Bond Prices and Yields

Does that mean that we should avoid buying bonds at this moment? And for the near future?
Read Answer Asked by Serge on September 14, 2021
Q: When considering an content of fixed income portfolio would you favor splitting it into bonds and money market funds OR putting it entirely into bonds fund or entirely into money market fund? Both funds are managed by Public Employee Pension Plan with good records as to the benchmarks and low fees. The question is asked considering current market conditions and likely a correction in the near future anticipated by investors and money managers. Is such adjustment a reasonable approach? Timing the market with certain adjustments in one’s fixed income portion of portfolio?
Thanks for insight and advice as always.
Miroslaw
Read Answer Asked by Miroslaw on September 14, 2021
Q: Hi! I have an ETF portfolio and a portfolio of Canadian and U.S. stocks. I have 10% of my ETF portfolio in Fixed Income given the historically low interest rates. This accounts for about 5% of my overall portfolio which is pretty low. Difficult to add here. I have some XHY and CBO which offset the risks of rising rates somewhat. Should I add to my fixed income portfolio or wait for rates to rise a bit. If I do add, rate reset preferred might be another option or continue adding to CBO and XHY?

Thank you,
Jason
Read Answer Asked by Jason on September 09, 2021
Q: I own ZHY, XHY and ZEF bond ETFs. They do pay some income, but the capital is getting constantly depleted - I am 10% down on ZHY/XHY and 5% down on ZEF after holding them for many years. Is there a point of keeping these funds or should I get rid of them?
Read Answer Asked by Mirjana on August 26, 2021
Q: I read your article about the correlation between stocks and bonds and it made me wonder whether this was a good or not so good time to purchase them? I read a little more in another article and it said that in the same historical instances, bonds have tended to do well after. Would you agree with this?
I only have room in my margin account so would CVD, CPD, and HAB be giving me interest as apposed to Dividends so there are tax implications?
Thanks!
Read Answer Asked by Pat on August 26, 2021
Q: A couple questions on ZST. Deduct credits as needed.

Assuming this etf is held in a taxable account but the payout is taken in cash and not reinvested, will it make for a headache at tax time?Would HSAV be a better place to park cash in a taxable account?

It looks like every time this etf pays a distribution the price drops so even though the current yield is 2.17%, in reality you're only getting ~.5% return. Do I have this correct?

Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on August 23, 2021
Q: Hello, could you please provide some of your favourite ETF's to fill the fixed income portion of a portfolio?

What about cash?
Read Answer Asked by Lorraine on July 22, 2021
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.
Read Answer Asked by Joseph on July 16, 2021
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!
Read Answer Asked by Ozzie on July 12, 2021
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.
Read Answer Asked by Alan on July 09, 2021
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