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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,

My wife's group RRSP has Manulife AllianceBernstein Canadian Core Plus Bond as one of the options. How does it compare with CLF. Should I instead invest in MAW102 in the group RRSP and buy CLF in her regular RRSP account as part of bond portfolio allocation.

Thanks
Ninad
Read Answer Asked by Ninad on April 25, 2019
Q: HI Guys:
I bought this fund two years ago as part of fixed income side of our portfolio.The distributions have been reinvested in the fund since I bought, the fund currently trades 1% under book value, the fund is 75% bonds and 25% equities, MER 1.04%. Distributions this year look to be around 1.5% if the recent distribution is consistent for the rest of the year. I'm looking at an investment in QLTA which would give me US diversification and is a pure corporate bond fund with a monthly yield 3.1%. I've never been a bond investor usually equities and cash I'm thinking to sell SIF120 and put the money into QLTA for the distribution and a lower MER 0.15%. I realize this may not be apples to apples and higher risk with currency and corporate bonds, would you have a concern with this approach, or any other bond ETF's that are worth consideration the money is in a RRIF account.
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on April 17, 2019
Q: Hi Peter and Ryan,
We received the last portion of our funds in cash from Sun Life today. We are a little hesitant to open new equity positions or foray into bonds. The stock analysis highlights that we need to add REITS but that sector seems to be under pressure this week. The risk and payback seems unbalanced everywhere we look today.
As we are into our early 60's we have given thought to placing 40% of our portfolio that arrived as cash into a temporary safe place. If you were to choose today which ETF's are recommended out of CMR, XFR, HFR to place funds for deployment at a later date.
Cheers
Jerry and Debbie
Read Answer Asked by Jerry on April 17, 2019
Q: Have found the recommendations about investing outside of Canada to be very helpful.
I do cringe when looking at possibilities for adding bonds or fixed income as all of the etf's I have seen suggested have very poor performance, why not just stay in cash? I realize the desire to minimize loss in equities, but have a hard time committing money when the products perform poorly. Any other suggestions?
Read Answer Asked by Lavern on April 16, 2019
Q: As suggested in Portfolio Analytics I need to add Fixed Income to family portfolio. It suggested ZAG or XBB; Defensive CBO or FLOT, Aggressive CPD or ZPR. Which of the three would you suggest to invest in? Also researching them they refer to Dividend Yield. Is it actually dividend yield or interest income? The reason I am asking should the fixed income be in RRSP (I know it is preferable for US$) or would a non-registered corporation account be fine also?
Heather
Read Answer Asked by Heather on April 16, 2019
Q: Will you entertain a bond question, please? I bought the Canada Real Return bond in 2010 @ 1.8958 intending to hold to maturity, and have been waiting for robust inflation ever since. Central banks around the globe say "no, not now", while full employment and a few commodity prices say "right around the corner". The bond has declined to around 1.7927 and will go to 1.0000 at maturity. What would you do?
Read Answer Asked by Fraser on April 15, 2019
Q: Gentlemen
For my fixed income, I am thinking to buy 2 active global broad market as FBND, TOTL or BOND
Your opinion please.
Thanks
Best Regards
Read Answer Asked by Djamel on April 11, 2019
Q: Are preferred shares suitable for the retail investor?
I admit to not fully understand them but it seems to me that:
- value is primarily impacted by interest rates, so constitutes an interest rate speculation
- the positive or negative effect of an interest rate change will vary depending upon the particular issue
- even on a reset date, an issue will not necessarily trade at par
- the characteristics of individual issues varies a lot, complicating comparisons
- thinner market for individual issues, making for bigger spreads
- trading prices are not transparent
- a pref share ETF may be a better choice
Comments?
Read Answer Asked by Carl on April 08, 2019
Q: For those who are looking to park money for short term I suggest that they look at ffn.pr.a or ftn.pr.a they are redeemable in about 9 months and a year and 9 month. Has very good downside market protection of about 30% and over 5% dividend which is better than interest. Their prices have been very stable with about 1% fluctiation. Cannot explain why they are popular with investers. I personally own large amou t of both.
Read Answer Asked by Saad on April 03, 2019
Q: ZHY: high yield bond fund. Sitting on a fair bit of cash in RIF & RRSP from accumulated dividends. Don't want to deploy into buying more shares (dividend growers) as I think there may be a buying opportunity in the near future: uncertain economy and interest rate policy. Mild recession - rates the same or may go down, and if no recession rates may go up again at some point. Each scenario will have an opposite effect of the price of this ETF. Best case please.
Read Answer Asked by James on April 03, 2019
Q: Hi Guys,
I'm looking to put together a 5 year bond ladder through my discount brokerage, this is purely for downside protection, I would want to draw on the money if there was an extended downturn in the market to avoid having to sell positions mainly in dividend stocks that I'm holding for the long haul. My question is it worth building a ladder myself, or should I buy ETF's, with different approaches i.e. government or corporate bonds, do you have and suggestions for a one stop shop approach, my original thought was 50k spread over a 5yr ladder.
Best Regards,
Tom
Read Answer Asked by Thomas on April 03, 2019
Q: For all those questions related to parking the money - i happen to work for a bank and many of them (including CIBC) are paying 3% for new money over 5k to an e-savings accounts. How long it will last in this environment not sure but banks tend to match each other so.....Just an fyi - share if you like.
Read Answer Asked by kelly on April 02, 2019
Q: If one is sitting on a large cash position and wishes to park the money, do you have any suggestions for doing so. Thanks, Bill
Read Answer Asked by William J on April 02, 2019
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