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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 right now have 100,000 in cash (Canadian Dollars) that I want to keep in Money Market ETFs for the Short Term.

I have been trying to find the yield for all of the above and it is not easy because most of them show me the annualized yield. Interest rates have come down several times in the last year so the annual yield is not the best way to compare the above funds.

Which of the two funds above do you recommend, the reasons why and what is the current yield on it.

My brokerage account is with Questrade and they do not offer any of their own High Interest Savings Accounts like TD Direct Investing.

Thank You.
Read Answer Asked by ALNOOR on March 18, 2025
Q: For long term investment what would be a neutral proportion of bonds in terms of distribution among these 4 or are there better options? Currently sitting on 17% cash which I intend to redeploy in stocks when we have better clarity, 36% XBB, 26% XLB, 12% XHY and 9$ XSB for 100% of my bond/cash portfolio.
Thank you.
Yves
Read Answer Asked by Yves on March 18, 2025
Q: Would you recommend this ETF for a balanced portfolio given the volatile market? It hasn’t been around for very long.
Read Answer Asked by Merrilyn on March 17, 2025
Q: I am looking to add some income etfs that are looking attractive in this downturn to my RRSP. I'm looking for combined growth of 8-10% year over year for 10 years for this segment of my portfolio. Do you see either of the above as attractive in this way, or can you suggest something else? I could go to Cdn, but have most of my cash in USD right now.
Read Answer Asked by Kim on March 17, 2025
Q: I,m 81 so far i managed. pretty well thanks to your Income portfolio, I'm not a fat cat and rely on the income provided.The market tells me to be cautious the stocks I mention constitute 9% of my accounts,I'm willing to increase this percentage as protection to my income I don't expect obvious capital gain,How do you judge the approach,any suggested addition?

Thanks to the Team

Dan
Read Answer Asked by DANIEL on March 14, 2025
Q: Can you discuss the differences between dlr.i.ca, dlr.ca, hbil.ca , pas.ca , csav.ca in regards to safety of capital to park cash. There is a significant difference in return 4%-10%. Some are high interest savings accounts and others US dollar accounts. Are the US dollar accounts too risky?
Thanks.
Read Answer Asked by Brian on March 13, 2025
Q: Hello 5i team,
I currently have a balanced position in HBND in my TFSA for income (Using TFSA as an income source in general). Before HBND I used to have HYI as an asset class that used to track US high yield bonds, but was shut down last year. I have a few questions.

1)Is HBND an approximate substitute for HYI for this asset class?
2)Also HBND is not even a year old but do you have an idea of the NAV of the ETF?

HBND pays a decent amount monthly but I am not sure of the sustainability of the payout.


Thank You,
Andrew
Read Answer Asked by Andrew on March 11, 2025
Q: Would it be more prudent to switch CSAV and PSA to TBIL and CBIL?
Read Answer Asked by David M. on March 11, 2025
Q: With respect to Canadian or US mortgage ETF, what 2 ETFs would you suggest I investigate more or are there 2 large cap stocks in Cda and US?.....Thanks for the assistance.....Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on March 11, 2025
Q: Anticipating a downturn in '25 I promised myself that I wouldn't ride the market down like I did in '22 so I bailed on most of my tech holdings, at least temporarily. I am looking to park the cash with the following criteria:

1. Immediate access i.e. no locked in GICs.
2. Highest reasonable yield
3. Modest volatility

What is your current view of the highest yielding Hamilton ETFs and can you recommend any competitors or other options?

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Kim on March 10, 2025
Q: I'm trying to assess unit price movement of HYPYT under certain scenarios ..... I have HYPT not HYPT.U ......

1} The Bank of Canada reduces rates in response to Trump's tariffs. Tariff inflation cannot be battled with interest rate increases .....

2} The US Fed also reduces rates as raising them would have no affect on tariff inflation and a possible recession would be Powell's main concern ......

Please comment on my theory and what price action you would expect if I am correct ? Thanks for your terrific service ......
Read Answer Asked by Garth on March 10, 2025
Q: Dear 5i
If it's not too much to ask could you give me the most accurate yield that you possibly can on the above stated ETF's . It's very frustrating obtaining this information acurrately as different web sites give different numbers . If you were to rely on just one non prescription website what would that website be to obtain reasonably accurate yield information ? I'm sure you get tired of being asked this question on a fairly regular basis .
If you have other suggestion on similar like ETF's i would be all ears .
I also assume that all these ETF's are quite safe and that no more than 100K should be put into any one of them .
Thanks greatly
Bill C
Read Answer Asked by Bill on March 07, 2025
Q: I know 5i doesn't like to give portfolio weighting advice so I will approach this is a different way ..... Hypothetical situation . YOU have a RRIF with no fixed income component. You have chosen HPYT to represent that sector . You would be comfortable between "X" and no more than "Y" weighting of HPYT ..... Please solve the equation and provide a value for X and Y ? .... Thanks for your terrific service .....
Read Answer Asked by Garth on March 06, 2025
Q: Hello I am 72 and fully invested in CDN and US equities. I am concerned about a bear market or a correction, and would like to reduce my equity risk.
Say for $250K , how would you invest between CASH, T-Bills, GIC, Bond ETF?
What are you suggestions?
Thanks
Carlo
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on March 04, 2025
Q: Hello,
I have a question about adding fixed income to a portfolio.
My registered portfolio is all equities, mostly large cap dividend payers and some growthier names thanks to 5i, reasonably well diversified, a little heavy on financials.
I am happy with the results and will be relying on it as my main source of retirement income in about 5 years.
I am thinking it is time to gradually add some fixed income, to decrease volatility somewhat and increase predictability, targeting a 70/30 equity/fixed income split over time.
Would like to keep it simple with ideally 2 ETFs, was thinking XBB or ZAG plus something else.
I see that the Canadian Money Saver portfolio uses XBB, CBO, CPD and XHY for fixed income.
What would you pair with XBB/ZAG in this scenario?
Is a US fixed income component a good idea?
What do you think of combining a passive bond universe ETF with an actively managed ETF/fund?

Thanks as always.
Read Answer Asked by Roman on March 04, 2025
Q: Hi 5i,
What's your best choice for an ETF to park some money in a safe place that will get better returns than a high interest savings account. Previously I had some in the ETF CASH but I understand that some governmental changes have resulted in these types of ETFs delivering lower return than previously.
Thanks!
Murray
Read Answer Asked by Murray on March 03, 2025
Q: Can I get your thought on DLR/DLR.U vs. SGOV or BIL for parking $300K in US cash for a 4 months period? The yields are very close and additional consideration for DLR/DLR.U is that the distributions are paid every 3 months, so the holdings can be sold prior to ex-dividend date to get capital gains instead of income.
Read Answer Asked by Ken on February 28, 2025