Investment Q&A

Q: Historically small cap index fund outperforms S&P500, but last couple years small-cap lags, I am thinking it might be a good time now to start to invest in samll caps...do you think this logic is justified? If so, which small cap etf do you suggest? Thank you!

Q: I am extremely low in International and US stocks, I would like to have an ETF for each that I can put in either my RRSP or TFSA. I know you have mentioned in the past that you like IWO for small caps, is that still the case or is there a better choice.
Thanks for all the excellent help

Q: Greetings All:
With regard to a question asked on Jan 9 by Cory concerning the above I have some further inquires. If any of you had 1 million to invest and wanted to keep it simple, as stated, and wanted to be fully invested, with a good degree of security ( As much as can be expected in the stock market) would you invest it in these two funds? What % would you have in each fund, considering you were investor " X " with no strings attached? Most advisors are currently preaching that 2022 will be the year when active investing will win, considering all the expected volatility and sector rotation. Also, if the growth rout continues off and on where could you see IWO falling to? I know this is a prediction question, but considering all the items in your knowledge basket, please make a guess. Please provide some equivalent S & P 500 fund names. I notice that no one at 5-i has an interest in IWO.
Thanks as always,
BEN.

Q: If you were to follow one or two index funds that held most of your capital which ones would you follow and what funds interest you the most? Thank you

Q: With the market rotation and possible interest rates impacting growth stock valuations.

Is ARKK becoming hit too hard to ignore?

What would be your top ETF plays for today and the next 2-3 years? I've been riding semi's.

This is an added boost for my portfolio which is otherwise balanced.


Thank you very much!!!

Q: I'm looking for TFSA investment suggestion.
Possibly and all in one ETV to keep it simple but not necessarily.
Ideally more aggressive as I don't plan on touching it for a long time, possibly to even leave this as inheritance in my estate (I'm 60).
Any guidance you can provide is appreciated.
Thank you

Q: Recommendations from portfolio analytics indicated i should increase my holdings in healthcare and industrials. Please provide your comments on XHC, XGI and WSP. Are there other options that i should consider?
I am considering investing in sector specific ETFs. What are comments on SOXQ and IWO.US? Are there specific sectors that are expected to show high growth in the next few years?

Q: Hi thank you for all that you do.

I would appreciate your thoughts on a top ten list for growth plays in the US for an RRSP. (1 ETF) Time horizon is on my side as I’m a younger investor, and a dividend is not important.

Also, can you please provide a grade for each stock chosen? Ex A -E as shown in the Report section.

Would this list be any different in a TFSA? If so, why?

Thank you and please deduct points as necessary.

Nick

Q: In reflecting on the next direction to place some funds I looked at the performance of the Russel 2000 fund in your growth portfolio. Then looked at some alternatives in the Vanguard family of US based small cap and Russel ETFs. Going more mid or small cap seems appealing but where would your preference lies or is it in the current ETF you hold in the growth portfolio?

Q: This is a follow up to a previous question about USD ETFs where you suggested IWO for the long term small cap portion of a USD TFSA or USD RRSP. I'm curious why you suggest IWO in particular, as it seems to be a recurring suggestion. I'm partiuclarly interested in a comparison of IWO to IWM, VTWO, VBK and SLYG, how you would distinguish them, and in what situations these others might be preferred over IWO. These others all seem to have lower fees and slightly different composition features. Please take as many question credits as needed - thanks as always for helpful answers.

Q: I presently have QQQ and VIG in a USD TFSA, in roughly equal weightings. I'm looking to add one or possibly two more USD ETFs to this TFSA account to diversify a bit more, resulting in rougly 33% or 25% equal weightings depending on whether I end up with three or four in total. If adding just one I would be willing to sacrifice some growth opportunity in favour of some stability and yield in the roughly 3-4% (+/-) range, if possible. If adding two I would prefer something just as described, plus something growth oriented with little or no yield. I'm hoping to minimize duplication or overlap with the existing QQQ and VIG combination, to the extent possible. These would all be securities purchased in USD for long term term holds, and I am not too concerned about the withholding tax on US dividends in a USD TFSA. Can you offer some suggestions? Thanks.

Q: Good morning 5i,

Aside from industrials and general tech. What is a thematic ETF you'd suggest for growth right now? Encompassing maybe a favourite stock or 2.

Examples being FINX, SMH, BOTZ, QQQJ.

Looking for the theme and suggested ETF.

Thanks as always for the tremendous service.

Q: In my grandchildren RESP I currently own IWO and VRO. I would like to add a third ETF, which would be better VGG or ZQQ? Money not needed for 12 years. At what $ amount would you start to invest in individual stocks?
Thanks

Q: I am looking for your opinion on tech weighting. My USA exposure is currently VIG, SPY and IWO. ( 40-40-20%). This puts me a bit underweight tech relative to the overall USA market ( and globally in my portfolio). I've had in my "plan" to shift a small amount of spy and vig to xqq to get my tech allocation up from low teens to high teens.

So long way to ask: Is now a good time to add XQQ or has the run been too good to keep going.

Q: FTEC now makes up almost 12% of my portfolio and wondering if you would recommend trimming a bit and investing in an ETF like ARKK? I also hold ZSP which is about 10% of my portfolio now and maybe there is a bit of overlap between the two ETFs? Looking for growth in my RRSP, 10+ years and I don't need any dividends.

Do you think there is still some upside left to an industrial ETF like VIS? And do you have any other sector ETF recommendations that will complement FTEC and ZSP?

Thanks in advance. Please deduct credits as required.
KD

Q: What are your top 10 ETF’s to hold forever?
Would you buy them on the US or Canadian markets if available. I know some of the US listed ETF’s are more liquid. Thanks

Q: My 22 year old daughter has $7G to invest. She has dual citizenship with the US and has been told that she will be taxed on TFSA gains. Do you have any recommendations for her based on this?

Also, could you recommend some ETF’s for her?

Thank you so much.

Q: I have the time and interest to invest in individual stocks and have benefited greatly from your advice, My 28 year old son is looking to me for investment advice and I was hoping that you could help me. He is young with a long investment horizon so he is not interested in any bond or fixed income components and is comfortable with a portfolio holding a diversified mix of 100% stocks in various geographies. He wants to control his own portfolio but does not have the time to research and stay on top of individual stocks and is leaning towards an ETF portfolio. I am not well versed in this area and was hoping you could provide some guidance.

He is looking at XEQT and VEQT as possible one stop solutions. There are some minor differences between the two, but overall they appear very similar. XEQT has a MER of 0.2% and VEQT has a MER of 0.25%, VEQT holds more stocks than XEQT and XEQT is weighted a bit more towards US stocks and a bit less towards CAD stocks compared to VEQT. Would you recommend one over the other, or hold both?

Instead of buying one of these he is also considering holding a two (or more) ETF portfolio using VCN and XAW ETFs. VCN tracks the Canadian market, XAW tracks the global market excluding Canada. A portfolio of 25% VCN and 75% XAW would replicate XEQT/VEQT very closely, but would have a weighted average MER of about .18%. The trade off is that this one would need to be rebalanced, whereas with XEQT/VEQT all rebalancing is done automatically. Would a 25%VCN/75% XAW be preferable to XEQT/VEQT?

If it was you at 28, would you do either of the above or would you prefer a portfolio of other ETFs and if so, what would those be?

Many thanks

Scott

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

The most recent question about XMD was on Feb. 23.

For a combined portfolio that is skewed somewhat more heavily to larger-cap stocks, could XMD make a good addition? From the iShares website: "Targeted exposure to mid-cap and small-cap Canadian equities". (I can trade this ETF commission-free.) XMD holds 175 stocks, many of which are favoured by 5i, but of course it also holds some that have fallen out of favour. Please suggest alternative Canadian and US ETFs that you may consider "better" but have the same overall goals of XMD.

As always, your advice is important.

Q: Can you recommend a sort of Rip van Winkle portfolio for an 84 year old lady who just sold her house? We're talking in the neighbourhood of $400,000. She has little need for the money right now and is not worried much about volatility. She has an pension which helps too cover the need for bonds.