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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: Doing a little research with Google I found that the TSX has had an average annual return of 7.94% over the 50 year period of 1971 to 2021 . { Please confirm or correct that number ? } I know 5I doesn't " like " to give portfolio weightings but I have in the past seen you comfortable up to 15% for some ETF's . Would HMAX be one of them ? It looks to me like I can have my cake and eat it too as it's dividend is superior to that of the average annual return of the TSX . Not quite, but close to double ......

Also I have always wondered just how much difference in performance { percentage } there would be between these three products { ZEB. ZWB out of the money calls, and HMAX in the money calls } . In the case of a 10% correction in the financial sector and also in the case of a 10% rise in the financials. Please speculate on what you would expect the return percentage for each . { you will have to speculate for HMAX because of its short history and supposed lack of volatility due to the use of in the money calls } This will help me grasp what to add or subtract to that 14% dividend for HMAX under the two scenarios ......
Read Answer Asked by Garth on May 03, 2023
Q: I am interested in parking some cash in a dividend producing vehicle. I've come across PIC.A which has posted impressive dividends over the course of many years. Could you explain the mechanism of how they are able to produce such dividends and please give your opinion of their ability to continue such going into the future. Any alternatives that you prefer would certainly be appreciated
Read Answer Asked by Teresa on April 18, 2023
Q: FLI has a good dividend but it is on its declining share value. It is contradictory in its performance as higher interest is supposed lift Life Ins companies earnings. Please advise what is the way to find out how these ETF burning through capital and do you have alternatives for this sector of financial cos.?
Read Answer Asked by Ritwik on March 30, 2023
Q: Thank you for your reply this morning on my question about ZWB and HMAX . In your reply you indicated a preference for ZWB because of the upside potential being greater . Am I right in assuming that if that is the case HMAX would be the less volatile of the two ?

Also in 2018 I asked 5I to crunch the numbers on the big five banks over the 18 years { 2000 to 2018 }... I would assume that is a long enough segment to determine an average annual return of dividend plus capital gain. The answer I got ranged between 11% on the low end { TD } to 14.3% on the high end { RY }...... Please correct my reasoning but to me it looks like HMAX with its' current 15.1% dividend based on today's cost of the ETF is going to slightly beat those numbers annually, have less volatility, and give me diversification as an added bonus ? ..... Please advise if my reasoning is sound .....Thanks Garth .....
Read Answer Asked by Garth on March 29, 2023
Q: My TD Waterhouse account shows ZWB { yielding 8.2% } and HMAX { yielding 15.1% } . Could you please confirm both yield numbers at today's ETF prices ? And why one might buy the lower yielding ETF considering that HMAX has nearly double the yield and a little more diversified { 75% banks } ? ...... { I'm not concerned about the short history of HMAX } ..... Hypothetically, if it were " you " and you wanted a covered call financial ETF which one would you pick and why ? { Of if there is another one you would prefer over both }
Read Answer Asked by Garth on March 28, 2023
Q: My Grandsons are 3 &1 old. They have 43% ZUT, 35% VFV, 21% ZWB and 0.9% BTCC.in their present RESP. I am looking for thoughts for the coming year deposit.
My thought are add to VFV (not enough now to reinvest),add a Reit ETF like TGRE or add an telecom ETF. I can not find a telecom ETF in Canada so maybe an alternative would be T.
All thoughts would be much appreciated.
Thank you
Read Answer Asked by David on March 22, 2023
Q: AS A RETIRED AND CONSERVATIVE INCOME INVESTOR I AM CONSIDERING THE PURCHASE OF ZWB IN A TFSA AND WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR OPINION DETAILING THE PROS AND CONS OF SUCH AN INVESTMENT AT THIS TIME.
1.I NOTE IT IS DOWN ABOUT 20% THIS PAST YEAR WITH A PRESENT YIELD OF ABOUT 7/12 PERCENT, IS THIS YIELD NET OF TRADING AND MANAGEMENT FEES?
2.DOES THE ETF WRITE COVERED CALLS ON THE ENTIRE PORTFOLIO?
3.GIVEN THE RECENT DECLINE IN THE BANK SHARES AND THE MARKET IN GENERAL AND WITH A 5YEAR TIME HORIZON, WOULD YOU AGREE THERE IS MINIMAL DOWNSIDE RISK, OTHER THAN GENERAL MARKET RISK,AND
4.WHAT TYPE OF MARKET AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS LEADS TO AN INCREASE OR DECREASE IN THE PERFORMANCE OF THE ETF.

THANKS BRIAN
Read Answer Asked by Brian on March 17, 2023
Q: I am looking for ETFs that trade on the TSX with a yield of at least 4-5%. From the income portfolio, I see CPD (preferreds) / CVD (convertible) / XHY (US HY) / ZRE (REITs), and I am also aware of ZWU (Utilities) / ZWB (Banks).

Are there any others that don't have much overlap with the above that you would recommend?
Read Answer Asked by Alexander on January 31, 2023
Q: A portion of my portfolio is invested in the BMO Covered Call ETF's. In their fund prospectus, they indicate that a portion of your return is a return of capital. Is this a return of invested capital or is this the return of the premiums collected from writing the calls against the underlying securities?
Read Answer Asked by T Michael on January 17, 2023
Q: Is there some way to score-board enhanced-yield Canadian bank ETFs/funds that assigns more weight to the factors that make more of a difference? Yes, fees add up, but even over the long term it's hard to see how basis-point fee differences could outweigh percentage-point yield differences. And won't either of these factors be outweighed by distribution tax treatment and, especially, by central bank rate-pivoting?

Further, in side-by-side comparisons, 5i often prefers larger ETFs (recently, for example, when comparing CBNK vs BANK.) But given large-cap banks' similar value-propositions and tendency toward mean-reversion, why should higher AUM matter (other than w/rt second-order effects like trading liquidity)? Put another way: what, if anything, could a new entrant to this sector do to make themselves attractive to 5i?

Please add to the supplied symbol list if other names provide more instructive comparisons.
Read Answer Asked by John on January 12, 2023
Q: I need to add income equities to the TFSA as the income target is underwater. With this, I'm pondering adding BMO Covered Call Canadian Banks ETF(ZWB-T) to the TFSA for extra income, rather than say ENB that I would prefer to hold in a trading account and also rather than hold a small capitalization stock like AW.UN. What do you say about this option, ZWB for a mate over the age of 71?
If you are aligned with this approach, are there other Covered Call ETFs that you would suggest from my consideration?
Many thanks for the hints!!!......Tom
Read Answer Asked by Tom on January 10, 2023
Q: Hello 5i
In one of the recent questions it was said that you do not like covered call etf’s. I didn’t know that was the case. Maybe it isn’t, even i don’t know. I have concentrated my covered calls on American companies that i own. Also many uncovered puts. I have concentrated on the US because the premiums are much higher than on Canadian stocks. I have quite a few Canadian stocks, however. And i hate to see them languishing and unproductive. I have therefore been thinking of a way to make some money on them. The premiums are so low that it doesn’t seem to be worth the effort. But, covered call etf’s would be easier. I don’t know much about them, however. I wonder whether you might provide some information and some pros and cons. Whether you like the idea or not.
Thanks for the excellent service.
Read Answer Asked by joseph on November 24, 2022
Q: Could you please recommend at least three Canadian products (stocks, etfs, bonds, whatever) that have an annual yield of at least 6%, but are ‘lower risk’. If you could list them in order of least risky to most that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Toge on November 24, 2022
Q: I am currently somewhat overweight bank and gold stocks. Would these covered call funds be complimentary or simply increase sector exposure even more?
It's very hard to ignore the 11% yield with GLCC and BANK for an income seeking investor.
Why is ZWB 7% while BANK is 11%

thank you
Read Answer Asked by JOHN on September 09, 2022