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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: Dear Peter et al:

I know portfolio allocation is personal based on one's risk tolerance and age Cobo etc.,
Let us say that I decide personally to keep 50% in a defensive part,
can you give 3-5 ETFs for this defensive part of the portfolio?
Does Covered Calls ETFs play a role? Do Bonds play a role? Should one focus on solid dividend players.
I know from reading literally thousands of Q&A they all play a role! What I struggle is what percentages one should allot for each of these buckets:)
Capital preservation with mild to slightly moderate risk! Is that asking for too much?!
Read Answer Asked by Savalai on March 19, 2026
Q: Hello! Thank you for all you do. Tax prep this year was an eye opener. I would like to simplify my life. I would like to simplify my US holdings for tax purposes by selling the individual companies an holding an ETF in Canadian funds which hold top blue chip US companies. I no longer want to keep record of exchange rates when buying and selling US stocks years later. Can you recommend some that have a low MER and a good yield?
Read Answer Asked by Lucy on March 19, 2026
Q: For some diversity on the US side of my portfolio, I added both ZLU and ZVU. It has now been roughly three years since I bought them and ZLU has averaged 12% including distributions while ZVU has averaged 1.5%. What do you think selling ZVU and adding to ZLU, or buying ZDY? The goal is to offset some of the volatility from my growthier US stocks which include many of the top names in the S&P 500 Index. Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Kim on March 19, 2025
Q: Good Morning

I would like to increase my US position in my RRSP. I currently cover this US exposure through VBAL(core position) VFV approx 4.5%, Legacy positions of ZLU and ZWH approx, 3%, totaling approx. 31% US. My thoughts were to replace ZLU/ZWH and increase VFV and add EQL to gain broader exposure to US market. Would this give me a good exposure without over duplication? I am retired and 65 and would like a balanced plus approach. Your thoughts or other ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on January 24, 2025
Q: I am a senior citizen now with a lower tolerance for risk and accepting of a lower rate of return on my investments for that. When interest rates increased, I invested in MM funds; now with rates going south, I am looking to get back into some more conservative stocks/ETF/Mutual funds with growth prospects.
Can you provide 5 stocks/ETF's you believe would fill this request. I am looking at Canadian but if there isa US one that makes sense, I would look at it.
As always, thanks for your advise.

Regards

Jim
Read Answer Asked by Jim on December 17, 2024
Q: Please suggest some US equivalents to ZLB and your preferred account to hold them in.
Read Answer Asked by Ron on July 15, 2024
Q: Can you suggest 10 best (sleep at night) low risk, monthly/quarterly income, tax efficient, Canadian etfs. Monthly preferred but not essential. Held in non registered account.
Read Answer Asked by Craig on April 29, 2024
Q: In my open (unregistered) account, I currently own VGRO and am looking to invest some funds in ETFs . What is the difference between ZLU and ZLU.U? How would your rate the above ETFs for growth over the next 5 years? Do these ETFs hold similar investments (stocks, bonds, etc)? If I invested in 2 ETFs, which ETFs would be complimentary? Can you suggest similar ETFs with better growth potential in the next 5 years? Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Don on November 24, 2023
Q: Emerging markets are getting some attention lately for reasonable valuations.
India is being mentioned as a strong growth country. Many experts suggest US large corps as a better way to invest rather than the corps of the emerging markets .
What are your thoughts and ideas for investment to take advantage of emerging markets as far as actual emerging market etf or etf of large cap US based major exporters/worldwide etf. ?
Read Answer Asked by Tom on July 17, 2023
Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team.

Would you endorse a switch from ZLU to VFV? When I look at the sector breakdown of ZLU, I notice that ZLU is heavy in sectors that probably should currently be under-represented, and very light in sectors that should have higher concentration. And of course, the MER of 0.08% for VFV is better than ZLUs of 0.30%.

ZLU is held in our Margin account, and VFV is already held in our RRIFs.

Thanks as always for the timely advice.

Read Answer Asked by Jerry on July 10, 2023
Q: I am looking at investing 2023 contributions (2 x $6500) in stocks and/or ETFs. Please provide 5 stocks and 5 ETFs for long term hold. Rank the stocks and ETFs and comment on why they are being recommended,

Current stock holdings include: BYND, BAM, BN, REGN, TSLA

Current ETFs: QQQ, VGRO, ZEM, SKYY, IHI, XIT and SPY

Thank you
Read Answer Asked by Don on June 12, 2023
Q: I have US exposure through a company pension that tracks the S&P. It represents about 20% of my overall holdings. I have recently come into enough US cash to add two or three new individual holdings, or perhaps buy an ETF or two that would complement the S&P tracking pension. I would welcome your thoughts and suggestions for individual stocks or ETFs that would be suitable additions.
Read Answer Asked by David on May 09, 2023
Q: Hi Peter,
I want to move my investments to a portfolio of ETF's, Please suggest a group of ETF's with strong growth potential for Long term ( 10-15 years).
Read Answer Asked by HARRY on March 07, 2023
Q: zlu follow up question, thanks for pointing out that zlu trades in USD as zlu.u
When i compare performance of those 2 ETFs using yahoo finance or questrade edge or the bmo website zlu significantly outperforms zlu.u over any time frame
If the performance was similar i would invest in zlu.u as it is in my rrsp account but in this case given the outperformance i think i will opt for zlu.
I do not understand the performance differential, assume fx must be related but it seems like too much.
Read Answer Asked by Rob on November 01, 2022
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