Investment Q&A

Q: Hello 5i,
largely thanks to you, I have made a fair bit of money over the past few years. Certainly, more than I would have made on my own. Thank you. But, I am thinking that in my mid 70's I should start thinking about preserving it in order to pass it on. I know that stocks are you're forte, but i noticiced that you have been generous enough to give advise on other matters, as well. I will try to make this question not too close to portfolio planning advice and so hope you can advise me. In reviewing literature I notice that people say at this stage in life, we should not be looking out too far. Therefore shortterm bond etf's are best. AGG, which I own, for instance, is discouraged because it goes out to six years and there could be a downturn at just the wrong time. They also mention holding tips, corporate bonds and a GI C ladder. I didn't think that I would need these latter assets. Just bond etf's in US and CDN. I also thought government would be better than corporate, as well, because they would be more secure. Anyway, I hope that at this point in the game you can also dsirect me to the right choices, as you have in the past. Here is a list of assets suggested:

short-term Canadian bonds XSB or VSB Core stable income
Short-term corporates ZCS Slightly higher yield
Laddered GICs (1–5 yrs) GICs from brokerage Guaranteed principal
U.S. short Treasuries VGSH Safe USD diversification
U.S. short TIPS VTIP Inflation hedge
High-interest savings ETF CASH.TO or PSA Liquidity buffer

Q: Given current market conditions, what would be the major headwinds facing ZCS? It seems fairly resilient during Dow declines. Thanks.

Q: Hello,

What is the difference between PSA and CASH?

Also, I own ZCS and CBO and was wondering if I should increase my allocation to CASH and PSA while reducing my allocation to ZCS and CBO considering the higher rate (better yield) on the short end of the curve. It seems to be higher income / lower risk strategy. Can you please provide your comments. Thank you.

Q: What is your suggestion for bonds or a bond fund in this market climate? Thanks

Q: Dear 5i team.

Can you give me your thoughts on holding zcs through current market backdrop of higher inflation combined with the geopolitical environment?
With it's steady decline lately, what do you think needs to happen to turn the tide?

Thanks for your help.

Q: Hi 5iResearch team
I am in the process of doing re-weighting. I know the above etfs. The US bond etf (VGSH) has very low interest yield compared to the CAD ones (XSB, ZCS, and ZCM).

1. Are there other US bond etfs that are similar to the above CAD ones in terms of yield and risk?

2. ZUP is in CAD$ and US$. Can you please recommend two more (CAD or US) etfs that are similar to ZUP in terms of yield and risk?

Thank you for the great service.

Q: Which of QTIPS vs TIPS would you recommend given fees etc and how the US/CAD dollars would likely move in the event of longer term inflation? Any other bond investments that could provide better income and safety if 10-year yield continues to rise?

Q: With Tapering now on the doorstep, where do you see short term bond prices going? Is there any scenario where ZCS and/or XSB might actually rise? Thanks.

Q: Hi! I have an ETF portfolio and a portfolio of Canadian and U.S. stocks. I have 10% of my ETF portfolio in Fixed Income given the historically low interest rates. This accounts for about 5% of my overall portfolio which is pretty low. Difficult to add here. I have some XHY and CBO which offset the risks of rising rates somewhat. Should I add to my fixed income portfolio or wait for rates to rise a bit. If I do add, rate reset preferred might be another option or continue adding to CBO and XHY?

Thank you,
Jason

Q: I would like to invest using only 4 ETFs. One for short bonds, one for all Canadian stocks, one for emerging markets, one for the whole US market, and one for the developed world (as wide as possible) excluding Canada and the US.

Which ETFs should I use?

Thanks

Q: Within my fixed income allotment I've recently favored short term bonds over long term bonds on the advice that they will react less to changes in interest rates. However, since the Fed's meeting last week the opposite has occurred, as there has been a flight from short term bonds into long term bonds. Can you please explain why this is the case and then, given the current environment could you also rank the above ETF's in order of preference. If there are better fixed income suggestions please indicate. Thanks.

Q: How does an unanticipated interest-rate rise in the US or a serious deterioration of the corporate debt market affect these two ETFs? Can you roughly estimate in % the impact compared to that of the stock market in each case for each ETF?
Thanks,

Q: Hello, when looking at investing in fixed income ETFs, such as XBB and ZCS, is the yield-to-maturity number more important than the current distribution yield (after looking at duration)? Thanks.

Q: I currently own half my bond holdings in ZAG. I put the other half in ZST as I was looking for something that wouldn't go down as much as interest rates go up. But ZST is a mix of govt and corporate short term bonds and Ive been reading that short term corporate will be less affected by interest rates than govt bonds. Would you recommend another ETF for very short duration corporate bonds that I could replace ZST with?

Q: If interest rates were to start creeping-up slowly in the next year or two , which bond ETFs would you suggest?
Thank's
Ronald

Q: I need to add some bond ETFs to my portfolio. Could you give three US dollar and
three Canadian dollar funds that you prefer .

Q: Hi,

I am retired without pension and reliant on income from my investments. I do not want to exceed 55% of my portfolio in equities and thus am left with a sizable amount to invest in fixed income. I am concerned that bond ETF's are returning too low a yield to justify the risk of losing invested capital as interest rates rise. I have considerable GIC's(laddered terms), some ZCS and too much(20%) of my portfolio in Cash. I have been looking at HFR as an alternative for my cash/GIC's and would like your opinion if you think this represents diversification and yield improvement over the GIC's & cash while reducing the risk of capital losses?

And BTW - thanks for this service. It is great value.

Q: Your opinion on using FSB ETF to park cash. Looks to have better returns than any high interest savings or GIC with minimal risk.

Any better ideas for returns from cash are appreciated.

Q: Hello, How come I do not see you recommend ZAG for bond exposure? I saw a recent question where you recommended ZCS for bond exposure. When I look at a 10 year chart, ZAG seems to have outperformed ZCS. Is it because of rising bond yields that you recommend holding ZCS as you predict better performance over ZAG?

Thank you!

Q: Hi,

I want to get my investments into more manageable ETFS. If you had to invest in only 3 ETFs for the Canadian market in the next few years, what would they be? Could you give me a list of some top contenders?