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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: 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.
Read Answer Asked by Pierre on January 17, 2023
Q: What is your suggestion for bonds or a bond fund in this market climate? Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Gary on April 25, 2022
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.
Read Answer Asked by Ahmed on October 14, 2021
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?
Read Answer Asked by John on October 04, 2021
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
Read Answer Asked by Jason on September 09, 2021
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
Read Answer Asked by Federico on July 19, 2021
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.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on June 21, 2021
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?
Read Answer Asked by Carla on March 25, 2021
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
Read Answer Asked by Ronald on March 18, 2021
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 .
Read Answer Asked by Roy on March 08, 2021
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.
Read Answer Asked by Morgan on March 08, 2021
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.
Read Answer Asked by Chris on March 05, 2021
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!
Read Answer Asked by Alex on March 04, 2021
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?
Read Answer Asked by Graeme on March 02, 2021
Q: Hello, I own above ETF's, and with rising bond yields, is it time to bail out ? If so, which one(s) to let go and which one(s) to keep.
Thanks
Carlo
Read Answer Asked by Carlo on February 26, 2021
Q: Given current markets and in the near term, I'm considering a 1/3 position in Equities, Fixed Income and Cash. Are these levels reasonable and what is your view of the above ETF's making up my fixed income allocation? You guys are awesome, thanks for your help.
Read Answer Asked by Curtis on February 17, 2021