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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: I very much appreciate 5i along with your ETF site. From your ETF site, I have been playing with the ETF sector balancer and have found it quite useful to see the % of the sectors my postions occupy .
My questions
1. I am considering a 1/2 position of XHC, XGI, and XCD and a 1/4 postion of VUN and XQQ. Is now the time to buy these or should I sit on my cash for a while or should I be considering some alternatives to these within their sectors?
2. If I execute #1 above, my overall holdings will be 57% CDA, 29% USA, 14% INTL and my portfolio will consist of 2% materials, 13% consumer cyclical, 5% financial, 3% communication, 10% energy, 10% industrials, 6% technology, 17% consumer defensive, 13% healthcare and 18% utilities.
I would very much appreciate your critique and observations.

John
Read Answer Asked by John on June 18, 2018
Q: Hi 5i- The 4 etf mentioned are all ca. hedged. As such my concern is the cdn. dollar direction going forward. I don't see any good non hedged options. Should I stay the course or do you have a better suggestion. thanks for yur input.
peter
Read Answer Asked by Peter on March 05, 2018
Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

I manage a TFSA for my daughter-in-law. She holds 165 shares of GUD and is presently down $419. I know that you're still positive on GUD, but she's beginning to lose patience. Would you be OK with selling GUD to buy COV (realizing its size makes it more risky) or perhaps buying XHC (which we can do commission free) to stay in the same sector in an otherwise balanced portfolio?
She's 49 years old and is using her TFSA as forced savings by adding $100 each month. (I invest the $100 in a commission-free ETF by looking at the 'best ones' and invest in the one that's down the most on the day that the $100 appears in her account.)

Thanks in advance for your insight.

Read Answer Asked by Jerry on February 02, 2018
Q: In my balanced portfolio, I think I am underweight in the following sectors: Energy 2% [ENB], Healthcare 3% [GUD], Telecom 7% [T, VOX], and perhaps overweight in Materials 10% [AEM,CCL.B, SJ, MX] and Tech 18% [CSU, DSG, ENGH, SHOP, PHO]. What is your opinion, and what should I buy or sell to rectify this? I have cash available. Many thanks, as always.
Ellen
Read Answer Asked by Ellen on January 31, 2018
Q: I am looking for a health care ETF. Right now I am looking at ZHU and XHC. One is global and one is US focused.
ZUH has a MER of 0.39 and a yield of 0.42.
While XHC has a MER of 0.65 but a yield of 1.49.Which I think cancels out the higher MER.

I am not sure which one is right for me or how to choose. Could I use growth potential? Does one have more growth potential than the other? Or what other factors could I use to help me decide?
Read Answer Asked by David on May 01, 2017
Q: Last February you did a portfolio review for me and it has served me very well. At that time ETF ZUH was recommended for healthcare exposure. Subsequently, I have recently subscribed to ETF & Mutual Fund newsletter. I noticed ZUH is not in your list of recommended healthcare ETFs but XHC is on the list. It has probably been so for a while and just did not notice. Should I switch out of ZUH and into XHC?
Read Answer Asked by Dan on April 03, 2017
Q: Ryan,
I appreciated your recent blog post about the rebalancing trade potential for health care. Given there is so little to choose from in Canada would it be wise to look to US listed companies who have suffered as well. If so would it be better to go the etf route or do you have any company specific recommendations. Thanks again for your great service.
Read Answer Asked by dan on January 03, 2017
Q: Hi folks
Two questions.
I have held both these for some time in my wife's LIRA account. She can not access this for about 12 years, so a long term hold is very possible. Have held these for a couple years. Both are down about 10%, I have held on because I see the ETF as a long term play on our aging population, and ACHN (hopefully you have a little info with this) as a risky but likely takeout target down the road. I have trimmed this one down and made a bit of $ in another account with it, so it isn't as bad as it looks.
Looking back, which is always easy, there are better options, however I am in now and wondering if I should stay the course.
Don't mind volatility, actually kind of drawn to it. Any thoughts?
Excellent job btw, your cheap at twice the price!
Cheers ;)
Read Answer Asked by Michael on June 27, 2016
Q: I read with interest your recent article in the Post and was intrigued by the comment that research shows 90% of portfolio returns come from sector allocation - if a person wanted to take advantage of that, in a simple, easy to manage and inexpensive way (ignoring taxes for the moment) what would be your view be on an approach where one's equity component of their portfolio consisted entirely of a number of ETF's with each one of the ETF's focused on a particular sector, with a periodic (say quarterly) rebalancing? What specific ETF's would you suggest for such a portfolio? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by RICHARD on May 20, 2016