Investment Q&A

Q: I am under weight in utilities and consumer defensive could you please provide your top picks for each category including stocks and ETFs

Q: I am retired but with a small consulting business that has cash sitting in an investment account. I have some concern about the valuation of the current markets and looking to invest with some tilt towards safety realizing nothing is guaranteed. I think ETFs may add a small amount of safety. With that in mind, I am looking at the following ETFs: XUT, XSU, XST, VIDY, TECH, TEC, JXI:US, FEQT with a slightly higher position in FEQT.

I would greatly appreciate your comments/thoughts and suggestions for improvements.

Thanks for this super service!

Q: Rainwater Equity ETF (NYSE): As a new ETF invested in mid/large cap companies, in sectors with reliable recurring revenues less sensitive to equity market fluctuations, this would likely be a good defensive stock to own. Is there a comparable ETF/Company based in Canada?

Q: Good Day 5i team... thank you for your very valuable time, answers to questions and guidance. My question is, can you list out your top 10 ETF and or Equities you see as insulation/defensible should the over bought North American equity markets begin to slide. Thank you

Q: Hi Peter and the 5i Team,

John Heinzl on June 20 rated EMP.A as a “star” in his Stars and Dogs column in the Globe & Mail. We recently purchased a smallish amount in Empire EMP.A to round out our Consumer Defensive holdings which include COST, DOL, XST, and L.

As far as Metro MRU is concerned, it’s held in XST which also contains some of the other smaller firms in the sector.

Do you believe that the troubled takeover of Safeway by Empire several years ago is now a ‘thing of the past’, making Empire a reasonable investment, given its successful takeover of Farm Boy as well as its 51% share of Longos? Both Farm Boy and Longos are quite busy in our Oakville location.

Thanks as always for your insight. Happy Canada Day to all at 5i as well as my fellow 5i members!

Q: It is rare that I ask this question coming from an 84 year old senior, but all the above equal weighted ETF's are presently in my TFSA and can't decide how to invest for the 2025 contribution. Which ETF I should I be adding to the above list or should I be adding a new one that is not in the portfolio?
Also are any of those listed that do not belong in a TFSA?
Thanks for your usual great service.

Q: Are these Canadian income ETFs a good place to sidestep potential Trump tariffs? Do you have other recommendations?

Q: Hi Peter and all at 5i. Wishing you the best of the season!

Peter, first of all, I really enjoyed your last article in the National Post. Your financial stories were highly entertaining.

I manage a RRSP for my daughter-in-law. She has approximately 24K in cash due to a GIC that recently matured. (She got 5.16% interest).

She has these commission-free ETFs: CEW, QQC.F, XHC, XIT, and XST. She would have to pay a $10 commission on the following stocks and ETFs: BCE, BNS, FTS, PBH, SLF, WSP, ZIN, and ZRE.

Question 1. In what order would you suggest she uses the cash to purchase more of the commission-free ETFs?

Question 2. If there are compelling reasons to do so, in what order would you suggest she uses the cash to purchase more of the stocks and ETFs where there is a $10 commission?

I’m hoping that this question can be answered before Christmas if possible. Please use as many question credits as you see fit to provide a comprehensive reply.

Thanks as always for your valuable insight.

Q: Hello Team,
I am enjoying 5i Macro Models services! Thank you! Could I have three Canadian Staples individual + ETF names please.
Thank you!

Q: Hello Team,
Could you please recommend three Canadian "staples" stocks or ETFs with dividend.
Thank you!

Q: Retired, dividend-income investor. Sitting on roughly 5-6% cash for topping up existing positions to, over time, hit Asset Allocation targets.

Candidates = BCE, GSY, HHL, HMAX, XST, ZUT. If I was deciding to deploy funds to create the largest total return over the next year or two, from their existing valuation, a) in what order would you deploy the funds and b) a short qualifier for each position?

My view = buy in this order:
ZUT = good momentum, room to run before hitting earlier peak
GSY = good value, $150-155 should be excellent value
XST = graph against 50 and 200mda...very tight chart....could buy anytime
HMAX = good value, banks should run
HHL = healthcare stocks should get over their fear of their new boss in a few months....or not. Give it some time.
BCE = last on the list. Just rebought after cap loss capture. Give it even more time.

Thanks for your help....Steve

Q: Retired (70 yrs old), dividend-income investor. Been meaning to ask this question for a long time. We run a concentrated portfolio of roughly 10 ETFs and 10 stocks, plus fixed income on top. Our pro-rated MER for the equity ETFs is 0.64 and for the entire portfolio is 0.38.

I use the ETFs above that are sector ETFs (like HHL, NNRG, XIT) as my proxy for the sector and am ok with the trade off of paying fees for a sector ETF instead of having lots of stocks.

I then add my individual stock selections to achieve my targeted Asset Allocation for the entire portfolio (like AD, BCE, FTS, GSY, RY, NWC, PBH, TRP, WSP, etc). I weight each of these relative to my risk tolerance.

Does this make sense to you? Does my "sector ETF" make sense, especially with a potentially large weighting in one ETF. Virtually all of my ETFs are capped at around 7% of the equity portfolio and the stocks are capped at 5% max.

Your thoughts on my strategy and on my MER....thanks...Steve

Q: Do you know if there is a consumer staple etf that trades on the TSX?

Q: Can you share your top picks for Canadian and US ETF's that would cover the relevant sectors (e.g. tech, industrials etc.)? Please take as many credits to answer this as required.

Q: Good morning all,
When I took a look at my portfolio this morning I noticed a 50% discrepency in XST's share price. Can you confirm if a split occured and/or was announced? And is there a website (Blackrock had nothing on the ETF page) that can indicate such a situation.
Thank you.

Q: Hi...kinda laughing right now. Lately XST has been trading over $100/share. Today (Aug 09/24), it is trading $50.87....three different sources...ditto. I checked the main 4 co's in the ETF...all normal, no big drop. To me, it is obviously a glitch of some sort?

Agree?

Q: 5i’s opinion of XST for a 5-yr hold in RESP?
I see its 5yr & 10yr returns are 10% & 12%, its 3 largest holdings (ATD, Loblaws, MRU) total about 60% of the fund, and it has 11 holdings.
I would basically purchase for diversification as opposed to buying the main holdings individually and paying commissions. Thank you.

Q: I am pretty close to full positions on LIFE, XIT and XST. Also, I am sitting on <5% cash, being basically fully invested. Over the next few months I plan to top up these 3 ETFs.

In what order would you add to each of these 3, based on their current valuations, compared to their historic valuations as well as their potential?

My thoughts were LIFE, then XST, then XIT (although I suspect your order would be XIT-LIFE-XST). Please include a brief "why".

Thanks for your help...Steve

Q: I own a variety of dividend ETFs , only utilities ETF and reit ETF are at a loss actually (5-9%), reits ETF being the lowest.
Is it a good time to "add on" in those 2 sectors and if not, what sectors for a revenue objective would be the safest considering the volatile markets and numerous world uncertainties ??

Q: From a value perspective, where the current price is compared to it's historical price range and it's future potential, in what order would you add to these equities (NTR, FTS, XIT, XST, ZUT) to reach asset allocation goals?

I understand it is not apples to apples, due to some of the equities are stocks vs ETFs; and some are conservative vs aggressive.

When looking at both the technicals and fundamentals, I would suggest that NTR and ZUT are undervalued and could be earlier purchases, compared to FTS, XIT, XST. Purchases will be spread out over several months.

Your thoughts on the order?

Thanks...Steve