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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: Good morning. I have held Canoe EIT Income Fund since 2016 and it has averaged 11% annually. My goal is yield so I have been quite happy. I am currently reinvesting the distributions, but plan to eventually withdraw them to help fund my retirement. My EIT.UN holdings are now approaching 7% of my portfolio value and I was hoping to find something similar but different, for diversification. I know you have mentioned in the past that the fund is decent but has some drawbacks like a high MER. Could you provide some other options please? Thank you.
Read Answer Asked by Kim on March 20, 2024
Q: I would like to put about 50% of my portfolio into safe, higher yielding (10%+) Canadian focused ETF's or Mutual Funds, and adjust my holdings as needed going forward based on sector performance. I feel that both Banks & Utilities are nearing lows and that a further correction may occur in the general market due to tax loss selling or possibly one more rate hike. Do you feel that the mix of ETF's listed provide a safe way to invest with the goals indicated? What % for each, as part of the 50%, would you recommend as a holding, and how would they be treated for tax purposes? Thanks for the great service and please use as many credits as necessary.
Read Answer Asked by Will on October 25, 2023
Q: One year ago I decided to choose 6 reits ( avoiding shopping centers and offices),+ one professionaly managed reit etf (mentionned above) .The final result is that the managed ETF did loose 15% +,and the 6 "amateur chosen" ETF gained more than 15% ,the choice was based on the "basic observation"of a slowing economy and specific individual REIT performances,I did then favour industrial, data centers and some real estate REITs.Is it normal that a professionaly managed ETF could underperform so much versus personal choices and why? I wonder if I should trust actively managed products on the future,considering the fees etc..,instead of just choosing stocks or ETFs in safe sectors according to observable macro-economic tendancies.
Read Answer Asked by Jean-Yves on September 12, 2023
Q: What are your thoughts on this fund?
Long term performance and yield are both very strong, in excess of 9%. No covered calls but does have some leverage. Not sure how they achieve 9%+ yield without covered calls but the yield seems consistent and large portion of distribution is capital gains, eligible dividends and ROC.
Never invested in a closed end fund before. What is the difference between this and an ETF?
Read Answer Asked by Bruce on July 31, 2023
Q: I have these stocks in my TFSA and most are doing okay. I have some extra cash to use to either beef up or buy another stock or ETF. I’m an income investor with also an interest in growth. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. I appreciate your work immensely.
Read Answer Asked by Deidra on May 09, 2023
Q: Looking at 3 very different asset classes that offer high yields and would appreciate your help in sorting which ones offer best risk/ reward.
1. Covered calls: NXF, ZWC, ZWU, LIFE, JEPI;
2. Credit - OCSL, ORCC, MAINMAIN
3. Yield - GCOW, EIT-UN.
Questions: 1. What is your comfort level on risk/reward for any or all;
2. Please choose which are investable with short commentary as to rationale and and target buy prices
Read Answer Asked by sam on March 09, 2023
Q: Hello,

I am a recently retired individual. Over the past few years my wife and I have moved the majority of our investments into various income generating shares and units. (CDN Banks, Utilities, Pipelines and other higher yielding investments). One of our higher yielding investments is a holding in EIT.UN. We currently have about 3.2% of our combined retirement savings invested in EIT.UN. I'm hoping that you might be able to help me better understand how that vehicle is able to pay out an approximately 8.75% yield, on an ongoing basis? The dividend of $1.20 per unit appears to have been paid out continuously, since August of 2009.

I believe that a portion of the $1.20 that is being paid out per unit each year, is a Return of Capital but I have no clear understanding of what that might actually mean? Is an investment that is returning an investor's capital to them able to do so indefinitely? Wouldn't they eventually run out of capital to return to the investors and would that then necessitate a precipitous drop in the annual payout?

While we are enjoying the current dividends we don't wish to be blind to a potential decrease in those distributions and/or an accompanying drop in the principal value of our investment. Lastly, as it may apply to any tax considerations, please be aware that all of our retirement savings are held in various registered plans (RRSPs, LIRAs & TFSAs).

Thank you!
Read Answer Asked by Richard on January 20, 2023
Q: I’d like to start a position in one or more income funds that offer a very high yield, but I’m not sure which ones to choose. As of Wednesday Oct 5th, these are the indicated yields I’ve found:

CLM 23.92%
PDBC 20.65%
SDIV 15.31%
QYLD 14.19%
RYLD 14.05%
XYLD 13.05%
BIGZ 11.01%
JEPI 10.94%
PDO 10.90%
PDI 10.79%
BXMT 10.38%
MPW 10.17%
STWD 9.84%
EIT.UN 9.42%
IDV 8.15%

Would you recommend any of these or do you have other suggestions? Are any of them too risky if the bear market deteriorates from here, or can they all be held long term? Are some of these yields too good to be true, like CLM and PDBC? Thanks for your thoughts.

Read Answer Asked by Brian on October 11, 2022
Q: Yesterday eit.un announced the following special distribution of 44¢/share

"The estimated special distribution will be paid by issuance of the same class of units of the fund, and immediately thereafter, issued and outstanding units of the fund will be consolidated such that the number of issued and outstanding units of the fund will not change."

Why do they not just pay the unit holder the cash? Do I end up with more units/fewer units? Why do they do it this way?
Many Thanks
Read Answer Asked by Don on December 25, 2021
Q: Hi 5i:

Can the Price to Earnings ratio (P/E) be used to determine the valuation of these yield plays or should I be looking at the Net Asset Value (NAV) instead?

Using P/E they rank cheapest to most expensive as: DFN, FIE, ZWC and EIT.UN. Is that accurate and if not, how would you rank them, cheapest to most expensive?

Thanks in advance,
Greg.
Read Answer Asked by Greg on July 28, 2021
Q: Good morning! I note that you've rarely had much to say that is positive about EIT.UN. Most recently you suggested that XIC would be a better choice, and I don't understand why. ( For one thing it seems to be an apples/oranges comparison.) EIT.UN is up almost 40% in 52 weeks. And why should I care too much about the disparity in fees, if the one yields 10% and the other, less than 3%?
Regarding return of capital, I know that is has always been high, but here is the breakdown from my 2020 T3:
R.o.C. 42.7%
Cap. Gains 53.3%
el. Dividends 4.0%
Read Answer Asked by chris on May 12, 2021
Q: What are your thoughts on this income fund, I’ve held it for over a year and see its the price has been climbing this year, up from a price in the low $10.00 range last year.
It provides a very healthy yield (+10%) and was a Gordon Pape suggestion over a year ago at this price level. Is it a good steady fund to own for income in one’s RRSP?

Thnx
Read Answer Asked by David on March 24, 2021
Q: I have positions in several ETFs trading on the TSE. I like to keep up to date on major holding changes and weightings within each ETF. Is there a good (one stop shop) source of updated information, other than going on to the separate ETF company websites?
Read Answer Asked by Edward on August 05, 2020