Investment Q&A

Q: I recently read your article "Cap-Weight vs Equal
Weighted Indices" in etf-mutual fund letter which generally concluded that equal weighted etf's out performed cap weighted etf's. However, I'm wondering if this is still true if higher MRE's and higher taxes (due to higher turnover) are taken into account. In other words what's the after tax comparison, say if you were in the 40-50% tax bracket? Do you have some idea or do you know some studies on this?

Thanks

Q: Hi 5i team,
I am wondering if you can compare VOO to SPY. Which is better to add to my portfolio? Are them similar? Are them both tax efficient in RRSP and TFSA accounts?

Thanks,
Alice Liu

Q: We have( for me) a quite large sum of money invested in managed products. Any new money is going into Canadian equities ( 30%) following your portfolios and a mix of ETF roughly
30% USA at 10% SPY, 10% VIG, 10%IWO
30% International currently VE
10% emerging currently VEE
( I know "where is your fixed income" you ask, my spouse has a federal government pension which I count as our fixed income)
To date these sums are relatively small. As I start to shift large sums from our managed products to my self managed portfolio ( following the above ratios) I am ok with the mix in the USA spread to 3 etfs run by 3 different companies. With the international and emerging I am a bit concerned about putting all that cash with one fund (and company). Is this concern silly or should I have some diversification within my ETF holdings ( both in terms of funds and companies). For example instead of having 30% of my holdings in VE I would split it 15% VE and 15% XEF. So I guess the short questions are:

1. What is the max an investor should have in any one ETF( %)
2. What is the max an investor should have with any one company ( $ or %)

Q: BUYING PROTECTION: WHEN to buy? WHAT TO BUY?
From time to time (especially today on CNBC) I am hearing Traders talk about buying protection with volatility in the US at ~16 .... vs much higher last week.
I assume this advice is also linked to the fact that US markets have just finished a “best ever” kind of bounce after last weeks debacle.

Does 5i agree with that strategy?
Would you be inclined to do this automatically when VOL drops to a specific level? If so, what level?
What ETF(s) would you suggest since playing options is not my game?
Would there be a rule of thumb as to how long to hold that “protection” in place?

Thanks for helping to educate me in this area.

Q: Greetings 5i team,

For people who invest in a US market index ETF, are there significant differences between IVV, VOO and SPY ?

Are there any other similar US market index ETFs?

Thank you.

Milan

Q: please provide mi with best options of Canadian ETFs to mirror above US ETFs :QQQ, SPY, SSO ,that I can put them into my Canadian TFSA .
Thanks for great service
Andrew

Q: I am a new retiree and interested in income, with some growth. What ETF or ETFs would you recommend for a non-registered account? Thank you.

Q: Have $20,000 I would like to allocation outside Canada. Already receiving an average of 6% dividend return on my C$ portfolio. Not really looking for additional income , what do you think of the above or is there other ETFs I should research.
I have a small position in VGG. Maybe etf holding Amazon, PayPal but not a pure internet such as FDN.

Q: A large part of my US holdings is SPY which I like for its broad market exposure and liquidity. While SPY is in my non-registered account, in my registered account I hold HDV for the higher dividend and to shield the dividend from withholding taxes. Does this strategy make sense? I ask because I am trying to reduce my total number of holdings and would like to consolidate wherever there is any overlap. Right now my annual tax rate is close to $0 and I won’t really be needing to draw any dividend income for at least another 5-10 years. Does consolidating these two into one make sense and if so which would you prefer?

Q: Just sold mutual funds and want to transition to low fees ETF's for the portion of my portfolio outside of Canada. It is for my RRSP, 15 years from retirement. I was thinking SPY / XEF and VEE for the equities side. Do you have something better to propose? I would need help for the fixed income portion, 1 or 2 ETFs please. Thanks.

Q: What do you think of XSP vs SPY? xsp is Canadian funds. spy is U.S. funds. This is for my TFSA.
Thank you

Q: We are thinking of moving our US holdings to etf's rather than individual companies. Currently we own some VOO but notice that you recommend SPY often because of its volume and liquidity, i think.

The first question is whether there is a lot of differnece between the two and whether it is worth getting SPY as well as VOO?

Secondly, we notice that the top ten holdings for both etf's contain a lot of FANG stocks. So we were wondering if we needed other etf's to balance this weighting?
Do you think a total market etf like this is enough to cover the US market?
thanks again for great advice

Q: XIC/SPI were 2 suggested ETF funds for a beginner. I'd like your opinion on XSP vs SPY because it is traded in Canadian funds vs U.S. funds. It was suggested that as a beginner I should study the market more and not plunge into U.S. dollar funds a this time. Opinion?

Q: Hello - I am very new to this web site and investing with minimal knowledge. I have investments with TD Waterhouse and set up all my accounts to self invest. It was suggested I start with ETF's. From there I don't know where to go or what to do. Can someone guide me?
Thank you

Q: I am a conservative investor who would appreciate your recommendations as to the best 5 US stocks/ETFs to own over the next 2-3 years. Dividends are not necessary, however preference is for low risk stock recommendations.

Q: A friend father age 82 recently sold his residence and is looking to invest. Wants to be in the market. Can you suggest 3 to 5 ETF's for him to invest. Thinking Canadian and Us market , as well as a Bond ETF. Has a small registered fund & TFSA.

Q: I'm new to the service and am interested in (mostly) following the balanced equity portfolio. I'm not interested in investing in oil stocks and am wondering what would be a good way to invest that portion of the portfolio outside of the energy sector. I'm not sure if i should just spread it out evenly between the sectors or if there are other companies or an etf that you would recommend to replace the 3 energy stocks. My time horizon is 25 years and I'm fine with some volatility.

Thanks!

Q: Hi, I have 10% of my portfolio in USD in a non registered margin account. What would be a good strategy to invest this money? The other 90% of my port is in CAD dollars spread between rrsp(balanced), tfsa(growth) and non registered(dividend).
TY

Q: Given the expected volatility in the upcoming U.S. Election, and not wanting to face tax consequences by selling equities outside of Registered Accounts, what reasonably priced "Puts" and duration of "Puts" would you potentially suggest placing as insurance to protect the rest of the portfolio?

Q: Transitioning my mutual funds to a self managed ETF portfolio of near equal weighting of ve, vee, spy,vig and iwo for all USA and international exposure. I am due for another block of buying. Which of the 5 above would be best to add now. VE and VEE are down so average out my loss? On weighting I was due to add mostly VEE and IWO. Just starting the transition so can add pretty much any of them.