Investment Q&A

Q: Hello 5i, Could you comment on options available for a retired senior that is approaching 71 years of age as I think that 71 is the mandatory age that RSP,s have to be cashed out.

Q: ETF's. Is this true? Thank you.

Most funds allocate assets in one of two ways. The first and most straightforward way is equal-weighted, which means the money you invest is equally split between the stocks the fund holds. If a fund has 500 companies and you invest $500, each would get $1.

The other primary method is distributing investments by the companies' market capitalizations (market caps). In this case, companies with a higher market cap receive more of the invested amount. For example, if a fund has 500 companies, a $1,000 investment could mean $5 to the largest company in the fund, while $0.10 goes to the smallest. The exact distributions will vary based on the range of market caps in the fund.

Q: There have been a number of questions recently asking how to construct the best etf portfolio. I thought you did an amazing job in answering these. I had a couple of questions, though, to which I like your response.

You recommend SPY. I believe you also answered QQQ in some place. Would one need QQQ if one already owned SPY? I am speaking here as an average retired investor willing to take a little risk. The concern is that the top ten holdings of the two funds is quite similar. The other concern relates to thèse top ten holdings. A lot of both funds is invested in high flying technology stocks. You often mention that the danger in investing in a Canadian index fund is that they are heavily weighted to three industry sectors. Wouldn’t the same fear hold true for SPY? And if so, would a good work around be a combination of a market weighted fund, such as RSP and an appropriate balance of SPY and QQQ?
Thanks

Q: With the large caps largely moving the S&P500, would you put new money into SPY or RSP (equal weight ETF)? Looking for growth, short and long term. Please give a short reasoning for your answer. Thanks in advance.

Q: Hi everyone at 5i!
I am up 370% with my stock in NVDA and would like to trim a third of the stock. With the proceeds I would like to add to a portfolio holding AWK, BRKB, BX,COST,EMR, ISRG RSP. QQQ. JPM MDT MSFT, NVDA , PEP, PG, O , VZ, V, WM . I am looking for two or three stock suggestions that would round out this list for growth or growth and income.
Cheers,
Tamara

Q: Peter,

A while ago I asked about a non market weighted ETF that follows the S&P 500. You mentioned RSP. Is there one that follows the S&P 500 , but in Canadian dollars?

Thank you

Paul

Q: If held in a TFSA, I believe RSP would be exposed to an American withholding tax. If this is the case, can you recommend a Canadian based equivalen that wouild not?

Q: I understand that you recommend VOO for S&P 500 coverage. I understand that this etfs weighting of companies is based on capital value. Which equivalent-weight etf would you recommend in its place?

Q: Earlier today you mentioned tech as a pretty good etf for holding mainly fang stocks. It got me thinking about my own situation. I own both voo and rsp partly to balance out my technology holdings. I am wondering whether I might be better with something like tech and rsp and selling voo? I like the idea of being a bit overweight in technology stocks and this might be a good way to achieve this. What are your thoughts on this ? Also, i note tech is a Canadian etf. What would be a good US denominated possibility?
Thanks for your expertise

Q: About 2 years ago I invested in RSP the equal weight SP 500 etf. Since that time SPY the cap weighted etf has decreased about 10% more than RSP. Now that tech valuations have come back down I am considering selling RSP and buying SPY. I recall reading here that you expect tech and consumer discretionary sectors to lead once inflation starts to move down and interest rates peak. You have also mentioned that markets look ahead.

It looks like both tech and consumer discretionary are down more than 11% in the last month.

Could you give me your assessment of this trade?

Q: I only invest in Canada so know nothing about US stocks. What would be the US equivilant of XIC, broad based low cost exchange traded fund?

Q: Hello 5i
I recently asked a question regarding US stocks and etf positions. You suggested that I could easily go with the stocks I have plus something like VTI. I currently hold RSP ( as I like an equal weight approach and it maybe more readily balances my overweight in technology) and IWO for small caps. Do you think that this would serve as well as VTI?

Q: Will these 2 ETFs have the same performance? Or will one direction better?

Q: Is it better to invest in equal weighted index ETF rather then index ETF?

My concern is that high concentration of handful highly successful companies in regular index based ETF that defeats the safety of diversification offered by ETF.

What is your opinion?

Q: Looking into your crystal ball which of these 2 etfs might grow better in the next few years?

Thanks

Q: We are typically buy and hold investors. It has been suggested that we sell our Capital Market Weighted Index VTI (unregistered) and purchase RSP which is Equal Weighted (unregistered). Apparently, the larger companies in VTI are getting very expensive and have started to under-perform since November 2020. Other than capital gains from the sale of VTI what are the advantages and disadvantages of switching?

Q: Can you suggest an US Equal Weight trading on TSX or on US Exchange? BEP.UN or BEPC for non-registered account? Thank you

Q: I listened recently to a discussion involving Cathy Wood and the principal of the Van Eck fund. Cathy Wood said that she thinks possibly fifty per cent of the s and p 500 could be negatively affected because they failed to invest in innovation. A bit scary when you own rsp or voo. On the same interview was van Eck, who seemed to agree with her. And partially for this reason they have developed MOAT. He seems to think that with these companies he circumvents the problem. Perhaps this is my reading into his comments. Wondering whether you might think it would be worthwhile to trade out of rsp and voo and into most
Thanks as always

Q: So I'm a lot less diversified than I thought and have something like 35+% of my investments in Tech. I have a good deal of money in XUS, XUU, and XAW. I thought I was getting diversification, but I didn't realize how heavily weighted in Tech (25% or more) these ETFs were. A few smaller investments (SKYY, IGV, GOOG) put me far more into the Tech space than I realized.

What's the best way to invest in broad ETFs without being so heavily invested into Tech? I feel like 20% is already a high weighting for this sector

Q: What would be the best equal weight TSX ETF (CDN $) and also S&P (US dollars) Low fees for both.
Thanks!