Canadian Couch Potato

When iShares launched its Core ETF series back in March it made some waves in the industry. The company cut the fees on nine ETFs it considers building blocks of a long-term portfolio. Its boldest move was to slash the cost of one of its flagship products, the iShares S&P/TSX Capped Composite (XIC). At the time XIC was weighed down by a management fee of 0.25%, much higher than its competitors from Vanguard and BMO. After that fee was reduced to a stingy 0.05%—making it the cheapest ETF in the country—it prompted BMO to follow suit less than a month later.

Now more moves are afoot. On July 21, iShares rebranded these nine ETFs to include “Core” in their names. They also launched a new addition to the family: the iShares Core Short Term High Quality Canadian Bond (XSQ).

The new ETF is extremely similar to the iShares Canadian Short Term Bond (XSB) in most respects: both are about 60% government bonds and 40% corporates, and the holdings are all investment-grade (rated A or higher). Their fundamentals are almost identical:

XSB
XSQ

Yield to maturity
1.58%
1.55%

Average coupon
2.98%
2.81%

Duration
2.83
2.77

Average term
2.83
2.92

Source: BlackRock Canada

.