The Long and Short of Barbell Bond ETFs
Chalk up another one for ETF innovation in Canada. This week, First Asset launched three new bond ETFs that are the first of their kind in North America. And unlike some innovations in the ETF world, [...]
A New Service for Do-It-Yourself Investors
In the June issue of MoneySense, I wrote a feature that profiled three Canadian families who wanted to overhaul their investments and start fresh with low-cost ETF portfolios they could manage on thei [...]
How Will Rising Rates Affect Bonds?
Since the 2008–09 financial crisis caused bond yields to plunge to new lows, market forecasters have been predicting a rise in interest rates. And when bond investors think rates will increase, they t [...]
An Overview of Commission-Free ETFs
Three discount brokerages in Canada now offer a menu of commission-free ETFs. Scotia iTrade pioneered this feature in Canada last September, then Qtrade Investor announced a similar offering about a m [...]
What Are Normal Stock Market Returns?
How often in the last few years have investors said they’re staying out of the equity markets because of the volatility we’ve experienced recently? Many of them are waiting on the sidelines “until thi [...]
Can You Have Too Much Diversification?
Is it possible for a portfolio to be too diversified? There are certainly a lot of articles making that claim. Investopedia even has one called The Dangers of Over-Diversifying Your Portfolio that con [...]
Vanguard Canada Gets a Six-Month Checkup
It's now been a year since Vanguard set up shop in Canada, and just over six months since their ETFs began trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This week I had an opportunity to chat with Atul Tiwar [...]
A Homemade Principal-Protected Note
Given the widespread fear among investors today, it’s not surprising that financial institutions offer a staggering number of structured products that come with guarantees. Both market-linked GICs and [...]
Why Plans Should Come Before Products
When I wrote the MoneySense Guide to the Perfect Portfolio [now out of print], I waited until Chapter 5 before I started discussing specific ETFs and index funds. That was a deliberate decision, becau [...]
Carl Richards on Performance Chasing
A couple of posts ago, I asked why everyone isn’t beating the market when there are a dozen or more strategies that promise long-term outperformance. I argued that the problem wasn’t so much that the [...]
