Tax-Loss Selling with Index Funds: Part 1
Now that we’re into December, many investors are turning their thoughts to skiing, holiday celebrations — and year-end taxes. If you’re investing in an RRSP, Tax-Free Savings Account, Registered Educa [...]
Are US-listed ETFs Really Cheaper?
Last week reader W.B. asked why I recommend US-listed ETFs from Vanguard for the US and international equity components. His brokerage charges a 1.5% currency conversion fee, and W.B. argued that this [...]
Parking Cash in Your Portfolio
[Note: This post was updated in October 2020.] Many investors like to keep at least a small part of their portfolio in cash. If you want to keep this cash in your online brokerage account (alongside y [...]
Will the Real S&P 500 Please Stand Up?
I received an email recently from Scott, a reader with a great question about index funds and ETFs that track the S&P 500. He agreed to let me share his letter and my response. “I’ve been using in [...]
Should You Use Index Funds or ETFs?
[Note: A more up-to-date discussion of this idea, including a spreadsheet to help you with the math, can be found here.] This week I got an email from a reader who is in the process of firing her advi [...]
Not All Indexes Are Created Equal
The recently launched BMO Equal Weight REITs (ZRE), which invests in Canadian real estate investment trusts, will go head-to-head with the iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT (XRE), which until now had n [...]
Tips for Trading ETFs
I happened to have Google Finance open on my computer last week when the “flash crash” happened. While the market's whipsaw on May 6 affected almost all stocks, it seems that ETFs were particularly ha [...]
International Tracking Error: Part 3
In this final post in the series on why international index funds performed so poorly in 2009, it’s time to look at currency hedging. Currency hedging is a strategy designed to smooth out the fluctuat [...]
International Tracking Error: Part 1
Many international equity ETFs showed large tracking errors in 2009. For example, the iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund (XIN), which tracks European and Japanese stocks, trailed its benchmark index by 5.34 [...]
Should You Buy US-listed ETFs?
Jason, a reader of this blog, recently wrote to ask why an investor would want to invest in Canadian-listed ETFs that hold US stocks when there are US versions with much lower fees. For example, the [...]
