To Hedge or Not to Hedge
Last week I wrote about whether US-listed ETFs are really cheaper once you account for currency exchange fees, and then I looked at ways to reduce forex fees. The spreadsheet I created to compare US a [...]
Reducing the Cost of Currency Exchange
Yesterday’s post looked at whether US-listed ETFs are really a good deal for RRSP investors. Although ETFs from Vanguard and other American providers have dramatically lower annual fees, Canadians may [...]
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 [...]
Why Every Portfolio Needs Bonds
Back on March 25, I wrote a post called The Bond Dilemma that described how nervous fixed-income investors were in early 2010. The Bank of Canada had strongly suggested that it would raise interest ra [...]
Review: The Gone Fishin’ Portfolio
Alexander Green retired at age 43 after having made his fortune as an investment adviser, market analyst and portfolio manager. He thinks the efficient markets hypothesis—one of the fundamental ideas [...]
Build Your Own Pension-Fund Portfolio
It’s always interesting to know what the smart money is doing. And I’m not talking about the investment managers who appear on BNN to “talk their book” — like the guy who runs the precious metals fund [...]
Put Your Assets in Their Place
Couch Potato investors hear a lot about asset allocation, but asset location is also an important consideration. Asset location refers to the type of account you use to hold the stocks, bonds, cash an [...]
Adding Gold to Your Portfolio
Unless you’ve been in a coma, you know that gold has been the hottest commodity of the last decade, quadrupling in value since 2000. That’s in US dollars, but even measured in loonies gold is up more [...]
