Ask the Spud: Should I Unbundle My ETF?
Q: What do you think of investing directly in Canadian REITs instead of buying an ETF? It may be possible to achieve similar results without paying the ETF’s management fee. – Philippe V. ETFs promise [...]
Foreign Withholding Tax Explained
The Couch Potato strategy calls for a significant allocation to US and international stocks. When you live in a country with a small, poorly diversified stock market, global diversification is extreme [...]
An ETF Pricing Puzzle
On Monday I looked at the relationship between an ETF’s daily trading volume and its liquidity. Unlike an individual stock, an infrequently traded ETF should not necessarily have a wide bid-ask spread [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Inside the DFA Global Balanced Fund
Long-time readers will know that I’ve written before about Dimensional Fund Advisors, an innovative investment firm that builds low-cost, widely diversified funds. I enjoy keeping an eye on DFA, becau [...]
Ask the Spud: Does Home Bias Ever Make Sense?
Q: The Global Couch Potato has one-third of the equity allocation in Canadian stocks, but Canada makes up only about 4% of the world markets. Aren’t you guilty of home country bias? – Jeremy D. I’m ac [...]
Market Timing Goes to College
In recent years, the so-called Yale Model has been extremely popular with investors. The model is an attempt to mimic the investment strategy used by Ivy League endowment funds, which have an outstand [...]
Can You Protect Your Portfolio From Drawdowns?
If your portfolio loses 1% today and gains 1% tomorrow, are you back to even? Not quite, but you’re awfully close. You actually need a gain of 1.01% to get back to where you started. While that differ [...]
