How Much Are You Paying For US Dollars?
Currency conversion remains one of the biggest rip-offs in banking and investing. It's made worse by the lack of transparency: if you call your discount brokerage they'll quote their current rates, bu [...]
Ask the Spud: Should I Hold US Bonds?
Q: One of my coworkers and I recently started our own Couch Potato portfolios and we're wondering if it would be better to have some American bonds in the mix. Wouldn’t that be another way to diversif [...]
Why Do Index Funds Use Derivatives?
Earlier this week I described how several US and international equity index funds get their market exposure by using index futures rather than holding the stocks directly. This structure is partly a h [...]
A Case Study in Currencies
In my last post, I explained that US-listed ETFs that hold overseas stocks do not expose Canadians to fluctuations in the US dollar. This is an important idea to understand if you’re comparing ETFs th [...]
Currency Hedging in International Funds
Currency hedging can be confusing for investors who use index funds and ETFs that hold foreign stocks or bonds. The basic idea, which I have written about before, is not terribly hard to understand. I [...]
There’s No Place Like Home
These are good times to be a Canadian equity investor. Not only have we enjoyed back-to-back banner years — the S&P/TSX Composite returned over 35% in 2009 and 17% last year— but Canadian stocks h [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
