The Trouble With Bashing Bond Indexes
In my last post, I looked at a tired criticism of traditional equity index funds. Similar arguments have been made against fixed-income index funds, most recently in a blog post called The Trouble Wit [...]
Are Index Funds Fatally Flawed?
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise,” Winston Churchill famously said in a 1947 speech. “Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those oth [...]
Vanguard’s New World Order
If you follow my model ETF portfolios, you may have noticed that one of your holdings has a new name. The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex Canada (VXC), launched in the summer of 2014, is a simple, low-cost [...]
China Grabs a Bigger Share of the Indexes
Traditional international index funds assign a weight to each country based on the size of its stock market. But in the case of China, that’s a bit misleading. Despite having the world’s second-larges [...]
Vanguard’s VXC Gets a Facelift
The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex Canada (VXC) allows Canadians to get access to US, international and emerging markets equities with a single ETF, and it’s one of the ingredients in my model portfolios. [...]
Are Preferred Share Indexers Dumb Money?
It’s hard to keep a straight face while arguing for active strategies in asset classes like large-cap stocks or government bonds. Those markets are so liquid and so well covered by analysts that it’s [...]
When Discount Bonds Are Hard to Find
Everyone loves a discount, but if you’re buying bonds these days you may be out of luck. Just over a year ago, the BMO Discount Bond (ZDB) was launched as a tax-efficient alternative to traditional bo [...]
Inside the New Vanguard ETFs
Vanguard Canada launched some new ETFs this week, and I spoke with managing director Atul Tiwari about the funds. Let’s take a closer look. Cross-Canada coverage The Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap (VCN) [...]
Why Your Problem Is Not Your Funds
In Monday’s post I looked at “smart beta,” which promises to outperform cap-weighted indexing strategies. I’m frequently asked if I think Couch Potato investors should dump their traditional index fun [...]
Does “Smart Beta” Really Beat Cap-Weighting?
“Smart beta” has become a buzzword in investing circles, especially among pension funds and other institutional investors. The term may be new, but the idea isn’t: it’s about looking for ways to captu [...]
