A Comment -- General Comments From an Expert (A Commentary)

Bank stocks in an ETF or directly for a long-term investment? There’s the ZEB ETF, but this one is expensive, and only has the 6 banks. He would buy just a couple of the banks outright, and relax.

How else to access Canadian economy beyond XIU? There are 700 ETFs and 2700 providers. BMO, iShares, and Vanguard, dominate 80% of the ETF market. Very competitive prices, pick one. He likes XIU and XIC because they’re liquid, and he can get options on the Montreal exchange.

How important is the brand name of the ETF? Doesn’t matter except what it means for the cost. Horizons are a little pricier because they have do some creative things. But no one can compete with the top 3 providers (iShares, BMO, Vanguard) in terms of cost.

For emerging markets, do you have to look country by country? When looking at EM, would buy as a block, not country by country. You want diversification. Too much concentrated risk. In developed markets, you can look at a country like Germany or Japan.

US real estate etf for income or Canadian one to avoid tax issues? Not a big fan of REITs because of creative accounting. Would rather have covered calls on a bank than a REIT. The Vanguard REIT is very well diversified. If he was going to buy anything, he’d buy that. Yes, there are tax issues.

Looking for monthly income ETF instead of a mutual fund. On the right track to get rid of high mutual fund fees. Look at XEI, good yield. ZDE is another dividend fund, with a few more banks. Down-market protection doesn’t exist in either funds or ETFs, but you are reducing risk as you reduce costs. Fund fees really impact your return over the years.

Role of ETFs in the next recession. Nonsense that next crash will be due to ETFs. ETFs are as liquid as the underlying securities. If your ETF is for left-handed, dyslexic, high-tech, you may have a problem with liquidity. But if you stick with small, mid-, and large-cap, you’ll be fine.

Growth at a steady pace for next 1-2 years? Sees it for the US. Expects volatility with this pretty rambunctious president. Always bullish on the US. Hasn’t seen anything to change his mind. US has a pro-business government, cutting taxes, and energy self-sufficient.

US 2-year treasuries. Dissatisfied with performance of bond ETFs. Wanted some US hedging, so bought this. Yield is 2.5%.

Market. Apple got to $1 Trillion market cap today. He would not be a buyer. He has been wrong about AAPL-Q for years. It is possibly the most successful business in the history of capitalism. Investors have to recognize that it is probably an exception to everything elsewhere.

Market. We have been all challenged by Trump’s “art of the deal” strategy to put pressure on friends and foes and double down if he doesn’t get what he wants. Markets have priced in a lot of the uncertainty, but it hasn’t priced in the success story on what he is trying to do which is something the USA has tried to do for the last 50 years. In Europe he has to deal with 28 different political leaders and while business if purely economics, in politics the appearance of looking strong could be more important than getting a good deal. Options price risk. The higher the volatility the higher the risk premium. Now premiums are higher than last year but not excessive.

Is trading on calls OK or do you just do it to own the underlying asset? Just when intend to buy the asset. Mainly because there is a time element. They expire.

Deep in the money call options and flipping the underlying asset is a good strategy? Delta is higher on the deep in the money options. It is going to perform closer to the stock. Flipping the stock, he assumes is shorting the stock. Nothing wrong with the strategy. It is aggressive. It is what some hedge funds do.

Would a Water ETF be a good buy given all the fires and droughts out there. It is more water for consumption. Yes. There is merit to that for droughts. Not a big fan of it but not against it.

Is selling a covered call below your cost base a good idea? There are ETFs that do this. First thing to do is look at the stock and decide if you still like the stock. If you still like it, then it is a better buy if it dropped in price. Then he would look into doubling down.