etf

ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $33.03 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) China 50 Index, which is made up of the 50 largest, most-liquid Chinese stocks. Top holdings include Tencent Holdings, China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Ping An Insurance. The ETF has an MER of 0.74%. Chinese stocks are down sharply since last summer. National leader Xi Jinping seems focused on shoring up the Communist party and the Chinese stock market, rather than strengthening the Chinese economy. Meanwhile China still has strong long-term growth potential, but needs to get its economy back on track....

VANGUARD GROWTH ETF $107.44 (New York symbol VUG; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) U.S. Large Cap Growth Index. It’s a broadly diversified index that mainly consists of big U.S. companies. This Vanguard ETF has an MER of just 0.09%. The $46.8 billion fund holds Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon.com, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Walt Disney. Other top holdings include Philip Morris International, Comcast, Visa, Gilead Sciences and Oracle Corp. Its breakdown by industry is as follows: Technology, 23.9%; Consumer Services, 23.0%; Health Care, 14.2%; Financials, 12.5%; Industrials, 11.5%; Consumer Goods, 10.9%; Oil and Gas, 2.7%; Materials, 1.0%; and Telecom Services, 0.3%....

VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ETF $34.00 (New York symbol VWO; buy or sell through brokers) aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) Emerging Index. It’s made up of the common stock of companies in developing countries. The fund’s MER is just 0.15%. The top holdings of Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets include Taiwan Semiconductor (Taiwan: computer chips), Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Naspers Ltd. (South Africa: media), Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, Hon Hai Precision Industry (Taiwan: electronics), Infosys (India: information technology) and Housing Development Finance (India: banking). The breakdown by country for this $45.1 billion fund is as follows: China, 27.3%; Taiwan, 15.9%; India, 12.0%; South Africa, 8.1%; Brazil, 6.7%; Mexico, 5.5%; Malaysia, 4.6%; Russia, 4.3%; Thailand, 3.0%; Indonesia, 3.0%; Philippines, 2.0%; Poland, 1.5%; Turkey, 1.8%; and others, 5.8%....

ISHARES CHINA LARGE-CAP ETF $33.03 (New York symbol FXI; buy or sell through brokers) is an exchange traded fund that aims to track the Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) China 50 Index, which is made up of the 50 largest, most-liquid Chinese stocks. Top holdings include Tencent Holdings, China Mobile, China Construction Bank, Bank of China and Ping An Insurance. The ETF has an MER of 0.74%. Chinese stocks are down sharply since last summer. National leader Xi Jinping seems focused on shoring up the Communist party and the Chinese stock market, rather than strengthening the Chinese economy. Meanwhile China still has strong long-term growth potential, but needs to get its economy back on track....

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers almost $3 trillion U.S. across 175 mutual funds and ETFs. Generally speaking, Canadians can’t buy units of mutual funds that are registered in the U.S., because they aren’t registered with provincial securities commissions. For that matter, some Canadian funds are only available in a limited number of provinces. Canadians can, however, buy Vanguard exchange traded funds that trade on stock exchanges. Here are two Vanguard ETF we see as low-fee buys....

ISHARES CANADIAN SHORT-TERM BOND INDEX ETF $28.47 (Toronto symbol XSB; buy or sell through brokers) mirrors the performance of the DEX Short-Term Bond Index. This index consists of a range of investment-grade federal, provincial, municipal and corporate bonds with one- to five-year terms to maturity. The fund holds 437 bonds with an average term to maturity of 2.94 years. The bonds in the index are 65.0% government and 35.0% corporate. The fund’s MER is 0.28%. The iShares Canadian Short-Term Bond Index Fund yields 2.4%, but this high yield is due to the fact that some of the fund’s bonds pay above-market interest rates. As a result, they trade above their face value. When these bonds mature, holders will only get the bonds’ face value, meaning the portfolio will incur predictable capital losses. These losses will offset some of the appeal of the above-market yields....

ISHARES CANADIAN UNIVERSE BOND INDEX ETF $31.87 (Toronto symbol XBB; buy or sell through brokers) mirrors the performance of the Canadian Universe Bond Index. The 957 bonds in the portfolio have an average term to maturity of 10.26 years. The fund’s MER is 0.33%. The bonds in the index are 72.0% government and 28.0% corporate. The fund yields 2.8%, compared to the Short-Term Bond Fund’s 2.4%. Its yield to maturity is 1.96%, 0.75 percentage points above the Short-Term Fund. That reflects the added risk of long-term bonds....

The Bank of Canada is unlikely to raise interest rates any time soon. That’s because low prices for oil and other commodities will likely continue to offset higher exports due to a low Canadian dollar, as well as increased government spending. Even so, the long-term outlook is for higher interest rates. That’s because heavy deficit spending and the expansion of the money supply in the past few years make higher inflation more likely. We continue to advise against investing in bonds right now. That’s because today’s low interest rates make bonds unattractive, and rising rates would push down their future value....

The comments on our website, TSINetwork.ca, give us a window on what our readers are thinking, and on how they interact with each other.

Recently, one reader wondered, “...what is a good entry point when purchasing a stock or an ETF? I always pay too much then the stock drops like Home Capital Group dropped from the $50 range to $30 range as soon as I bought it. Setting a limit price is difficult— does one choose a 50-day moving average, or…?”

Soon after, another reader addressed her question. He suggested that she look further into moving averages, and shared some of his views on how to profit from them.

Many investors make buy and sell decisions with the help of moving averages and other forms of technical analysis. I don’t know if this has any consistent impact on their long-term returns—for better or worse. It may be more reliable as a comfort factor than a source of improved profit.

After all, there’s a large random element in stock-price changes, especially in the short term. When you focus on timing buy and sell decisions to improve your investment results, you are trying to come up with a system that can outguess a random factor. But a random factor is something you can’t outguess.

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BMO MSCI All Country World High Quality Index ETF, $23.57, symbol ZGQ on Toronto (Units outstanding: 1.4 million; Market cap: $33.0 million; www.etfs.bmo.com), aims to replicate the performance of the MSCI All Country World High Quality Index. Bank of Montreal launched the ETF on November 5, 2014. The underlying MSCI (Morgan Stanley Country Index) was formed in 1995. The BMO MSCI All Country World High Quality Index ETF focuses on the U.S. (68.2% of assets). Its next highest weightings are the U.K. at 8.5%, Switzerland at 6.3% and Denmark at 2.1%. The ETF’s MER is 0.52%, and it yields 1.2%. The fund mostly holds large-capitalization global companies: Apple, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon Mobil Corp., Roche Holding AG, Nestle SA, Procter & Gamble, Alphabet Inc. and Home Depot....