stock exchange

Cybercrime can have disastrous consequences for individuals, corporations and governments alike—the 2017 hacking of Equifax provides a good example (see box on page 104). As a result, the multi-billion-dollar cyber-security industry is growing quickly as hackers and organized cybercriminals become ever more sophisticated.


Here are three ETFs that aim to benefit from the expanding number of businesses, organizations and individuals looking for cybersecurity products and services (see the supplement on page 110 for more information).


FIRST TRUST NASDAQ CYBERSECURITY ETF $25.71 (Nasdaq symbol CIBR; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $787 million) invests in companies that serve the cybersecurity industry....

A: Valens GroWorks Corp., $1.83, symbol VGW on the Canadian Securities Exchange (Shares Outstanding: 72.6 million; Market cap: $132.9 million; www.valensgroworks.com), is involved in three main areas of the cannabis industry: the extraction of cannabis oils; research into cannabis and its chemical compounds; and growing cannabis.

The Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE), formerly the Canadian National Stock Exchange (CNSX), is an alternative stock exchange.

The company operates through three main businesses:

• Valens Agritech focuses on the company’s cannabis extraction services and has production capacity of 6,000 kilograms of cannabis per month....

A: FSD Pharma Inc., $0.73, symbol HUGE on the Canadian Securities Exchange (Shares outstanding: 1.3 billion; Market cap: $865.9 million, http://fsdpharma.com), holds, through its wholly-owned subsidiary FV Pharma Inc., a license to produce marijuana under the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations....

Pennsylvania-based Vanguard Group is one of the world’s largest investment management companies. In all, it administers over $5 trillion U.S., spread across 400 mutual funds and ETFs.


Generally speaking, Canadians are blocked from buying mutual funds that are registered in the U.S....

A: Hexo Corp., $5.86, symbol HEXO on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 193.6 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; www.thcx.com) is a Canadian-based producer and distributor of medical cannabis with production facilities in Quebec....

More than two centuries ago the New York Stock Exchange was created under a tree to facilitate trade among a small list of U.S. companies. China was considered a “frontier market” less than 40 years ago. Today, it and the U.S. are the world’s two largest economies.


Some frontier markets did not exist a decade ago....

DIRECTION IBILLIONNAIRE ETF (no longer listed) aimed to replicate the largest stock holdings of a select group of 10 billionaires.


As we forecast in November 2017 for our very first issue of Best ETFs for Canadian Investors, this ETF did indeed struggle to gain traction....

A: Canoe EIT Income Fund, $12.07, symbol EIT.UN on Toronto (Units outstanding: 89.3 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; www.canoefinancial.com), changed its name from EnerVest Diversified Income Trust in November 2013....

Developing drones that provide aerial images gives Canadian penny stock Global UAV Technologies speculative appeal, but strong competition is bound to emerge.

We think foreign stocks can safely make up 10% of a conservative investor’s portfolio. One way is through the selection of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with an overseas focus.


The best of those ETFs continue to offer very low management fees and well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios of high-quality stocks.


Here’s a look at four international ETFs we see as suitable for new buying and two others we feel you should continue to hold.


ISHARES MSCI EMERGING MARKETS INDEX FUND $44.46 (New York symbol EEM; buy or sell through brokers) is designed to track the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.


The fund’s geographic breakdown is as follows: China, 31.4%; South Korea, 14.0%; Taiwan, 11.7%; India, 8.8%; South Africa, 6.6%; Brazil, 6.5%; Russia, 3.4%; Mexico, 3.1%; Malaysia, 2.4%; Thailand, 2.3%; Indonesia, 1.9%; and Poland, 1.2%.


Its top stocks are Tencent Holdings (China: Internet), 5.0%; Alibaba Group (China: e-commerce), 4.1 %; Samsung Electronics (South Korea), 3.8%; Taiwan Semiconductor (computer chips), 3.7%; Naspers (South Africa: media and Internet), 2.1%; China Construction Bank, 1.6%; Baidu (China: Internet), 1.3%; Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, 1.0%; China Mobile, 1.0%; and Ping An Insurance Group (China), 0.9%.


iShares launched the ETF on April 7, 2003....