Keep it simple when investing in ETFs

Article Excerpt

These two ETFs scored well at the annual Thomson Reuters Lipper Fund Awards. That reflects their performance over the last three years, along with their scores in other key areas. However, we continue to recommend investors limit their ETF selection to funds that track established indexes and steer clear of niche approaches such as relying on active management, sector rotation or other trading strategies. Those tend to increase management fees and limit returns. BMO LOW VOLATILITY CANADIAN EQUITY ETF $30 (Toronto symbol ZLB; Market cap: $1.2 billion) aims to invest in Canadian companies that are the least sensitive to movements in the overall market. They are so-called “low beta” or “low volatility” stocks. The group of low-beta stocks seldom include cyclical consumer or resource companies. That means this fund is skewed towards Financials (21%), Consumer Defensive (23%), Utilities (12%), Real Estate (12%) and Telecommunications (7%). Generally, that suggests the ETF may lag the market whenever cyclical or resource stocks perform well. The…