ETFs - The Successful Investor Inc

ETFs

What are ETFs?

ETF is an acronym for exchange traded fund. These exchange traded funds are used to track indexes as closely as possible, since investors cannot actually buy an index outright.

Exchange traded funds trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Investors can buy them on margin, or sell them short. The best exchange-traded funds offer well-diversified, tax-efficient portfolios with exceptionally low management ETF fees. They are also very liquid.

Investors use ETFs in a variety of ways, and some investors work only with ETFs and no other type of investment in portfolio creation.

An amazing aspect of ETFs is their diversity. Some investors may create an entire portfolio solely from a few well-diversified ETFs.

ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading.

Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds.

As well, shares are only added or removed when the underlying index changes. As a result of this low turnover, you won’t incur the regular capital gains taxes generated by the yearly distributions most conventional mutual funds pay out to unitholders.

ETFs have a place in every investor’s portfolio, at TSI Network we also recommend using our three-part Successful Investor strategy:

Invest mainly in well-established companies;
Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors (Manufacturing & Industry; Resources & Commodities; the Consumer sector; Finance; Utilities);
Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.

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You Can See Our Exchange-Traded Funds Portfolio For March 2025 Here.

ETFs in brief

Exchange-traded funds are set up to mirror the performance of a stock-market index or sub-index....

1 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

Lower valuations add to telecoms’ appeal

Traditional telecommunications service providers, such as Telus and BCE, are trading at substantially lower valuations compared to other “infrastructure” type companies. This is not only true for Canadian companies, but also for U.S. and other similar companies in Europe.

Growth and profitability: Railways in the lead

In order to compare the various infrastructure groups, we selected the main Canadian and U.S....

2 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

E-commerce has lots of growth ahead

Commerce conducted online exploded in 2020 to 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic limited consumers’ access to shopping malls and other traditional shopping outlets. When shoppers returned to the physical stores in 2022, the growth in e-commerce stalled, but the upward trend resumed in 2023.

The growth in shopping online is helped along by the increased use of mobile devices, the ease and convenience of conducting transactions, the growth in social commerce (“influencers” via Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram), and sellers becoming better informed about consumer preferences using artificial intelligence.

Online shoppers now count for an estimated 2.7 billion or a third of the global population....

2 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

The U.K.'s AstraZeneca is a leading global pharma giant

AstraZeneca is a major developer and distributor of pharmaceutical products. It’s also the largest holding in the iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF.

The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market value of $212 billion U.S.—comparable to the market values of Roche, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, and Johnson & Johnson....

1 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

Despite challenges, the U.K.'s future is bright

In recent years the country had to deal with their formal exit from the European Union, COVID-19, four different prime ministers, and a major financial market blowup. The latest change in government also delivered plans to increase government spending through borrowing and higher corporate taxes....

4 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

Good time to add telecom exposure

Telecommunications form an integral part of the economic infrastructure. Strict licensing standards and high capital requirements result in considerable barriers to entry. Despite slow growth, many of the major telecommunication companies have steady cash flows, high levels of profitability, and rising dividends....

4 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

Here’s a low-fee ETF that covers the globe

SPDR MSCI GLOBAL STOCK MARKET ETF $65.81 (New York symbol SPGM; TSINetwork ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $934.8 million) tracks the MSCI ACWI Index. Companies located in the U.S. are the largest component of the portfolio (66%), followed by Japan (5%), the U.K....

1 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

Pass on this ETF

One of the key attractions of exchange-traded funds is their lower fees compared to mutual funds. In addition, as more competitors entered the market, fees on many ETFs continue to drop.

One of the older U.S.-based funds with a large asset base and higher fees is the IShares MSCI Canada ETF $41.96 (New York symbol EWC)....

1 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

Online commerce keeps expanding

Online commerce grew steadily for a decade before the onset of COVID-19. It then took off in a major way. Still, as consumers returned to physical stores and workers returned to the office, that rapid growth slowed. Regardless, the long-term trend remains firmly positive, and online transactions should continue to rise for years to come.

Here are two ETFs that include companies with a strong online presence....

3 min read

Pat McKeough

ETFs

Hold off on this ETF

ISHARES S&P/TSX REIT INDEX ETF, $15.02, is a hold. The ETF (Toronto symbol XRE; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) lets investors tap all 16 Canadian real estate investment trusts in the S&P/TSX REIT Index....

1 min read

Pat McKeough

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Investors Association of Canada
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Browse Premium Topics

Cannabis

Spinoffs

One of the ways a company can try to unlock its own hidden value is by creating a separate company out of a corporate subsidiary. The parent company can either sell stock in the new company to the public, or spin it off—hand the stock out to its own investors.

Dividend Stocks

Dividend stocks make cash payouts that serve as a way for companies to share the wealth they’ve accumulated. These payouts are drawn from earnings and cash flow and paid to the shareholders of the company. Typically, these dividends are paid quarterly, although they may be paid annually or even monthly as well.

ETFs

What are ETFs?

ETF is an acronym for exchange traded fund. These exchange traded funds are used to track indexes as closely as possible, since investors cannot actually buy an index outright.

Value Stocks

What are value stocks?

One of the sweetest and most profitable pleasures of successful investing is to buy high-quality “value stocks” (or stocks that are reasonably priced, if not cheap, in relation to its sales, earnings or assets), then hold on to them as mainstream investors recognize the value and push up the share price.

Blue Chip Stocks

Blue chip stocks are big, well-established, dividend-paying corporations with strong business prospects. These are companies that also have sound management that should be able to make the right moves to keep competing successfully in a changing marketplace.

Penny Stocks

A penny stock in general trades for under five dollars a share, and as the name implies, sometimes for pennies. Most of the time they’re young companies, or start-ups in speculative markets like mining or technology.

Growth Stocks

Growth stocks are companies that are likely to have sales and earnings growth well above market average. Frequently they pay few, if any, dividends. Instead they typically reinvest any extra cash flow to promote further growth. Chosen wisely—according to Pat McKeough’s advice—high-quality growth-oriented stocks can be worthwhile additions to most well-diversified portfolios.

Wealth Management

Wealth management is the practice of putting your savings to work so that it continues to grow over your lifetime and will also benefit your heirs. Wealth management encompasses many different areas of investing like long term investment planning and retirement planning.

Mining Stocks

Mining stocks are investments in companies that produce or explore for minerals. Some of these minerals include uranium, coal, molybdenum (which is used in steelmaking), copper, silver and gold. They are affected by fluctuating commodity prices in addition to their own business and operating risks.

How To Invest

Pat McKeough has been making investing for beginners simple—and profitable—by helping investors make big gains for more than 25 years. His advice to beginning investors is the same as it is for all investors: buy high-quality, mostly dividend paying stocks (or ETFs that hold these stocks) and evenly spread your investments over the five main economic sectors (Resources, Manufacturing, Finance, Utilities and Consumer). Pat also believes investors should avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight and focus on those with hidden or little-noticed assets.

Energy Stocks

What are energy stocks?

Businesses that work in the extraction, refining and delivery of energy sources such as natural gas, oil, uranium and coal, are considered energy stocks.