ETFs

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:

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

[text_ad]

Read More Close
ETFs Library Archives

To gain a better understanding of the stock market’s performance, portfolio managers often divide markets into smaller segments. Large, medium, and small companies are one way used to divide the market. Another is to divide the market into individual industry segments such as energy, consumer or healthcare.


A less followed method is to divide the market according to “factors.” In the context of investing, a factor is any characteristic that helps explain the long-term risk and return performance of an asset....
With the goal of tapping into the popularity of high-yield investments, RBC recently launched an ETF that invests in Canadian dividend-paying companies—but with a covered call strategy. Meanwhile, we also look at an ETF focused on using leverage in bull markets but switching to short positions in bear markets.


RBC CANADIAN DIVIDEND COVERED CALL ETF $20.07 (Toronto symbol RCDC) invests in large-cap, dividend-paying Canadian companies—and sells covered call options on its stock holdings.


The ETF launched in January 2023 with an MER of 0.64%....
Hindenburg Research is known for producing reports aimed at companies with apparent poor corporate governance and controls.


In the process, the firm may take short positions in a target company with the expectation of profiting when their report is published.


In the past, Hindenburg has published reports on companies such as the electric truck maker Nicola Corporation, Bloom Energy, HF Foods, Pershing Gold, Tecnoglass, Riot Blockchain, and Aphria.


In several cases, the allegations of corporate governance failures turned out to have merit and the share prices of those stocks fell sharply and never recovered....
Growth this year for South Asia’s biggest economy is likely to come in at around 6%. That’s below its pre-pandemic growth rates of 8% or more, but it will still make India one of the world’s fastest-growing economies in 2023.


The country continues to face a weak healthcare system, poor infrastructure, and very slow implementation of much-needed economic and political reforms....
Exchange-traded funds have traditionally been managed as passive, index-tracking investment vehicles. But that continues to change as more promoters launch actively managed ETFs into the market. Active management is when a fund manager picks stocks on an ongoing basis, rather than aiming to match benchmark indexes....
Many semiconductor (computer chip) stocks posted big gains after the pandemic hit in early 2020. That’s because sales of chips for personal electronics, such as computers, gaming hardware and so on, soared.


With COVID easing, demand for advanced chips—chips for automotive applications, datacentres, 5G technology and the Internet of Things (IoT)—has remained strong....
One of the best methods of building wealth over time is to zero in on the shares of companies (or the ETFs that hold them) with sound fundamental value. That includes a history of consistently strong sales and earnings, or cash flow. A solid balance sheet and a strong hold on a growing clientele are also pluses.


Here are two ETFs that aim to select high-quality companies with solid value....
GLOBAL X COPPER MINERS ETF, $39.58, is a buy. The ETF (New York symbol COPX; buy or sell through brokers; www.globalxfunds.com) lets you track the Solactive Global Copper Miners Index, with 40 global mining and exploration firms....
Most precious-metal stocks dropped, along with the market, in March 2020. They then quickly reversed that trend to soar for investors, in part because of gold’s appeal as a “safe harbour” in times of economic uncertainty. In fact, in August 2020, gold jumped to over $2,000 U.S....
INVESCO SOLAR ETF, $76.55, is a buy for aggressive investors. The ETF (New York symbol TAN; buy or sell through brokers) tracks solar-related companies (including technology firms and utilities) listed on global exchanges.


The fund’s top holdings are First Solar (China; solar panels) at 11.6%; SolarEdge Technologies (Israel; solar-power batteries), 10.1%; Enphase Energy (U.S.; home solar systems), 6.7%; GCL Technology (China; polysilicon), 5.7%; Xinyi Solar (China; solar panels), 5.6%; and Sunrun (U.S.; solar panels), 4.6%. The ETF charges a relatively high MER of 0.69%.


Renewable stocks have drifted since early 2021; that follows big run-ups in 2020 on President Biden’s support for sun, wind and hydro power—plus strong investor interest in stocks that will gain from the push for global decarbonization....