This month we focus on high-income, leveraged single-stock ETFs; one was launched by Harvest and another, focused on physical gold bullion, was launched by BMO.


HARVEST ELI LILLY ENHANCED HIGH-INCOME SHARES $12.04 (Toronto symbol LLHE) invests in the shares of Eli Lilly & Co....

From its bottom in March 2020 until mid-2021, the Korea Exchange advanced 120% on the back of a retail trading frenzy. Retail investors (locally known as “ants”) became large-scale participants in Korean stocks. Social media played a large role in fuelling speculative trading activities.


Large, global companies such as Samsung, Posco, LG Electronics, Hynix, and Hyundai performed well, but the speculators’ favourites such as Kakao and Seegene rose between 450% and 1,200%.


But all speculative bubbles eventually burst.


When we last wrote about this in September 2022 we commented on the sharp declines in the prices of not only the speculative stocks but also stocks that represent highly rated Korean companies.


For example, Samsung Electronics, one of the top global consumer electronics and semiconductor manufacturers, saw a share price decline of 40%, while the price of semiconductor producer SK Hynix declined 49%....

When we last wrote about South Korea—in late 2022—we pointed out that the country’s stocks had seen a two-year run-up in prices and then a sharp decline. That left many high-quality companies trading at attractive valuations. Since that time the South Korean market has gained 25%, but is still well off its peak....

Fees charged by ETFs have several components:


First are the operating expenses of the fund, such as the portfolio management fee, custody and administration fees, and marketing fees. These fees are all rolled into the Management Expenses Ratio (MER) and are paid directly from the ETF’s assets....

Banks and insurance companies have performed strongly over the past year, easily beating the main market indices. However, banks, in particular, use a lot of debt to boost returns, and are prone to volatility when they encounter problems.


We’ve always said most investors should diversify within the finance sector by holding not just banks, but also insurers, fund managers and so on....

BMO MSCI All Country World High-Quality ETF $69.66 (Toronto symbol ZGQ; TSI Network ETF Rating: Aggressive; Market cap: $730.7 million) tracks the MSCI All-Country World High Quality Index. From the broad universe of available stocks, those with high-quality scores based on three main fundamental —high return on equity, stable year-over-year earnings growth, and low financial leverage—are selected for inclusion in the ETF.


The ETF currently holds 479 stocks; the largest geographical allocation is to the U.S....

GLOBAL X INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPED MARKETS EQUITY ETF $48.32 (Toronto symbol HXDM) provides exposure to major companies listed in developed markets excluding North America. The fund, launched in September 2017, holds $557.3 million of assets, and it charges what sounds like a reasonable MER of 0.22%.


The ETF tracks the Global X EAFE Futures Roll Index....

Companies that generate a lot of free cash flow (regular cash flow less capital expenditures) are generally in a strong financial position. For investors, free cash flow eliminates the distraction of non-cash deductions like goodwill, purchased R&D, depreciation and so on....

A: Magna International Inc., $55.19, symbol MG on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 287.3 million; Market cap: $15.9 billion; www.magna.com), is one of the world’s largest auto suppliers.

As a Tier 1 supplier, the company is a direct supplier to original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs....

A: Sonos Inc., $12.02, symbol SONO on New York (Shares outstanding: 121.0 million; Market cap: $1.45 billion; www.sonos.com), is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of audio sound systems.

The company was a pioneer in multi-room, wireless audio products....