Why Your Problem Is Not Your Funds
In Monday’s post I looked at “smart beta,” which promises to outperform cap-weighted indexing strategies. I’m frequently asked if I think Couch Potato investors should dump their traditional index...
View ArticleInside the New Vanguard ETFs
Vanguard Canada launched some new ETFs this week, and I spoke with managing director Atul Tiwari about the funds. Let’s take a closer look. Cross-Canada coverage The Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap (VCN)...
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When Discount Bonds Are Hard to Find
Everyone loves a discount, but if you’re buying bonds these days you may be out of luck. Just over a year ago, the BMO Discount Bond (ZDB) was launched as a tax-efficient alternative to traditional...
View ArticleAre Preferred Share Indexers Dumb Money?
It’s hard to keep a straight face while arguing for active strategies in asset classes like large-cap stocks or government bonds. Those markets are so liquid and so well covered by analysts that it’s...
View ArticleVanguard’s VXC Gets a Facelift
The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex Canada (VXC) allows Canadians to get access to US, international and emerging markets equities with a single ETF, and it’s one of the ingredients in my model portfolios....
View ArticleChina Grabs a Bigger Share of the Indexes
Traditional international index funds assign a weight to each country based on the size of its stock market. But in the case of China, that’s a bit misleading. Despite having the world’s second-largest...
View ArticleVanguard’s New World Order
If you follow my model ETF portfolios, you may have noticed that one of your holdings has a new name. The Vanguard FTSE All-World ex Canada (VXC), launched in the summer of 2014, is a simple, low-cost...
View ArticleThe Trouble With Bashing Bond Indexes
In my last post, I looked at a tired criticism of traditional equity index funds. Similar arguments have been made against fixed-income index funds, most recently in a blog post called The Trouble With...
View ArticleDecoding Vanguard’s New International Equity ETFs
This year has been another reminder of why international equities are such an important part of a diversified portfolio: in the first 11 months of 2015 the Canadian market was down almost 6%, while...
View ArticleThe Curious Case of the BMO Discount Bond ETF
When the BMO Discount Bond Index ETF (ZDB) was launched back in February 2014, it was unique: the first broad-market ETF in Canada made up primarily of bonds trading below their par value. By avoiding...
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