A dizzying number of ETFs are being introduced south of the border these days, but mercifully, it’s not so bad here in Canada (yet). Still, both iShares and Claymore have introduced a few ETFs in the recent past:
- iShares CDN Growth Index Fund (XCG) and iShares CDN Value Index Fund (XCV) to slice and dice Canadian equities.
- iShares CDN Long Bond Index Fund (XLB), iShares CDN Government Bond Index Fund (XBG) and iShares CDN Corporate Bond Index Fund (XCB) to capture exposure to different areas of the bond market.
- Two fundamental index funds from Claymore - International Fundamental Index ETF (CIE) and the currency-hedged Japan Fundamental Index ETF (CJP).
- An interesting way to invest in preferred shares through the Claymore S&P/TSX CDN Preferred Share ETF (CPD).
- Next month, iShares is introducing the CDN SmallCap Index Fund (XCS) to track Canadian small-caps, the CDN Russell 2000 Index Fund (XSU) to get currency-hedged exposure to US small-caps (According to David Swensen, the S&P SmallCap 600 is a superior index) and the CDN Jantzi Social Index Fund (XEN) for socially-responsible investing.
While it is interesting to learn about ETFs that track obscure indices, I’ll be sticking to just a handful: XBB, VTI, EFA, VWO and perhaps the XRE and XIC.
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6 responses so far ↓
1 alvanson // Apr 15, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Don’t forget that Claymore is also rolling out six more ETFs in the near future, some being:
- Claymore S&P Global Water ETF
- Claymore Global Monthly Yield Hog ETF
- Claymore Global Balanced ETF
- Claymore Global Monthly Yield Hog ETF
I believe some of the above will be offered in both income and growth options.
Source: http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/printedition/story.html?id=ae5276c0-2045-4391-a191-3bc4bbc533e1
2 Canadian Capitalist // Apr 16, 2007 at 7:54 am
Thanks for the heads up. Wow, the ETF space is getting crowded here.
3 Mike // Apr 16, 2007 at 10:59 am
I wouldn’t normally link to another post but Investing Intelligently put up a pretty interesting and lengthy description of his new ETF portfolio today.
http://www.investingintelligently.com/
4 Jason // Apr 16, 2007 at 12:23 pm
This seems very interesting, but how do you get into this kind of stuff? I just recently setup mutual funds through TD, only doing 75 dollars a month. But these ETFs seem pretty cool. Would I be able to set something up so that a few hundred dollars a month could go towards some of these ETFs???
Sorry to hijack the comments, but I really don’t know where to start.
5 Canadian Capitalist // Apr 16, 2007 at 12:56 pm
Mike: Thanks for the head up. Dave’s post didn’t show up yet in my Google Reader.
Jason: The short answer is no. ETFs trade just like a stock, so you have to pay commission each time you buy them. At $30 per transaction, it doesn’t make sense if you want to keep commissions at 1% or less. TD eFunds (index mutual funds) are ideal for investing small sums regularly (I am invested in them for our smaller portfolios).
6 Jason // Apr 16, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Thanks CC
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