Comments on: The Smartest Investment Portfolios

By: paul-andrew

paul-andrew — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 20:50:49 +0000

can you explain why xsu is far below the Russel 2000 index’s anual rate of return and even xsp lags the s&p index’s anual rate of return year after year

By: Beginning Investment Strategies to Consider

Beginning Investment Strategies to Consider — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:58:49 +0000

[...] Success by David Swensen, The Smartest Investment Book You’ll Ever Read by Daniel Solin (allocation overview here) and The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio by William J. [...]

By: Investing Intelligently

Investing Intelligently — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 02:48:37 +0000

My New Passive Index ETF Portfolio…

Unfortunately this is the second time my portfolio has changed in the past two years. The first change was when I moved from a TD Mutual Funds account to Clearsight last year. My advisor had great plans for my portfolio. He wanted to eventually have me…

By: Neil F

Neil F — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 20:50:38 +0000

XIC is not a great choice for capturing the canadian market. It is very illiquid meaning that if you needed to sell in a hurry, you may have trouble getting decent value for your stock, and based on current volumes, you could easily take a 2 or 3% hit depending on how quickly you want to sell. Also, purchasing requires limit orders with a lot of patience to avoid getting slaughtered on the spread. XIU is profoundly more liquid, and is a better choice IMO.

By: Larry Anderson

Larry Anderson — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:59:21 +0000

I generally agree with the portfolio allocation options but disagree with the risk characterization of the portfolio names.

The Low Risk portfolio implies that it is the least risky portfolio. That may be true in the short term (5 years) and would be fine for someone requiring therir cash in the short term. However, over the long term (over ten years) I think the “Low Risk” portfolio is actually at least moderate risk because of the near certainty that a greater allocation to the equities would yield a better return.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 16:32:46 +0000

Stephanie: I am aware of fundamental indices (FI) and have posted many times about them. Fundamental indexing does have its share of detractors and I don’t want to rush to join the bandwagon and wait for a few years to see how the dust settles.

By: Stephanie Cole

Stephanie Cole — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:22:08 +0000

What about Claymore Investments ETF solutions? They are also offered on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and they have a growing variety.

What’s neat about them is that they are not based on market capitalization. They use Fundamental Indexation as a solution, meaning they weights its constituents based on company fundamental factors including dividends, total sales, free cash flow and book equity value. This way each variable is not dependant on the fluctuations of the market valuation. Fundemental Indexation seeks to identify the true ‘fair value’ of each company.

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:25:55 +0000

GIV: Dan Solin explains in his book that in his opinion allocating 10% of the equity exposure to Canadian stocks is appropriate because:

1. Historically, foreign stocks have provided a higher return at lower risk compared to Canadian equities.

2. Canadian stocks make up less than 3% of the global stock capitalization.

I don’t really buy #2 as a good reason, but it is undeniable that the Canadian market is concentrated in just two sectors: financials and resources and hence offers poor diversification.

By: Growth in Value

Growth in Value — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 16:10:19 +0000

I find the low ratio of XIC in all of these portfolios very interesting. Even the most bullish, riskiest portfolio caps at 8%. Certainly food for thought. Doesn’t jibe with what I suspect the majority of Canadian portfolios look like — and one that many people may be reminded of during the inevitable pullback of our domestic market

By: Canadian Capitalist

Canadian Capitalist — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:40:09 +0000

FT: VTI captures the whole US stock market instead of just the S&P 500. Also, the MER for VTI is crazy low and for a long-term investor, I think the currency hedge has a dubious benefit.

Tyler: TD eFunds is perfect for regular investments. If you are with TD Waterhouse, you could periodically cash in the mutual funds and buy the corresponding ETF and save a little bit on the MER. But the difference is not that big.