What is your ETF portfolio?

[jedi1648]

An ETF trumps an individual stock in diversification and less risk, and is better than a mutual fund in less management fees. Shoud one buy one "world" ETF that covers numerous countries with different stocks of different industry sectors, or several ETFs?

[FunSave22]

Whether to use one or many to diversify is a matter of personal preference. I use four in total. I don't find the number too high the manage and it gives me a slightly lower MER that using a worldwide ETF.


VTI - Vanguard Total US Stock Market
VEU - Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US
VCE - Vanguard MSCI Canada Index

VSB - Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond


My equity is split evenly 3 ways between the the equity funds. I prefer to have some home country bias and any quite comfortable with this split.



Last year Vanguard started a new total international fund, VXUS, which is probably a slightly better choice than the VEU I currently use. It has a slightly smaller MER and includes international small caps. If I was just started out I would probably use the new one. But the difference is small enough that I haven't yet been bothered to change my current holdings. :)

[Cerenity]

nothing. i just have what i have to have for the workplace RRSP matching, just 2 low cost index funds from Sunlife

i generally stay away from buying big boxes of fruit where I cant replace rotten fruit with good fruit

[Stryker]

I've got six ETF's in the portfolio:

Vanguard Canadian Short Term Bond (VSB)
Vanguard MSCI Canada Index (VCE)
BMO Equal Weight REIT Index (ZRE)
Vanguard Total Stock MKT (VTI)
Vanguard MSCI EAFE (VEA)
Vanguard MSCI Emerging MKT (VWO)

[cjottawa]

An ETF trumps an individual stock in diversification and less risk, and is better than a mutual fund in less management fees. Shoud one buy one "world" ETF that covers numerous countries with different stocks of different industry sectors, or several ETFs?

In Canada, when trading commissions are taken into account, ETFs aren't cost efficient for small portfolios.

Reference: http://canadiancouchpotato.com/2010/06/25/should-you-use-index-funds-or-etfs/

[S5]

Last year Vanguard started a new total international fund, VXUS, which is probably a slightly better choice than the VEU I currently use. It has a slightly smaller MER and includes international small caps. If I was just started out I would probably use the new one. But the difference is small enough that I haven't yet been bothered to change my current holdings. :)

FYI the MER of both funds is now .18%.

[SkimGuy]

25% VCE for Canadian Equity (Non Registered)
20% VTI and 25% VXUS for US/Global Equity (RRSP)
20% VAB and 10% ZRE for Bonds/REIT (TFSA)

I feel like I have a balanced portfolio, will rebalance as I get older and can't afford the risky stuff :)

[maddydo]

how do you do vanguard from canada?
last i read they only have ETF....

thanks

[Cerenity]

oops, forgot i have an additional MF on top of the 2 index funds from Sunlife
Fidelity Spartan 500 Index Fund
fee + expense is like 0.1%
the 2 sunlife workplace RRSP funds fees are 0.38% (US index) and 0.58% (cdn index)

[S5]

how do you do vanguard from canada?
last i read they only have ETF....

thanks

Indeed Vanguard Canada has only launched ETFs in this country so far, no mutual funds. Moreover Canadians can't buy US mutual funds.

All Vanguard products mentioned in this thread are ETFs both from Canada and the US. Their US ETFs are just different classes of their US mutual funds. They trade on the NYSE or Nasdaq and can be bought by Canadians. Their Canadian ETFs can be bought on the TSE. All you need is a brokerage account.

[Fox2k]

TL;DR: with discounted trading commissions of $5/trade, ETFs become cost efficient against index mutual funds with a $27,000 portfolio. At typical $29 trading commissions, ETFs only become efficient when portfolio size exceeds about $75,000.


If you're paying high commissions it's not the ETF's fault..you need to switch brokers. There are many alternatives out there - there's really no reason to pay more than $1 per trade. Interactive Brokers, Virtual Brokers to name a couple. Virtual Brokers is Canadian and supports Canadian registered accounts so they can house your trading tfsa / rrsp /etc. Commissions shouldn't be the thing stopping you from entering the ETF of your choice. Just my $0.02.

[ccyk]

If you're paying high commissions it's not the ETF's fault..you need to switch brokers. There are many alternatives out there - there's really no reason to pay more than $1 per trade. Interactive Brokers, Virtual Brokers to name a couple. Virtual Brokers is Canadian and supports Canadian registered accounts so they can house your trading tfsa / rrsp /etc. Commissions shouldn't be the thing stopping you from entering the ETF of your choice. Just my $0.02.

Virtual Brokers? never heard of them.
are they any good?
dont see their name under cipf website? http://www.cipf.ca/Public/MemberDirectory/CurrentMembers.aspx

[FiNaL WaR]

Virtual Brokers? never heard of them.
are they any good?
dont see their name under cipf website? http://www.cipf.ca/Public/MemberDirectory/CurrentMembers.aspx

https://www.virtualbrokers.com/contents.aspx?page_id=7

VB is a registered division of BBS Securities Inc. (“BBS”). BBS is a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund (CIPF).

[Fox2k]

Virtual Brokers? never heard of them.
are they any good?
dont see their name under cipf website? http://www.cipf.ca/Public/MemberDirectory/CurrentMembers.aspx

I had a good experience opening my account, no complaints. I'm not recommending them specifically though, I was just giving a couple of examples of places with cheap commissions for anyone who was interested.

[cmackie]

I picked up some DXM, FXM and WXM in my daughter's RESP after they were launched. Their volume has been really low but I appreciate the completely rules-based approach - a bit of a combination of active and passive. I actively select stocks in my other accounts in a simlar way (but more focus on aggressive small-caps) so I felt it was a good way to be lazy while hopefully getting some better-than market returns in the long run.

DXM has especially felt some pain lately with a larger weight in energy but I think the three will stay well positioned going forward when things turn around.