Larry Berman CFA, CMT, CTA Brand Leaders Plus Income HBF-T COMMENT Jul 31, 2017

A US ETF that corresponds to this ETF? There are a number of ETF’s in the US that do covered calls. (See Top Picks.)

Harvest has a number of interesting products, basically Covered Calls. The returns they are getting seem to be higher than some other companies Covered Call ETF’s. But they are only doing it on 25% of the portfolio, whereas the Bank of Montréal is doing it on 50%. He wants to talk to them to see what they are up to. 7.3% yield.

Compared to ZWA-T, it has a covered call overlay also and they have performed pretty identically. If you go back more than 3-5 years then HBF-T has underperformed. Either one are strategies he would like to own.

All of them are thinly traded and which one is recommended. Which one you select depends on specific situations. HBF-T is their brand product, looking at high quality brand leaders – names you know. They tend to be good dividend payers. It is a pretty decent size. The other two are good quality companies also. Be careful of a small ETF that has only been out a couple of years.

We like HBF for income. It was hit hard in 2022, with returns of negative14.67%, so it is definitely not immune to volatility in the greater markets. It does however hold some of the world’s top brands which should show long term staying power, and it should do well in a interest-rate-pivot recovery. Management fee is 0.96% which is fairly high for an income-focused fund. Five year return is 8.42%, which is decent. Its top holdings are alll well-know US consumer brand companies. 
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