Opinions
Terry Shaunessy
Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF
VFV-T
PARTIAL BUY
Dec 09, 2020
Stock price when the opinion was issued
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Note that it's a 9 bps expense ratio. Keep in mind that the S&P 500 is very tech and communications heavy, 30% tech and 9% communications. That space is not cheap. Risks. Those sectors have been almost the only leaders this year, so he expects some rotation into other sectors. Consider an equal weight ETF instead.
Vanguard is a great place to start. Keep in mind that the S&P is broad market-cap exposure, so it's price x outstanding shares, with no connection to value. Rather, it's more a momentum strategy. Leaves you exposed to Magnificent 7 and concentration risk.
The S&P 500 index, but in Canadian dollars. Not expensive at 9 bps MER. But, as he's pointed out before, the S&P has about 37% bunched up around 10 names (with 8 of those being tech names). So you can think it's extremely diversified, but it's not.
He's not saying not to own it, but you need to know what you're buying compared to what you already own in your portfolio.
Or other similar ETFs? They're all basically the same thing: the S&P 500, the number one index in the world, holding every famous American stock you can think of. Looking ahead, he expects other country indexes to outpace the S&P 500, including the TSX. But you should still have some exposure to the S&P 500. Go with the equal-weighted S&P 500, rather than the hedged or unhedged ETF. Go with the EQL--it's fine. Don't worry about the CAD, because the Bank of Canada won't allow the CAD to go much above 79 cents.