Opinions
Larry Berman CFA, CMT, CTA
Vanguard S&P 500-CAD Hedged
VSP-T
BUY
Jul 28, 2025
Stock price when the opinion was issued
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He likes to keep it simple. XSP or VSP are his choices. Both similar, market-weighted, hedged to CAD, track fairly closely to the underlying index. Though there are offerings from other companies, these 2 have the lowest fees.
VSP is a hedged version for the S&P index, for those wanting exposure to the S&P but using Canadian dollars. XSP is fairly similar. MER costs are quite low for both. He prefers the market-weighted over the equal-weighted right now. Large and mega-caps will continue to perform well.
His mid-term target for the S&P 500 is 5500, then maybe a pullback in September-October, and then go on to hit 6000 in the first quarter of 2025. Good opportunities in it, even though the market's performed well.
Gives you the S&P with a currency hedge. If you think about where the CAD is now, it's a bit below 70 cents. If you're going to hold this for the next decade, he'd argue that the CAD will be a little bit stronger. So may not be a bad idea to buy one with the currency hedge.
There's an annual cost to the currency hedge that's not part of the MER. Today it's about 1.75%. If the CAD is weak, you want your exposure hedged. If it's expensive relative to the US dollar, you probably want exposure to the USD. You can switch between the two in your RRSP.
BMO and other providers also have hedged vs. unhedged versions. They're all very good.