Stockchase Opinions

John Hood iShares Core Growth ETF Portfolio XGRO-T DON'T BUY Sep 27, 2021

For an RRSP long term He bought the Vanguard version when they were first issued, because he liked the idea where Vanguard acted as the portfolio manager, but the performance lacked. It was good for small accounts like kids' RRSPs. But he owns none of them now. When they rebalance, they take money out of the US (growth) and into Europe (which declined)--that's why. He's not a fan of the algorithms which automatically determine reallocations.
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DON'T BUY
XBAL-T or XGRO-T. Can either of these be a one-stop portfolio? They are good for a starting point but he could never recommend one for a retiree. Their views are not aligned with his firm's views. The weightings around the world are not aligned with what he calls his 'super-trend' views.
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This is for starting an RRSP. The MER is around 18 basis points. It's 80% global equities and 20% bonds to keep volatility a little lower than purely stocks. It's a great core holding that you can add to over time.
BUY

For an RESP, you would want to be more aggressive. He recommends VXC, which is a multi-asset ETFs. They are 60-40 allocations. He likes XGRO as well. He uses these funds for his clients for their children. VXC is more aggressive and it also gets rebalanced quarterly.

DON'T BUY

VGRO and XGRO are going to give you broad, market-cap-weighted exposures. 

The Fidelity factor-investing ETFs are going to get rid of some of the companies that they believe are going to underperform. In theory, the Fidelity ETF should give you a better longer-term outcome. He likes factoring a lot.

The problem with all of them is the bond side. Helpful that interest rates have normalized. But, going forward, fixed income is just not going to give the average investor the best risk mitigation. He encourages people to look at the BMO line of buffered ETFs, which give you the potential of equities with the risk mitigation that most are looking for.

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80% equity, 20% fixed income. Great for the average investor. The one you want when you're bullish on equities. When you're defensive, you go into the balanced or conservative version which brings you down to 60/40 or 40/60 equities to bonds.

Right now, way too early to be bullish on equities. At some point in the next 6 months (ballpark: below 5000 on the S&P 500, and maybe even below 4500), it will be time to be much more growth oriented. Now is not the time.