Opinions John Hood
iShares S&P 500 Index ETFXSP.TOCOMMENTDec 30, 2014
John HoodStock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 08, 2026. Market Open.
You might be interested:
The hedged version. Is a core holding of his. Can hold this a long time and can generate income from it instead of buying a covered call ETF.
Richard OrrellInvestor's talking about a way to use some leverage to get exposure to the market. That's a sophisticated strategy, and he wouldn't recommend it for most people. If the S&P valuation is pretty fully valued, then he doesn't love this strategy here. After a correction, sure.
What he does like a lot right now, with capital preservation in mind, is BMO's series of buffer ETFs. Upside potential, but there the covered call pays for some put protection. For the short term, he's more in the camp of "down" than "up". Long term, you have to love the S&P 500; but you just can't love it at 22x forward PE.
He hasn't sold a single share for years, just keeps buying it. Hold on. Has it in all his portfolios.
John Hood
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.
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.
iShares TSX 60 (XIU-T) or iShares S&P 500 Cdn Hedged (XSP-t) because of energy? We have had far more exposure in Canada to oil prices than the US. This has led to a decline in the Cdn$, but at the same time we have to look at the opportunity that creates for Canadian exporters, and there could be a lot of business coming out of this as a result. He has not been selling his XIU, but if you are inclined to do so, you could lighten up on them and buy this, especially if you don’t have American exposure.