Larry Berman CFA, CMT, CTABMO Canadian Dividend ETFZDV.TOBUYSep 09, 2019

ZDV has no covered writing, nothing fancy. Financials are ~41%, energy ~18%. In a correction, generally the dividend stocks do better because they have the cash yields attached to them. Also because it usually has a greater weighting in utilities (these still provide needs, not wants, in a downturn). 

ZCN has less exposure to financials or to the dividend side of the equation. Has fewer utilities. More oil & gas, gold, metals, materials. In a resource boom, and with all the things tied to AI, this one will do better.

He used to manage this. Is defensive, and he's bullish Canada. Very blue chip.

ZDV is a large, liquid, solid dividend fund with a 3.58% yield and 5-year annualized return of 14.01%. We would be fine buying at $23 or better but with a diversified fund we would not get too stressed about pricing over a 5-year term. With the fund owning 95% Canadian stocks, for most investor a non-reg account would be best, so as to get the benefit of the dividend tax credit.
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Basket of high-dividend Canadian names. Both about 24-25% cumulative returns over the last 3 years. 

XEI more diversified with 30% financials plus 30% in energy. Slightly better MER of 22 bps. Yield is ~5.5%.

ZDV is 38% financials and 20% energy, so might make sense if you really love financials. MER is 39 bps. Yield is 3.8%.

When you go for high-dividend payers in Canada you get the banks, insurance companies, pipelines, and some of the energy names. Yield will be a bit over 4%. A nice way to play.

Vanguard, iShares, and BMO all have offerings, but they all do it slightly differently. BMO has a covered call version, ZWC. There's ZDV, XDV, VDY. Take a look at them all and see what you like. All have different weights to the components. They're all equally good.

ZWC would be his favourite so he can be more defensive. If you are bullish, ZDV would make sense. Markets have some squeeze potential and there is liquidity coming to markets from stimulus. He does not see materially higher highs than where we are up until early next year.

He uses ZWC to be defensive when he's close to the high point to have more buffer for when the markets go sideways or down. From a low point, you want ZDV to get dividends without covered call. He would wait for a pullback before putting new money in.

How to increase dividends. These are all the same thing. You get exposure to Canadian large caps. There is no diversification by being in all three. ZWU-T should replace one of them to get utilities including pipelines and telcos and less reliance on the banks. Still Canada so you need international. ZWE-T is the best international dividend payers yielding 7% with a covered call overlay. ZWS-T is the best in the US. These are the two to add to the three. These should be in a registered portfolios if you are retired because there is no divined tax credit.