Stock price when the opinion was issued
The caller's question was on which of these ETF's to buy for a start-up portfolio for his 20-year-old daughter. He prefers more sectors to be covered in this situation so he suggested XEI. There are more multi-asset solutions as well. He also suggested lowering the risk tolerance for a beginner investor.
They're popular, because people want the extra yield, but they work only in some environments. Better when you expects markets to go down for 6-12 months (a correction). In rapid declines, like Covid, you get only some protection. But in a strong market, you give you the upside and lag the market a lot. Just owning ZEB since 2011, you would have made 10.71% annualized; ZWB 8.34%. So, use ZWB defensively at some point after a correction, say 10% or 15% down. Use ZEB in a strong rally. During strong declines, both ETFs fall roughly the same, but during the recent strong rally, ZEB was 16.98% and ZWB 14.85%.
Only the big 6, nothing simpler. Bellwether, the biggest. BMO did cut the fee a bit to 28 bps, but there are cheaper ones. If you're considering starting a new position, try HBNK, which has a fee waiver for the next little bit. No need to swap out of ZEB if you already hold it.
Before jumping in to either, consider how much bank exposure you may already have in your other index funds.