Stockchase Opinions

John HoodBMO US Put Write ETFZPW.TOCOMMENTApr 02, 2019

What is the purpose of this product? This are naked put-write. Similar to a covered call. Buying puts is a bearish position. Selling puts is bullish.
$17.26

Stock price when the opinion was issued

E.T.F.'s
It's the ideal tool to help you make quicker, more informed decisions for managing and tracking your investments.

You might be interested:

BUY

Is a put-write strategy. They sell puts to generate income on the market. Technical/chart analysis does not work, because most of the return comes from income. This ETF is meeting its goal, despite the down-up chart of recent years. There is also PUTW in the US worth looking at.

COMMENT
Writes puts on US stocks. Take a look at this one.
COMMENT

They write puts and buys good companies at lower prices and sells high. He would cycle out of ZPH and ZPW to ZPAY which generates a rate of around 6% but with a better strategy.

COMMENT

ZPH and ZPW way to extract yield from the market without taking a lot of risk. They have been okay but not great. ZPAY is a better way to benefit from the same strategy.

SELL
He has not been happy with it for a year. They created ZPAY-T which he moved to. It is a similar ETF.
DON'T BUY
Similar to a covered call, but it's the flipside. So it's the sell side. Most people don't understand how puts work, and with the put write you're getting a very complicated strategy. He'd recommend something more conservative, such as covered calls because they're a lot easier to understand.
DON'T BUY
Pays a 7% yield. They take a basket of US stocks, then look at options premiums and carving off a bit of the upside and downside. He doesn't like engineered products like this. ZPW can be depleting asset base, losing some capital in the coming months.
COMMENT
He was a big fan of these put-write strategies--to write puts on the best companies on the market--when they launched, but they have since failed to execute this plan. He still holds these for the yields, though, because it provides an alternative source of yield. In a recession, it depends on how fast the markets go down. There is an embedded protection in these ETFs, giving you only half the downside. With these, you place a put, but don't own the companies, but rather harvest the yield off the option premium.
COMMENT
ZPH-T vs. ZPW-T. When the view is that the CAD$ is going to get weaker you don’t want to be hedged. If it is going to be stronger, then you want currency hedged.
BUY
This writes puts on these stocks a little below and market and generates a yield. It's very defensive, but risky, but better than holding cash. It's exposed to the US dollar. ZPW will give you decent yield.
BUY
ZWH-T vs. ZPW-T. These are the more defensive holdings. ZPW-T is a little more risk adverse. He is looking to trim exposure on the ZWH-T side to move to ZPW-T at the moment.
COMMENT
Its MER includes the MER of the underlying ETFs. Occasionally they get put some of the stocks and then they sell the stock and re-put the stock. You get a distribution when this happens as a return of capital. Volatility determines how many of their stocks they get put and have to sell.
WEAK BUY
How to play the market defensively. The put-write strategy did perform better in the last couple of months. ZWU-T is a high dividend payer in the utilities. It has pipelines in it so as pipeline expansion has been crushed, this has weighted a lot on the sector. Otherwise he likes utilities here.
COMMENT
It writes puts 10-20% below market puts to generate yield on great companies. If the market sells off they own the stock. They then sell the stock and re-write the put. It is not an opposite not the S&P and not a hedged product. HXS-T gives you an inverse to the S&P 500.