Larry Berman CFA, CMT, CTA BMO Ultra Short-Term Bond ZST-T WEAK BUY Dec 16, 2024

Nothing wrong with it. Duration risk issue with longer-term bonds, but these are short term. A good quality bond portfolio.

An ETF to park money and pays a good dividend. It has a little credit risk, but exposes you to corporate bonds for year, so it acts like a money market fund in a sense. However, it pays you a little more yield by 20-30 basis points.

An enhanced money market yield for short-term exposure. It's money market, but corporate bonds, so a slightly higher yield. Not a HISA, but similar to one.

A corporate bond money market fund maturing under a year and is good for parking cash.

This hold short-term corporate bonds which yield a little more than the government equivalent, safe. You assume a little credit risk, not much

Basically, it's a corporate money market fund. Is a lot safer than JAAA in terms of credit risk and dividend yield. Note: High-interest savings ETFs used to pay more than money-market funds until the government got rid of that. The best of the lot is ZST.

Corporate-based money market account. Will generate about 30 bps (ballpark) more than what you'd get in a traditional money market fund. Canadian T-bills from 1 month to 1 year are roughly at a 2.6% yield; add a small fee for running the money market fund, and your yield is about 2.5%.

With ZST, you'll get something like 2.8-2.9%. Very safe, very high quality corporate credits in Canada. Great vehicle for a number of years to get an enhanced yield on your cash savings.

Avoid. GICs are guaranteed, but bond ETFs are not. In 2022, when rates starting going up, bond funds traded down. A bond ETF can be part of a portfolio and work well, but they haven't added much in recent years. Better to look at 10-20 years in bond maturities. These are not safe.

Very good short-term bond product, with a good mix of bonds. Doesn't have any now, but has owned in past. Wouldn't hesitate to buy again. Right now, you want bonds as short as you can get them.

Yes, it's a very safe vehicle. It's a good way to extract a bit more yield than from just a traditional money market account.

The challenge is that it's fully taxable. Instead you may want to look at some preferred securities, which give you a bit higher yield (bit more risk, but better tax treatment). Investors will need to do their own research on individual ETFs. Whatever the choice, it can be combined with ZST for safety of principal.