BMO CDN HIGH DIV COVERED CALL ETFZWC.TODON'T BUYNov 23, 2018Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jul 07, 2026. Market Open.
Challenge is that the volatility on value stocks is not as high as on growth stocks. You get more volatility and enhanced yield on the growth side. Therefore, there really are no ETFs for value that use covered call strategies.
High dividend plays also have a lot of value properties, as they're much more mature companies. Typically, a high-dividend covered call like ZWC will have the principles you're looking for. Banks and telcos, for example, have that value tilt.
Investor is holding HDIV, ZWC, SMAX, and ZEB. By holding all of these, it looks as though you're diversified but you're just duplicating a lot of the strategies.
Likes HDIV a lot for yield-seeking investors. A nice strategy, and you probably don't need a whole lot beyond that.
Remember that a GIC and dividend stock have different levels of risk. Consider preferred shares and covered call ETFs like ZWC which gives broad exposure to Canadian dividends with a covered call overlay. ZWU, too, which is an alternative to fixed income, but gives equity market risk.
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.
You need a higher return than a bond is going to give you today to keep up with inflation and grow your savings. Alternative ETFs such as ZWU, VCNS, ZWB, ZWC, and PJAN are what's needed to protect your portfolio, rather than conventional bonds.
These are what you need to generate the income you'll need for retirement, to get a real return on your investment, more than just protection of principal.
Covered call strategy on a basket of Canadian names. Yield ~6.7%, and pretty tax efficient. Income is fantastic, but note that just owning the underlying securities will outperform 80% of the time. So if you don't need the income, just buy the stocks outright. MER is 72 bps, higher because of the covered call.