iShares S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index ETF (XFN-T)

Don’t use it. It is broad financials. Insurance companies will be impaired for a number of years. If you want banks go with ZEB-T, but don’t buy it here.

This has the banks, insurance companies and mutual funds. He would be more inclined to go with BMO Covered Call Canadian Banks (ZWB-T), but if you want to be a little more diversified, there is certainly nothing wrong with this one.

His concern is with the sector. Financial services make up a ridiculous amount of the TSX. The product is excellent and does what it is supposed to do, but he would not buy it because financials make up so much of the index.

This has done very well, and he would have no problem with holding this. He doesn’t buy this because he already has exposure to banks through covered calls, which he prefers.

An ETF for a TFSA for a long-term hold? If you were going to do financials, he would probably look at this one. You have all the banks and insurance companies in this one.

Canadian financials have actually underperformed year to date. It depends on what energy is going to do. This won’t be a wildly underperformer or outperformer. If the market were to pull way, way back, he thinks the banks will outperform by going down less. He prefers cherry picking insurers and banks and hopefully outperform the ETF by a couple of percents if you get them right.

Period of seasonal strength for the Canadian financial service sector is from the 3^rd week in January right through until the 3^rd week in April. A lot of this has to do with how the financial services are reporting their results. Technicals on the sector right now are kind of mixed. Has basically been going sideways for almost 3 months now. On the other hand, if you get a break above the $30 level, you could see a move up until the 3^rd week of April.

If you want one stop shopping for financials, this ETF is okay. You will do as well as the banks and other financial institutions in the index.

Likes the financial sector. This may have some of the lifecos in it as well as some of the mutual funds, so he would prefer a straight play on the banks. On the other hand, insurance companies have come back quite a long ways from where they were getting clobbered. Prefers bank ETFs such as BMO Equal Weight Bank (ZEB-T) or BMO Covered Call Cdn Banks (ZWB-T).

This one is fairly deep. It has banks but also has other financial assets. If the rates are starting to rise a little bit, it is initially good for the banks because they make more money on the spreads. If you own, you might be better to move away from this and into equal weight banks, such as BMO Equal Weight Bank (ZEB-T). If rates start rising over the next 6-9 months, the banks will benefit.

Big believer in the banks. He is buying banks stocks for sure.