Horizons Active Preferred Share ETF (HPR-T)

Preferred share market is risky - not a good place for average investor.
Not much upside with lots of downside risk.
Income oriented investors have better options.
Canadian Dividend Index a better product. 

Likes active approach to preferred asset class.
Very sensitive to interest rates.
Would wait to buy when prices fall.
Very volatile.

For recent years, he's been off and on preferred shares. Preferreds are volatile. When interest rates plunged 2-3 years ago, this asset class got reamed. HPR pays a big dividend, but also offers huge volatility. Also, it lacks the growth of stocks but carries the volatility. He had a terrible experience with this. Look at ZUP-T, which covers US preferreds which are largely fixed-rate, a key difference to Canadian preferreds. Also, US preferreds are less volatile than Canadians.

ZPR-T vs HPR-T? Preferred shares in Canada are subject to resets, so they’re a great thing when interest rates rise. But when rates go down, they get creamed. It’s unlikely that rates will go down anytime soon. ZPR-T is laddered, and very short term and floating rate. Not a bad strategy. A better strategy would be HPR-T, which is actively managed by Fierra a fantastic manager in the fixed income space. The price on HPR-T is kinda in the same category as ZPR-T but you get the advantage of Fierra without paying a lot. Prefers HPR-T to ZPR-T.

Preferred shares are a great investment due to the favorable tax treatment. With active management you are getting a great benefit. They will be holding a balance of fixed versus floating holdings. A casual investor can get caught in the various different covenants associated with this class. He thinks this is an excellent way to add preferred exposure to your portfolio.

Preferred share market in Canada has become complicated with all these resets. HPR is actively managed. Would work pretty well in rising rate environment.

ZPR-T vs. HPR-T. HPR-T is actively managed whereas the other is a laddered, index ETF. The HPR-T is probably a better hold even though the fees are higher.

Active preferred share ETF. ZPR-T is almost entirely resets, but HR-T is 70% resets and 30% perpetuals. If there is another down stroke in interest rates, this one could retain its value more. But ZPR-T could retain its value better during rate increases. Do a little of each. He is not a big fan. If you need the income then stay with it.

He often gets asked about preferreds, because it is a very popular asset class for retail investors and has a very nice yield. Lately it has been extremely volatile. A very small market, anywhere between $40 billion and $60 billion. Because it is so small and the issues are so complicated, this is one of the few areas where active management may be able to help the investor. It is actively managed, not an index product, and has handily outperformed the S&P/TSX Preferred index. Buying an ETF for this asset class makes a lot more sense than using an individual issue, because you are diversified and you have the active management as well. Dividend yield of 4.2%.

(A Top Pick Sept 23/15. Up 8.53%.) He likes preferred shares in general as an asset class. What he likes about this one is that unlike the US side, this is a pretty plain-vanilla fixed rate preferred perpetuals. He likes that it is an actively managed ETF.