BMO S&P 500 Index ETF (ZSP-T)

He and his team are not tax experts, and the answer is very individual-specific. Consult your tax advisor.

XSP or ZSP are good starting points. One is hedged, one is not. HXS is another option, though it doesn't pay distributions, just accumulates as capital.

Way for Canadians to get exposure to US markets.
Does not like valuation of US equity markets right now.
Would advise to wait for weakness before buying. 
Better investments that are undervalued. 

He likes the S&P500. He hasn’t sold anything.

VSP-T vs XSP-T vs ZSP-T. These all have exposure to the US Large Cap market, yet have different returns thus far this year. You have to be careful on these – some are currency hedged and others are not.

SPY-N vs. ZSP-T. They should be identical except ZSP-T trades in Toronto but has exposure to the US$. If the US$ gets stronger it should help the ETF. SPY-N has underperformed dramatically because it is in US$. They would be identical if you converted the dollars. There is foreign tax withholdings of about 30 basis points on SPY-N. ZSP-T gives you a foreign tax withholding also but you get a tax credit.

For a RRIF? There is a lot of interest in the US market now, and the S&P 500 is the anchor index globally. This has a currency hedge [the BMO web site lists the ZUE-T as the one hedged to the CAD$ and not the ZSP-T], and he doesn’t necessarily see a crisis coming, but sees Canada trading in a little lower range if the oil thing doesn’t happen. You are talking maybe 1%-2% in terms of return between a regular S&P 500 like the Vanguard S&P 500 Index (FVF-T) or the BMO S&P 500 Index (ZSP-T). If you are happy and comfortable with this one, go ahead and buy it. Thinks there is going to be a rebalance in January, so there may be a fair amount of supply in the 1^st 2 or 3 weeks, so you might want to give it a couple of weeks in January.

He would prefer SPDR S&P 500 (SPY-N), which gives you a lot more liquidity, you are just paying for it in US$’s and he likes the US$ exposure.

Is this appropriate for diversification and US holdings in an RRSP? There are a bunch of these that track the S&P 500. This has recently been repriced in a bidding war. These are the products he uses and recommends for his clients. We are now seeing these products being priced at prices that you would not believe how low they are.

Stock vs. Stock: CLU or ZSP. Depends on market as to whether ZSP or CLU will do better in any given period.

There are a lot of things an investor needs and one of them is low fees. The fees on this is about 15 basis points where the fees on the iShares S&P 500 (XSP-T) has been dropped down to 10. He would probably buy the XSP because of the lower fees.

In the next couple of months the S&P could get above 1800. Thinks the Cad$ would be weaker next year so you want to buy with US$s.

You get 2% in the S&P as a dividend and a little less in the Russell 2000. You could play the DOW via ZWA-T that has a covered call strategy. You get a little higher dividend. You have to look at whether it is tax sheltered because you pay full tax on the income.