(A Top Pick May 26/16. Down 0.81%.) This has lost a bit of ground, but on a total return basis, because of the yield to maturity, it is still a little bit up. There are bonds in this and they are paying a coupon, so it is doing what it is supposed to do. It is meant to be the ballast in a portfolio, not meant to deliver total returns.

(A Top Pick May 26/16. Up 12.24%.) He thinks of Canada as a core holding for many Canadian investors and, of course, you have to be careful of how much you hold. When it comes to building out that core position, he likes to start with low cost, passive ETF’s, such as this one.

For short term holding? An interesting ETF, because it is quite seasoned and has a significant amount of assets. Historically, its origins were income trusts. This is an ETF of ETF’s, so if you really look at its sub holdings and go into its true underlyings, it has asset classes from all around the world. A good, one-time ticket for putting cash to work where you want yield. Dividend yield of 5.3%.

Risk? An ETF that gives other investors the right to Sell its stocks. A Put writing strategy is very interesting, a little different from Covered Call writing. Put writing usually means you are holding cash, T-bills, etc. because you are on the sidelines. If the stock price goes down, you are forced to buy it at the Strike price if you are willing to own it. It is a way of collect a little bit of additional income while you have cash on the sidelines. The yield has been good, but the markets have also been good. It does expose you to a certain degree of risk.

Short-term corporate bonds, ZCS-T or CBO-T? They both have very similar holdings. This one weights the bonds in the portfolio related to the size they have in the market, whereas CBO weights them with a traditional laddering strategy, each ladder getting an equal weight. It is really hard to say which is better, because all bond ETF’s are ladders of a sort.

Short-term corporate bonds, ZCS-T or CBO-T? They both have very similar holdings. This one weights bonds with a traditional laddering strategy, whereas ZCS-T weights the bonds in the portfolio related to the size they have in the market.  It is really hard to say which is better, because all bond ETF’s are ladders of a sort.

This is an example of an area of the market that has been booming. Very focused, thematic niche ETF’s. It is very new, and he can’t offer a lot of commentary on its performance as it only launched in Sept/16. The theme may make a lot of sense to people who are worried that a robot may take over their job. It could perhaps be a hedge against that. As a long-term theme, it certainly has promise and potential and probably risky, but think of it as a hedge if you are worried about robot overlords calling the shots.