These past 6 weeks remind him of a quote from Lenin: "There are decades when nothing happens, and then weeks when decades happen." Between tariff announcements and then reversals, and sudden intraday shocks and moves in the stock market and in currencies, it's been an extremely volatile time. It's very cloudy and confusing. His ETF research desk has been inundated with questions.
On the whole, he's not seeing the market retrench entirely out of equities. Money flows are split almost evenly between fixed income and equities. 2024 was a year of bull markets all the way, a record year for ETF flows both in Canada and in the US, driven mainly by demand for the Mag 7 and the S&P 500.
There's still a lingering desire and wish for those growth stocks to continue driving as the engine for the economy. But we're starting to see branches of flows moving into low volatility equities and certain aspects of fixed income, as well as buffers and other strategies for capital preservation.
They're highly efficient, giving you incredibly diversified exposure to sometimes thousands of stocks all at once. Enormous liquidity. Market makers stand ready throughout the day to execute huge orders. Primary and favoured vehicle for large institutions that want to turn over billions of dollars on a dime.
Incredibly low fees and very tight spreads benefit investors as a whole. Smaller investors can piggyback onto this world-class institutional liquidity built around the ETF ecosystem. People who've just sold their stocks often move into ETFs so that they can maintain some type of market exposure.
ZWU holds Canadian utilities, writes covered calls on ~50% of the portfolio. Use it if you have a neutral or range-bound view of the Canadian utilities market. If you buy near market bottom, won't participate as much in the snap-back.
If you see growth and capital appreciation on the horizon, use ZUT -- almost the same basket, but with no covered call overlay. Lower yield. Money works for you over the long haul.