John DeGoey, portfolio manager at Industrial Alliance Securities

Focus: Personal finance and ETFs
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MARKET OUTLOOK
Cost is critically important to being a successful investor and clients should always look to build broadly-based, highly-diversified portfolios that minimize costs. Therefore, using portfolio building blocks that are cheap, pure and fully-invested in multiple-security, tax-effective strategies, is critical. In addition, re-balancing should be done on a purposeful basis once the portfolio’s strategic mix has been established. Applying these clear, evidence-based principles is likely the best way to maximize your odds of having a successful investment experience.

TOP PICKS

VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ALL CAP INDEX ETF (VEE.TO)
This is the gold standard product for emerging market equities in Canada. It is the cheapest product in the space and the asset class remains attractively priced for people who have generational time horizons.

SPHERE FTSE EMERGING MARKETS YIELD INDEX ETF (SHZ.TO)
This is a new product (just over two months old) that also invests in emerging market equities, but using value screens.  As a proponent of traditional index strategies and factor-based strategies, it offers a strong complement to VEE.

ISHARES CORE MSCI ALL COUNTRY EX CANADA ETF (XAW.TO)
I still find people with way, way too much money invested in Canada. This is an attractive single-ticket solution for people who want broad exposure to blue chip stocks from around the world.
 

PAST PICKS: FEBRUARY 26, 2016

VANGUARD FTSE EMERGING MARKETS ALL CAP INDEX ETF (VEE.TO)

• Then: $24.84
• Now: $29.37
• Return: +18.23%
• TR: +20.69%

VANGUARD FTSE CANADIAN HIGH DIVIDEND YIELD INDEX ETF (VDY.TO)

• Then: $26.34
• Now: $33.56
• Return: +27.41%
• TR: +31.15%

ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX ETF (XGD.TO)

• Then: $11.05
• Now: $12.84
• Return: +16.19%
• TR: +16.30%

TOTAL RETURN AVERAGE: +22.71%