A dizzying number of ETFs are being introduced south of the border these days, but mercifully, it’s not so bad here in Canada (yet). Still, both iShares and Claymore have introduced a few ETFs in the recent past:
- iShares CDN Growth Index Fund (XCG) and iShares CDN Value Index Fund (XCV) to slice and dice Canadian equities.
- iShares CDN Long Bond Index Fund (XLB), iShares CDN Government Bond Index Fund (XBG) and iShares CDN Corporate Bond Index Fund (XCB) to capture exposure to different areas of the bond market.
- Two fundamental index funds from Claymore – International Fundamental Index ETF (CIE) and the currency-hedged Japan Fundamental Index ETF (CJP).
- An interesting way to invest in preferred shares through the Claymore S&P/TSX CDN Preferred Share ETF (CPD).
- Next month, iShares is introducing the CDN SmallCap Index Fund (XCS) to track Canadian small-caps, the CDN Russell 2000 Index Fund (XSU) to get currency-hedged exposure to US small-caps (According to David Swensen, the S&P SmallCap 600 is a superior index) and the CDN Jantzi Social Index Fund (XEN) for socially-responsible investing.
While it is interesting to learn about ETFs that track obscure indices, I’ll be sticking to just a handful: XBB, VTI, EFA, VWO and perhaps the XRE and XIC.