STOCKCHASE

DEX Short Term Bond ETF. If interest rates go up over time, will payment per month go up as new issues come in? He always has these in his clients and personal portfolios. About2/3rds government and 1/3 corporate. If rates go up in the longer ones, you will get hurt. Duration is around 2.6-2.7 years.

2012-02-03

Comment

29.240

Joey Mack

DEX Short Term Bond. Do you really get hurt with short-term bonds? You may see a bit of erosion in asset value but it will keep paying out distributions. Also you may underperform the broader market. A good component of any portfolio. Long bonds will outperform short bonds over the next 20 years.

2012-01-09

PAST TOP PICK

29.250

(A Top Pick Oct 22/10. Up 3.25%.) DEX Short Term Bond ETF.

2011-11-04

PAST TOP PICK

29.030

(A Top Pick March 4/10. Up 4.6%.) Basically holds about 2/3 Canadian government and provincial bonds and the rest is corporate. Likes it because it is a short bond.

2011-07-29

Comment

28.790

DEX Short Term Bond ETF. When the bonds mature would the manager of the fund be tempted to tighten up a little? Really depends on the ETF you are purchasing. They pretty much have to stick to their mandate of whether it is short, medium or long bonds.

2011-05-06

PAST TOP PICK

28.840

(A Top Pick March 4/10. Up 1.95%.) Yield to maturity is the most important thing and is currently about 2% and current yield is about 3.6%.

2010-12-08

BUY

29.190

Hank Cunningham

DEX Short Term Bond ETF. 1.89% yield. 1 to 5 year Canada, Canada agencies, provincial and corporate bonds. Has a short duration and the reasonably good place to park money.

2010-10-28

PAST TOP PICK

29.330

(Top Pick Jan 25/10, 3% total return) A core holding. Now paying monthly. 30% corporate. About 200 bonds

2010-10-22

BUY

29.330

Good for senior’s accounts along with CLF and XHB

2010-10-22

TOP PICK

29.330

Core holding. Some interest rate risk. Mixture of corporate and government bonds.

2010-10-22

PAST TOP PICK

29.360

(Top Pick Nov 12/09, Up 4%) Has a very low expense. It’s not a bond ladder

2010-10-19

PAST TOP PICK

29.240

(A Top Pick Nov 12/09. Up 3.26%.) Short Term Bond Index ETF. Theme was short-term, high quality and rate hikes are coming.

2010-09-24

PAST TOP PICK

29.310

(A Top Pick Nov 12/09. Up 3.2%.) Short Term Bond Index ETF.

2010-08-23

PAST TOP PICK

29.130

(A Top Pick Jan 25/10. Up 1.4%.) Short Term Bond Index. 70% government/provincial bonds and 30% corporate. A good place to park money until rates go up.

2010-07-30

HOLD

29.130

Short Bond Index ETF. A laddered bond fund with a duration of 2.7 years. Gives much better rates of return than a bank would. Where you know rates are going to increase, you want to stay with a short duration.

2010-07-30

Comment

29.110

Hank Cunningham

Short Bond Index ETF. Price should hold up relatively well as he doesn't think interest rates will rise in the next 12 months. Not really a fan of ETF’s, as he prefers individual bonds.

2010-07-21

Comment

29.070

Short Bond Index ETF. Not expecting interest rates to rise significantly next year but the bond market has already priced this in

2010-07-19

PAST TOP PICK

28.950

(A Top Pick Nov 12/09. Up 1.6%.) Short Term Bond Index ETF. Defensive way to get income positions. Rates have nowhere to go but up.

2010-07-12

PAST TOP PICK

28.990

(A Top Pick Jan 25/10. Up 0.75%.) Short bond index ETF with a duration of about 2.7 years. For conservative investors.

2010-07-07

PAST TOP PICK

29.040

(A Top Pick June 2/09. No change.) Cdn Bond Index ETF. This was just a place to hide.

2010-07-02

PAST TOP PICK

29.070

(Top Pick Jan 25/10, Down 0.95%) It’s yielding about 3.8 and is a great place to park money.

2010-06-08

PAST TOP PICK

28.850

(Top pick Jun 02/09)

2010-05-31

BUY

28.720

About 70% government, provincial and 30% corporate bonds. Duration is short at about 2.7 years, which is exactly where you want to be in the event of rising interest rates. Price has come off slightly in the last few days but it's because they just paid a $.26 dividend.

2010-04-09

SELL

28.860

Short Bond Index ETF. Short-term rates are going up, which is the worst part of the curve. A good strategy would be to Sell these and Buy short-term corporate bonds (XCB-T), which tracks the corporate bond world. There is still some spread value to on corporate bonds.

2010-04-01

Comment

28.870

Randy LeClair

Short Bond Index ETF. This is a very difficult place to be in right now. Everyone is anticipating an interest rate increase and this is where the adjustment will take place.

2010-03-29

DON'T BUY

29.180

Paul Harris, CFA

Short Bond Index ETF. Being in bonds allows you to have stock risks as it gives much lower volatility. Short-term rates are going to go up, which will have an impact on shorter dated things but if you own a corporate bond fund such as XBD-T, you will have less volatility without negative rates of return.

2010-03-25

TOP PICK

29.410

Has held for a number of years. Yield is 4% as stated. 1% dividend each quarter. Parking 40% in this fixed income category. It’s 35% corporate and the rest is government. You get good yield. It’s one of the largest ETFs and it has been a good performer. Well diversified.

2010-03-04

SELL

29.320

Christine Horoyski

Zero to negative total return this year expected.

2010-02-22

TOP PICK

29.340

Short Term Bond Index. 70% government/provincial bonds and 30% corporate. Short duration of about 2.9 years, which he wants when rates are low.

2010-01-25

Comment

29.200

Jeff Black

Canadian Short Bond Index ETF. About 65% government and 35% corporate. Very conservative. Interest rate structure is quite low right now so coupons are not particularly high but you get some risk mitigation should rates rise given the short order term nature of it.

2010-01-14

PAST TOP PICK

29.470

Peter Brieger

(Top Pick Dec 01/08, Up 6.2%) Was a way to park money for the short term. Gov’t and Corporate max 5-year maturity bonds, very high grade. Risk is if interest rates suddenly went up.

2009-12-14

TOP PICK

29.300

Short Term Bond Index ETF. Duration of less than 3 years with yields to maturity of maybe 2%. Has about 20%-25% corporates. Reasonably conservative.

2009-11-12

BUY

29.300

Short Bond Index E.T.F. if you're going to have money in bonds you want something and high quality and short duration.

2009-11-12

BUY

29.020

IShares short-term bonds. Yields about 3.95%-4%.

2009-10-15

PAST TOP PICK

29.440

(A Top Pick Oct 9/08. Up 7.98%.) This was basically to allow retail investors to participate in the bond market. Represented 5-year Gov’t of Canada return.

2009-09-21

BUY

29.150

Christine Horoyski

Short Canada government bond index. 5-year Canada bond. Very low risk and very low yield at about 2%. Consider going with a very strong fixed income active manager. (Such as our Expert.)

2009-07-30

Comment

29.240

Joey Mack

Basically 50%-75% government securities. Balance is in investment-grade corporates.

2009-06-24

TOP PICK

29.260

Basically a way of storing your money for a period of time. Technicals in the market are really difficult right now. Any of the major indicators are indicating they are way overbought.

2009-06-02

PAST TOP PICK

29.260

(A Top Pick Oct 9/08. Up 6.3%.)

2009-06-02

HOLD

29.390

Randy LeClair

Canadian Short Bond Index. Indexes have done very well last year and he thinks they will do well.

2009-05-05

PAST TOP PICK

29.360

Jeff Black

(Top Pick Oct 6/08 Up 5.53%) Still comfortable holding, still keeping some strategic holding in bonds.

2009-04-30

DON'T BUY

29.170

Lyle Stein

Short term bonds. This is a cash proxy and the only problem with it is can you get in and out and earn 1% on short interest rates today. Not a lot of return and it could be wiped out in a moment.

2009-04-08

TOP PICK

28.800

Peter Brieger

ETF Short Bond Index. 80% of government bonds and 20% high-grade corporations. Gives a 4.3% yield. Highly marketable. Defensive holding.

2008-12-01

TOP PICK

28.310

Represents 5-year Gov’t of Canada return.

2008-10-09

TOP PICK

28.360

Jeff Black

A lot of people lost sight of having bonds. Should act as a good stabilizer

2008-10-06

BUY

28.500

Som Seif

(Market Call Minute.) Great way to park for short-term investors in bonds. Good yield in terms of short investing.

2008-09-22

Comment

28.600

Som Seif

For holding cash but has a duration of just under 3 years. Great for the long term if you don’t have a cash need and would be a way of getting a higher yield. For holding cash he would prefer a high money market fund such as Claymore Premium Money Market (CMR-T) or, if looking at real returns would look at iUnits Real Return Bond (XRB-T).

2008-08-19

BUY

28.550

Vinny Catalano

A fine investment to be in. Probably low volatility and low income. As an alternative, you could look at a longer-term product such as a 10-year US treasury. A good chance that this might actually, over the next year or 2, generate some decent returns. Right now yields about 10%. Once concerns about inflation lesson, and particularly if there is an economic slump, there could be a good capital gain as well.

2008-08-07

BUY

28.130

Som Seif

Based on the DEX short-term bond index. Good ETF to get exposure to a lower term maturity bond. Pretty broad exposure with a low duration, so it shouldn’t have too much interest rate sensitivity to it. About 70% would be government bonds, which is a little high. About 4% yield.

2008-06-30

Comment

28.370

If you are nervous about the bond market, this is a great instrument to get into this market. This one allows you to participate in the yield market without taking on sizable risks. An appropriate strategy if you are slightly negative on the bond market or, more importantly, you need to asset allocate your risks from equities to bonds.

2008-05-28

BUY

28.830

Norman Levine

For a smaller individual investor, owning bonds through the iShares is an excellent idea, because you get great diversification at a very low cost. Right now he would concentrate on the shorter bond fund. (XSB-T?)

2008-03-10

BUY

28.000

Richard Croft

This on bonds up to 5 years to maturity. If you are concerned that the sub prime mortgage mess will continue to expand, this is a great place to be. Not sure the sub prime is going to extend that much into the market.

2007-08-24

Comment

27.690

Richard Croft

He doesn't think interest rates are going much higher. This particular fund has already had its pound of flesh taken out of it. Can’t see any significant risk here.

2007-07-11

BUY

28.040

The most efficient way to invest in the corporate bond market. MER is very low. This gives you a basket of bonds.

2007-05-17

TOP PICK

28.080

As protection in case the Canadian equity market starts to roll over. He will buy in this money market fund, and make his 4% return and sit there until next September of next year when he will be lined up for another seasonal trade. (Buy when it snows, sell when it goes).

2007-05-05

TOP PICK

28.100

Bond ETF. Basically a short term note. Expecting the market to have problems going into the 2nd half of this year, so he wants something that is stable. Basically gives you 4% yield while the market is rocky.

2007-04-25

BUY

28.380

A basket of bonds, but instead of paying high MERs or transaction costs this is an index-like product. If you are not buying bonds specifically, this is a very cheap way to get into the bond market.

2006-09-05

BUY

27.910

A passive strategy that doesn't cost that much. Very efficient from the bond market prospective.

2006-07-07

BUY

28.020

Laddering iUnits Short Bond Index (XSB-T), iUnits Canadian Bond Market (XBB-T) and iUnits Real Return Bond (XRB-T) is an effective strategy. Low fees.

2006-04-04

DON'T BUY

28.840