Rob Carrick’s ETF Buyer’s Guide 2020: The complete series

When this year’s ETFs Buyer’s Guide began back in January, we were still riding high off of 2019′s soaring returns.

By the time of the fifth installment, we were in a downturn, and talking about stress tests for ETFs holding dividend-paying stocks.

Our focus had shifted somewhat to the woeful year-to-date returns.

In the final installment, focusing on Canadian Balanced ETFs, we were illustrating how, with Balanced ETFs, your losses might not be as painful as you’d expect.

Here are the six installments in Rob Carrick’s 2020 series of the ETFs Buyer’s Guide. Access is exclusive to Globe subscribers.

To invest in ETFs, you need a brokerage account. For help on that, consult this ranking from Rob of online brokers.

Best Canadian equity funds The fab returns of 2019 send an unhelpful message to ETF investors. Exchange-traded funds tracking the Canadian stock market routinely clocked in with gains around 20 per cent. Can it really matter which particular ETF you buy if they perform so uniformly well in a given year? The answer is an emphatic yes.

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Best bond funds The performance of bond ETFs in 2019 is a definitive answer to everyone who thinks an investment in bonds is dead money when interest rates are low.

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Best U.S. equity funds There were no bad choices for ETF investors in the U.S. equity category last year.

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Best international equity funds International equity funds have mostly been modest performers through the past five years. A few funds excelled, but most offered low single-digit returns.

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Best Canadian dividend funds The fifth instalment of the Globe and Mail ETF Buyer’s Guide turned out to be a stress test for exchange-traded funds holding Canadian dividend-paying stocks. It did not go well.

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Best Balanced ETFs The news here is good. In fact, balanced ETFs have a lesson to teach us all. If you own any type of diversified portfolio that mixes stocks and bonds, your losses this year may not be as damaging as you think.

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