XEQT
ISHARES CORE EQUITY ETF PORTFOLIO
stock TSE

I invest in things I believe , and some XEQT .

Just buy XEQT and chill

So I spent a good part of last night and today poring over investment literature and interrogating Chat GPT-5; I asked it a lot of questions about benchmarks, past performance, the FAMA French model, Ben's Five Factor Portfolio rationale based off it, his simplified 6-ETF portfolio that is floating around, and here is the result. This is in strictly CAD funds to enable DCA while avoiding pesky FX fees, or planning ahead to make large batch swaps to USD to save on FX fees. This is supposedly a more accurate representation to the five factor philosophy than the simplified 6-ETF model floating around the web.
Although it is a complicated portfolio, AI makes this process a lot simpler to re-balance. Instead of trying to crunch numbers each time you contribute to your portfolio, you can simply give an AI model the following, and it should spit out the amounts you need to contribute to maintain the proposed targets closely:
1) Weights you have in the market since your last purchase.
2) Amount you're investing at the time.
This is obviously more work than an all-in-one ETF like XEQT (and even more work than setting up an automated system) but considerably simpler than balancing it yourself. Anyway, I thought I would share this for those self-managing their portfolios and want to replicate this as closely as possible without dealing with USD. I largely used this PDF from PWL Capital as a point of reference:
[https://pwlcapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Five-Factor-Investing-with-ETFs.pdf](https://pwlcapital.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Five-Factor-Investing-with-ETFs.pdf)

**PROPOSED PORTFOLIO:**
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|**Region/Sleeve**|**ETF**|**Ticker**|**Weight (%)**|**MER (%)**|**What's Missing**|
|Canada – Broad|Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap|VCN|15|0.05|Nothing missing|
|Canada – Value|BMO MSCI Canada Value|ZVC|10|0.4|Nothing missing|
|Canada – Small‑Cap|iShares S&P/TSX SmallCap|XCS|5|0.6|Not pure small‑cap value (blend of growth/value)|
|U.S. – Broad|Vanguard U.S. Total Market|VUN|30|0.16|Nothing missing|
|U.S. – Value|BMO MSCI USA Value|ZVU|8|0.23|Missing small‑cap exposure; large/mid‑cap value only|
|International – Broad|iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI|XEF|16|0.22|Nothing missing|
|International – Value|Vanguard Global Value Factor|VVL|6|0.38|Not pure international Small-cap value; includes U.S. and large caps|
|Emerging Markets – Broad|iShares Core MSCI EM IMI|XEC|10|0.27|No EM value tilt; broad market only |
Total Fees: 0.23%
For comparison, here is the simplified version Ben Felix provided which includes USD tickers:
**6-ETF PORTFOLIO:**
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|**Region/Sleeve**|**ETF**|**Ticker**|**Weight (%)**|**MER (%)**|**What's Missing**|
|Canada – Broad|iShares Core S&P/TSX Capped Composite|XIC|30|0.06|No Canada value or small‑cap sleeves|
|U.S. – Broad|Vanguard U.S. Total Market|VUN|30|0.16|No U.S. large/mid‑cap value sleeve|
|U.S. – Small‑Cap Value|Avantis U.S. Small Cap Value|AVUV|10|0.25|Nothing missing|
|International – Broad|iShares Core MSCI EAFE IMI|XEF|16|0.22|No large/mid‑cap value sleeve|
|International – Small‑Cap Value|Avantis International Small Cap Value|AVDV|6|0.36|Nothing missing|
|Emerging Markets – Broad|iShares Core MSCI EM IMI|XEC|8|0.27|No EM value tilt|
Total Fees: 0.17%
**DISCLAIMER:** I'm not a financial advisor. This is simply a hobby supplemented by a macroeconomics background.
It's entirely possible I made a few mistakes here and there after staring at spreadsheets and ETFs within ETFs for several hours. I hope this is a helpful starting point though.
Note: The "What's Missing" sections aren't consistent between tickers in the two charts due to crossovers from other tickers making up for gaps.

Your ideal scenario is very easy to accomplish with WS. You can automate your investments and transfers. You can set up recurring investments and then do nothing else for 20 years. I would go with XEQT (or any EQT), which is passive index investing at its best. Yes it includes the S&P500, there's tons of it in XEQT. You don't need anything else, it's a fund-of-funds, an all-in-one index ETF globally diversified and optimal for Canadians.

If you find the prospect of setting up recurring purchases too intimidating, WS offers managed portfolio for 0.5% (or 0.4% if you have more than 100k with them). It's a low fee compared to mutual funds. You just answer a few questions and they propose a risk level to you. Then you set up automatic money transfers and they invest it for you. But what they do is basically XEQT, they use index ETFs. Still, it's a great option for people who lack the confidence to even invest in something like XEQT.
I've never use Questrade, but from all the platforms I've used, only WS allows for recurring purchases of fixed amounts (which is DCA by definition, a very powerful way of investing long-term). I've used RBC Investing, IBK, National Bank Direct Brokerage, Moomoo and Disnat. WS remains one of the best for long-term buy and hold.

ESG studies i‘ve read show evidence of worse performance (financial) and worse esg performance than XEQT. 

Hi all, late to the game, I've been studying investing in the past few months for the first time in my life, consuming everything I could put my hands on.
Right now I have a TFSA and RRSP accoubt on a mutual fund set up by my bank, didn't realize about the high fees until i started learning more. So now I want to switch to self-trading. I already set up a WS account.
I am in my late 30s and my goal is to reach financial independence ideally in 10-15 years.
After studying the various options, I was settling into investing into XEQT for the long term in a set and forget kind of way. However, I later realized that I would like to contribute more to ETFs with ESG characteristics.
So after long research I came up with this portfolio.
• GEQT 60% (all-equity) or GGRO 60% (20% bonds 80% stocks) or GBAL 60% (40% bonds 60% stocks)
• VGK 20%
• VXUS 20%
I obviously need to decide about the first ETF's bonds/stocks composition, i know it's a personal decision, and given the long term goal, I'm leaning toward the GGRO option but I am not sure. I picked VGK to get some Europe exposure and VXUS for some international exposure. GGRO includes both Canada and US holdings, and it seems to have outperformed XGRO in the past few years. So have GEQT and GBAL compared to ZEQT and XBAL.
I haven't found much discussion on these ETFs on this or other subs, and being a beginner, I am hesitating a bit. Please be kind, I'm new to this game. Would appreciate any advice/suggestions about this portfolio.

No. Bonds have been all but useless, and didn't seem to do what they were "supposed" to do during COVID, either. I, personally, would have been far better off if I were 100% XEQT going into the pandemic, holding through the volatility, and riding it back up than with my 80/20-ish allocation.
The equities came roaring back, but the bonds tanked when the interest rate hikes started, and I'm *still* underwater there even after years of rebalancing and averaging down.

I'm 43, and presently 90/10 with equal amounts of XEQT and VGRO..
Next year my mortgage renewal and I plan to shift to 100% XEQT.and resume accelerated payments on my mortgage.
Once my mortgage is paid off then I switch to like an 80/20 allocation. When I approach retirement I'll hire a fee only advisor to work out an optimal de-accumulation strategy.

In a world where many people crave simplicity in their investing (ex. XEQT and chill), such products cater to those who want simplicity. Now simplicity comes at a cost.
P.S. Leveraged ETFs are allowed in TFSA and RRSP accounts. Using margin to leverage up can only be used in unregistered accounts.

Thank you. More than half of my portfolio is allocated to XEQT and other growth ETFs, as well as gold ETFs. I'm looking for income ETFs that pay high-dividends to pair with them and use their dividends to invest into my growth ETFs. I plan to hold these dividend ETFs for at least 2 years. I don't know if that's a good strategy. Highly considering HHIS and HHIC that pays $0.25/unit and $0.16/unit, respectively. They're both diversified. Thoughts?

XEQT for now. If there's a new ETF very close to XEQT in composition at 50% of XEQT's MER, I'd switch.

Invest into XEQT every month and forget the rest. Let time work for you.

XEQT is pretty optimal, not much you can do that actually has higher *expected* returns and not just higher *potential* returns (i.e. shifting towards the more speculation/gambling side of things).
You could look into [factor investing](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKWbW7Wgm0w), but we don't have any particularly good ETFs for that yet.

Just XEQT forever?

You want an ETF (cheap) that is broad and diversified (many countries and all sectors).
Normally, you need to find stocks in technology,.banks, energy, etc. And I'm North America, Europe, Asia, etc
Everything has to be balanced and coherent. It's complicated.
Luckily,. someone has done that, it's called VEQT or XEQT. That's why people have them so much. An all-in-one ETF that is all you need.
You buy one share, it's like 10,000 stocks in everything in the right proportions. All you need!

Behavioral risk will be your biggest obstacle to steady gains. To avoid this, open WealthSimple and set up recurring investments in XEQT. Ignore all other advice for 5 years.

If you’re a set it and forget it type, something like VEQT or XEQT would be good starting points

XEQT or VEQT have insane returns right now and I've held them for the past 5 years.

Two words: risk tolerance.
Sure one can balance CBILL and XEQT on their own to match their own risk tolerance. And then rebalance with every new purchase to keep close to the target proportion matching the person's risk tolerance. And then update one's own risk assessment every few years.
Or one could just get a target date mutual fund and pay a slightly higher MER as a fee for the above done for the person automatically.