J.C. HOOD INVESTMENT COUNSEL INC.

 

 

Monthly Newsletter-April 2014

 

Hello Everyone:

 

Capital Gains/Loss Statements are available.  If you have not already received these for your non-registered accounts, please let me know.

 

Asset Allocation charts are being emailed to you over the next couple of weeks.  I believe that these are a great reference point for seeing not only the equity/income ratio but for seeing what portion of your portfolio is in CDN/US/Global ETFs.  NBCN has agreed to color code all ETFs in our accounts which makes understanding the asset allocation much easier.  To print, use legal size paper.

 

Cash/Money Market - blue

Bond ETFs - green

Canadian - orange

U.S. - black

Global/EUR - pink

 

ETF Glossary:  Below is an ETF Glossary which includes our larger ETF holdings. Your portfolio will not contain all of these as there would be redundancies, but this is useful as a quick reference guide.

 

Markets:  I remain somewhat on the sidelines in this market. There has not been enough downside volatility to attract me, at least not yet. The Ukrainian situation remains in crisis mode, however as of this afternoon, there has been some encouraging news.  According to Stratfor, the defense analysis website, a tentative agreement has been reached between Russian, Ukraine and the U.S. to allow for a ‘de-centralization’ of the Ukrainian governments approach to Russian minorities.  Further, while there was much concern that China’s GDP would sag significantly, it did, but still slightly outperformed most analysts estimates, hence the recent rally.

 

These factors, not to mention the extreme weather which has softened U.S. sales and compressed earnings, has kept the brakes on any conclusive market upside.

 

 

**********************************************************

ETF GLOSSARY

ETF Providers:  X = iShares, Z = BMO, V = Vanguard, and H = Horizon

 

1.             Bond ETFs/Cash/Money Market

·           ALTA:  Altamira money market

·           CLF:  5 year Canadian government - duration 3 years

·           XSB:  2/3 Canadian government and 1/3 Canadian investment grade corp. - duration 2.7 years

·           ZXB:  BMO target maturity corp. bonds

·           HFR:  Horizon floating rate bonds

 

2.             Specialty Income/Equities/Covered Calls

·           ZEB:  Canadian banks

·           ZWB:  covered calls Canadian banks

·           ZWA:  covered call Dow Jones

·           ZWU:  covered call utilities

·           ZWH:  covered calls S&P500

 

3.             Canadian Equities

·           XIU:  TSX 60 largest

·           XIC:  TSX composite

·           XEG:  Canadian oils

·           CDZ:  Canadian dividends

·           ZDV:  Canadian dividend

·           XEI:   Canadian dividends

 

4.              US Equities

·           XSP:  S&P500

·           ZQQ:  NASDAQ

·           VV:  Vanguard large cap

·           XLV:  heath care

·           XLI:  industrials

 

5.             Global

·           VGK:  Europe

·           VXUS:  non-US large cap

·           VEE:  Vanguard emerging market

·           XIN EAFE:  Europe/Australia/Far East

·           CHI/ZCH:  China

·           EUR:  Europe First Trust

 

 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR BUSINESS

John

Member of the PORTFOLIO MANAGERS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA

And the CFA Institute

-------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
John Hood, B.A., M.A., FCSI
Pres. & Portfolio Manager
J.C. HOOD INVESTMENT COUNSEL INC.
505 Bella Vista Drive,
Pickering, Ontario L1W 2A7
Tel:  905-492-4444
Fax: 905-492-4444
http://www.jchood.com
email: jchood@rogers.com
Member of the Portfolio Management Association of Canada