More than 1,000 ETFs are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange today, a mix of new products shovelled into the market to address one trend or another and tried-and-true funds with a solid track record, Rob Carrick writes. There’s sufficient supply of this latter type of fund to offer a thought to Canadian ETF investors: Instead of putting money into U.S.-listed ETFs, buy domestic.
The cost of owning the US$323-billion SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and its Canadian counterparts are pretty much the same, but the cost of buying is a different story. When you buy a TSX-listed ETF holding U.S. stocks, your money is converted into U.S. dollars by the ETF company. When buying a U.S.-listed ETF, your broker converts your Canadian dollars into U.S. currency.