"I think savvy investors are enjoying the ride," says Allan Small, senior investment adviser at IA Private Wealth.
"If you continue to rotate money amongst different types of investments and not be greedy and trim your profits when you have them, I think that is the best way to protect on the way up because we all know that nothing goes up forever," he said. "I think the gains are more muted in the second half of the year. I still think they'll be gains, but perhaps you end up coming in at maybe 20 or 22 per cent gains for the year, of which 15 per cent was the first half and only five or seven was the second half."
The survey of 8,550 investors globally including 300 in Canada, found that long-term expectations by Canadian investors are 15 per cent higher than before the pandemic began and two times more than the 5.1 per cent returns financial professionals say is realistic. Canadians have been spending more on investments from an estimated $220 billion of savings resulting from reduced spending during COVID, along with help from government subsidies. And Canadian household net worth, including real estate holdings, has risen by $2 trillion during the pandemic to above $16 trillion, according to BMO chief economist Douglas Porter.
Anish Chopra, managing director with Portfolio Management Corp., said investors are starting to anticipate a slowdown in growth and are making adjustments by paring back on cyclical stocks.