The problem with ETFs, nonetheless, is that there are an abundance of them.
As of March 31, 2024, 1,129 ETFs from 40 fund sponsors were traded on Canadian exchanges, in response to the Canadian ETF AssociationTogether they managed assets price around $423 billion.
Our goal with this annual Best ETFs report—now in its twelfth edition—was to narrow down the list of options for do-it-yourself investors to construct a well-diversified, low-fee portfolio that’s prone to perform as well or higher than most professionally managed portfolios. This 12 months, we commissioned 11 skilled advisors, financial planners, investment analysts and bloggers from across Canada to nominate and rate what they consider to be the very best ETFs in seven categories. They searched for characteristics reminiscent of adequate exposure to the asset class or category, low management fees, high liquidity (low bid/ask spreads) and shut tracking of the indices they cover.
Readers aware of our previous Best ETFs reports will notice something latest this 12 months. Given the brand new popularity of high-yield savings and money market ETFs since rates of interest began raising two years ago, we have added a category for alternative money market funds. These ETFs are great for storing money you would possibly need within the near future in a tax-free savings account (TFSA), first home savings account (FHSA), or other account. You do not have to fret about volatility, but you continue to get a yield that puts you ahead of inflation.
In the table below you can see the very best ETFs in Canada, as judged by our panel. Slide the columns right or left along with your fingers or mouse to see more data. You can download the info to your device in Excel, CSV and PDF formats.
The best ETFs in Canada – the 2024 edition
Our methodology for the very best ETFs for Canadian investors
With the introduction of the Cash ETFs category this 12 months, we have broken down our selections into seven categories that we consider are all you actually need to administer your individual investment portfolio. On the equity side, we’ve separate categories for Canadian, U.S. and international stocks. Another category includes the very best fixed-income funds that hold bonds and sometimes preferred stocks. There’s the money category mentioned earlier. And for investors who’d quite not take care of portfolio construction and rebalancing multiple funds, we’ve a category of One Decision ETFs (known within the industry as Asset Allocation or All-in-One ETFs) that cover all of the bases.
We asked our panel of judges to nominate their favorite ETFs in each category, and from there we compiled a protracted list of candidates. We then had them vote yes or no for every fund on the list. The three candidates with essentially the most votes in each category (more within the event of a tie) made up our final number of the “Best ETFs,” which we feature here.
Finally, we asked each of our judges to call an ETF that would not pass our traditional filters but remains to be price a glance. These ETFs are listed in a bonus category (seven).
Of course, there are lots of more ETFs (not to say individual stocks) you may select to enrich these core components of your brokerage account. But with these “best ETFs” as a foundation, you may’t go far fallacious.