The Measured Database of Canadian Index ETFs

This database keeps tabs on the vast majority of Canadian index ETFs.

First, we’ll walk through a few charts which give a ten-thousand-foot view of the data.

At the bottom of the page, you can scroll through the detailed list of all of the ETFs. There, you’ll find key metrics for each fund, such as total assets under management (AUM), management expense ratios (MER), performance / yield data, and fund inception dates.

All of the data on this page is as of Dec. 31, 2018. I’ll do my best to update this database periodically with fresh information.

 

Providers of Canadian Index ETFs

As it stands, this list covers funds from 6 of the top providers in Canada, as shown in the chart above.

According to statistics from the Canadian ETF Association, there are a total of 33 fund providers in Canada, with total AUM of $156.8B. As such, this database covers roughly 87% of the total Canadian market (in terms of AUM).

Given the manual work required to pull data from the long tail of providers, the remaining funds have been excluded from this analysis. In future updates to this database, I hope to chip away at that pesky missing 13%.

 

Asset Class Summary

The lion’s share of assets are invested in equity funds (69%) and fixed income funds (29%).

While ‘Asset Allocation’ funds (which invest in a mix and equity and fixed income assets, with rebalancing done automatically for you) only manage $1B of assets today, I’d expect this number to grow significantly in the coming years. These funds provide investors with a surefire path to sticking with a target asset allocation, and reduce the number of trades that you’ll need to make.

Funds which primarily invest in commodities, alternative assets (e.g., hedge funds), and currencies are just a minor blip on the screen (<1% of total AUM).

 

1-Year Return Distribution

There are no two ways about it — 2018 wasn’t a great year for investors.

Roughly two-thirds of Canadian funds had negative returns through the full calendar year.

Note that the chart above shows 1-year returns as of Dec. 31, 2018. These are total returns (including the re-investment of dividends), net of the investment management fees charged.

 

5-Year Return Distribution

However, when we zoom out to consider a 5-year view, the scene is much more pleasant. ~90% of funds provided positive returns in the 2014 to 2018 time period.

A not-so-subtle reminder that while markets can be choppy in any single year, the long-term trend points upwards.

 

Management Expense Ratio (MER) Distribution

Turning to the annual fees charged by Canadian funds, we can see a bi-modal distribution. There’s a clump of funds charging between 0.2% to 0.3%, and another large group of funds charging 0.6% to 0.7%.

Here’s hoping that the fees continue to drop, following the lead of our neighbour to the south, where funds with zero management fees have recently been introduced.

 

Master Database of Canadian Index ETFs

And without further ado, you can find the full database of Canadian index ETFs below.

Scroll through the table to view a comprehensive listing of the funds in this database. Click on any of the column headers to sort the table by that metric (in ascending or descending order).

 

If you’d like to slice and dice the data further, you can grab a copy of the raw data from this google sheets spreadsheet.

A few technical notes:

• All of the data has been sourced directly from the fund providers’ websites. I have not calculated or implied any of the values
• AUM, MER, performance, and yield data is as of Dec. 31, 2018
• All performance data represents the total return of each fund, net of fees. This means that dividends are assumed to be re-invested back into the fund, and that the management fees have been subtracted. The returns are NOT inflation-adjusted
• The yield percentages shown represent the distributions from the funds over the past 12 months. However, for Invesco funds, the yield % represents the implied annualized yield from the previous month’s distribution (as opposed to an entire 12 month period). As such, the yield figures for Invesco funds should be treated as directional at best, given that the distribution for a fund in a single month can diverge significantly from a typical annual average

 

The Path Forward

So… that was a lot of data, and a healthy serving of jargon.

If you’re new to ETFs, or new to investing in general, here’s a simple and straightforward path forward.

Read through these articles for a primer on how you can easily go from zero to investing hero:

• Let your money work while you sleep — an intro to the power of compound interest, and some motivation for starting to invest ASAP
• A blueprint for building wealth — what a passive investing strategy is, why you should use one, and a guide to getting started from scratch
• How to trade online — the nitty gritty on the mechanics of executing trades in an online brokerage account

And for the definitive take on the list of investments that you should hold in your portfolio, here are the Canadian Couch Potato’s recommendations (see option #3 — ETFs). This is the exact strategy that I’ve been following myself for several years now.
 
 
 
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Header image credit: Mario Zucca Illustration