As most of you will know, I report performance for a variety of MAPF competitors every month in the fund’s performance reports. The August version contains the note:
Figures for BMO Preferred Share Fund (advisor series) are not available as the fund has been terminated. This is as per an announcement by the bank on 2024-5-28. The last performance report for this awful fund was as of July 31, 2024.
So I have space for a new fund to report every month. Help me out in the comments! Suggested funds should be:
- Canadian preferred shares only
- Reasonably big
- Reasonably good performers – give me something that’s worth beating!
- Preferably, at least a five-year track record
- Publicly reported performance data in the usual format
RBC Canadian Preferred Share ETF – RPF
This chart of this fund looks a lot like the inverse of your monthly chart showing the spread between GOC-5 and the interest-adjusted FixedReset (Discount) rate. That’s because RPF holds only FR preferred shares. The performance of this fund is one of my leading indicators for what your monthly chart will reveal.
RBC Canadian Preferred Share ETF – RPF
I’m already reporting it!
They didn’t publish their July figures until after my cut-off time, but performance ending June 30 was reported in a more timely fashion.
I only see MAPF / TXPR / CPD numbers in the link unless I’m missing something.
TPRF looks to be the best performing of the ETFs. It’s not purely prefs, although neither is HPR or DXP.
I only see MAPF / TXPR / CPD numbers in the link unless I’m missing something.
Numbers for the tracked competitors are reported in the rows below the main table.
There isn’t enough space in the PrefBlog format to put them all side by side – for that, you have to get PrefLetter. But here’s the example from the August PrefLetter, for free.
“I’m already reporting it!”
Guilty of not looking the footnotes area.
Ah gotcha I only read the RPF footnote which didn’t have numbers but maybe because the data is missing. I do see others with numbers for July. The August footnotes have entirely “+%” or “-%” with no numbers at all. Binary results!
The August footnotes have entirely “+%” or “-%” with no numbers at all.
None of the linked sources had the August data when I looked earlier today. I always check again before PrefLetter goes out, but some funds don’t even make that deadline often enough.
Ah gotcha I only read the RPF footnote which didn’t have numbers but maybe because the data is missing. I do see others with numbers for July.
They didn’t have the July data in time for the August PrefLetter so they got left out. As mentioned above, June data was available in time for publication.
You can’t expect rinky-dink companies like RBC to publish performance on a timely basis. They just don’t have the staff. For timeliness you have to look at enormous conglomerates, like Hymas Investment Management Inc. … (mostly, anyway).
They may not be timely but at least they have… lower returns?
They may not be timely but at least they have… lower returns?
Every time I prepare this table I ask myself: “Why am I not running every dollar there is?”
Regrettably, performance doesn’t mean as much as one might expect when selling a retail fund – it’s more about sales, brand names and firm handshakes than investment returns.
I’ve been criticized for this view in the past so I will specify a special case: retail funds can often add immensely to assets under management by having an extraordinarily good year, especially with equity funds. The hot money pours in. Naturally, half of this hot money vanishes in a few years in search of the Next Big Thing … but half of it stays due to retail inertia and indolence.