A new Canadian ETF promises to do more than just match the market — it aims to beat it, modestly but persistently, by tilting toward certain stock characteristics that academic research has linked to higher long-run returns. That is a genuinely interesting proposition. It is also one of the oldest marketing stories in fund management, and it deserves a careful reading before any investor decides it solves a problem they actually have.
Most investors who receive a windfall — an inheritance, a business sale, a bonus — immediately ask the same question: Is now a good time? It feels like the right question. It is rarely the most useful one.
Every few years, a variation of the same fear makes the rounds among investors: as tens of millions of baby boomers retire, they will flip from being buyers of stocks to sellers, turning the market’s longtime tailwind into a steady headwind. It is a tidy story. It has a timestamp, a named protagonist, and a logical mechanism. The problem is that tidy stories in finance usually paper over the complexity underneath.
