Canadian investors don’t need to look south of the border to find strongly performing ETFs.
Canada has its own wide array of ETFs to choose from, some of which are up more than 50% over the last three years.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the top-performing Canadian ETFs over the last three years, including what those funds track, their expense ratios, volume, and dividend yield.
Only ETFs listed on Canadian exchanges that do at least 20,000 in daily average volume and are non-leveraged were considered for the list. Only the top-performing fund in each industry is mentioned.
Even Americans may consider looking to Canada for some of their ETF investments according to Cory Mitchell, an analyst with Trading.biz. “Canada has allowed ETFs to hold physical Bitcoin and Ethereum for some time.
The US only recently allowed physical Bitcoin ETFs and is only now about to start allowing physical Ethereum ETFs. Canada has strong regulatory requirements and has acted quickly on allowing physical cryptocurrency ETFs to market.
The US was and still is slow to allow physical crypto ETFs, which are generally superior for investors compared to ETFs that are based on futures contracts…which the US did allow. Futures-based ETFs tend to underperform physical asset ETFs because futures expire and thus need to be continually repurchased, which incurs fees and reduced performance.
Many of these physically-backed crypto ETFs, that aren’t available in the US, can be purchased in Canada, often priced/purchasable in both US and Canadian dollars.”
Top performing Canadian ETF – XEG.TO
The iShares S&P/TSX Capped Energy Index ETF
- 3-Year Total Return: 160%
- Average Daily Volume: 0.9 million
- Yearly Expense Ratio:0.6%
- Dividend Yield: 3.1%
This fund owns stocks related to the energy industry. It is the top-performing non-leveraged Canadian ETF over the last three years.
2nd best performing Canadian ETF – BTCX.B.TO
CI Galaxy Bitcoin ETF C$ Unhedged Series Units
- 3-Year Total Return: 96.3%
- Average Daily Volume: 0.5 million
- Yearly Expense Ratio: 0.76%
- Dividend Yield: 0%
This fund owns physical Bitcoins and thus tracks the price of Bitcoin in percentage terms. It was outperformed only by two energy ETFs over the last three years. It is also available in US dollars under the ticker symbol BTCX.U.TO.
3rd best performing Canadian ETF – TUED.TO
TD Active US Enhanced Dividend ETF
- 3-Year Total Return: 59.4%
- Average Daily Volume: 0.02 million
- Yearly Expense Ratio: 0.73%
- Dividend Yield: 2.5%
Excluding several energy and bitcoin ETFs, of which the top performers in those industries are mentioned above, this was the third-best-performing ETF over the last three years. The average volume is low at just over 22,000 shares per day. While the fund is based in Canada, it focuses on buying dividend-paying stocks in the United States.
4th best performing Canadian ETF – ETHX.B.TO
CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF
- 3-Year Total Return: 54.4%
- Average Daily Volume: 0.5 million
- Yearly Expense Ratio: 0.77%
- Dividend Yield: 0%
This fund owns physical Ethereum cryptocurrency and thus tracks the price of Ethereum in percentage terms. It is also available in US dollars under the ticker symbol ETHX.U.TO.
While these are some of the top-performing ETFs in Canada over the last three years, the study is backward-looking. These funds may not be the best performing over the next year or more. That said, investors may wish to look at these funds and decide if they are worth researching and including in a portfolio if the ETFs meet their personal investment objectives.
