We’re winning some of the battles in some months. July saw Canadian ETF sales double up on mutual funds sales. Canadian ETF assets hit a new record at $230.6 billion. ETF assets are up 25% year over year. But of course we still trail mutual fund assets that now stand at $1.64 trillion. Are we winning some battles but still losing the war?
Here’s the latest snapshot courtesy of CEFTA, The Canadian ETF Association.

And here’s the net new creations in recent months. Yes, investors are getting more comfortable as the stock markets continue their recovery out of the recent correction. For now, it sits as a stock market correction compared to a bear market.
Who knows what the future holds?


Canadian mutual fund sales for July slipped to $3.4 billion, compared to $3.9 billion for June.
We are likely in for another record year for Canadian ETF sales. Here’s the grand totals and the recent history on net creations for the top ETF providers in Canada. We see BMO closing the gap just slightly on BlackRock (iShares) over a one year period. But BlackRock has seen the greatest growth in the past few months.
Horizons and CI First Asset are certainly the up and comers. Keep your eye on Purpose Investments as well.

What ETFs were Canadians buying in July?
Bonds were the flavour of the month; more of those risk-off assets as they can be termed. Bonds brought in $3.3 billion while equity ETFs saw flows of $3.1 billion. Money market ETFs saw flows of $420 million. Specialty ETFs brought in $315 million.
A total of $7.1 billion.
Here are the top net creations for the month of July. And remember that new issues and institutional monies can move the numbers.

Mutual fund investors removed monies from equity funds. Again, we continue to see better behaviour from ETF investors.
I was surprised to see that there was no one ticket asset allocation ETF in the top 20. Readers and blogger friends, we need to amplify this message. As we have often pointed out in the MoneySense Best ETFs for Canada, these ETF options are portfolio game changers.
Those One-Click ETF Portfolios.
It was interesting and encouraging to see TD join the one ticket gang. They like to use the phrase ‘one click’ ETF portfolios. I love that framing. All you have to do is enter one ticker symbol and press one button. When you press that one button that might be at the end of the process that sees you decrease your investment fees by some 90% or more.

Call TD today and tell them you’d like to learn how to move all of your high fee TD Mutual Fund assets to these one click options. 🙂
On this front here’s my look at the BMO one ticket portfolios and the Vanguard one ticket options.
I will soon post a review on Horizons tax efficient one ticket ETFs. In their brief history they offer Canada’s best performing one ticket options. Those portfolios offer some unique asset allocation and asset selections. The are also total return vehicles using the swap-based ETFs.
More Weekend Reads.
Vanguard US offered a study of those who made the dash to cash in the violent correction in March of this year. It was a very small subset, but some clients cashed out, completely. I found it quite surprising that more women made the move to cash. That story was part of my Making Sense of the Markets this week, for MoneySense. I also touched on Buffett finding profits but perhaps not religion in gold. Plus other big headlines from the week.
And from an investment perspective, and also on MoneySense, Bryan Borzykowski on how to tell if a company is honest.
Here’s a great post from Mark at myownadvisor – more time is a worthy goal. And as Mark and Mike (The Dividend Guy) and myself have often suggested –
“Time is the currency that matters most.”
You can’t buy back precious time with any amount of money. I have no regrets that I have long favoured time with family over ‘wealth’.
And while we’re on the subject of The Dividend Guy, here’s his July portfolio report. Mike has been asking for more wine by way of Andrew Peller shares.
And while we’re buying, Rob at Passive Canadian Income adds to his JNJ.
Rob ignored his own Twitter poll of course, ha. I hold those 4 stocks as well. For the record I voted for Microsoft.

That’s a very good four-pack IMHO.
You’ll find some interesting topics and links in GenYMoney’s Blog Round Up.
On the Maple Money podcast you’ll find Zina Kumok with tips on how to manage money during the College years.
On findependence hub an interesting post on insurance rates in Ontario and how they are affected by your location.
And The Sunday Investor offers a very interesting look at 15 years for the TSX Composite.

Thanks for reading, have yourself a great day and week.
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Dale
“Mutual fund investors removed monies from equity funds. Again, we continue to see better behaviour from ETF investors.” Hi Dale, what is your thinking here? Thanks, David
Hi David, Canadian mutual fund investors removed equities for the month. We’ve seen the continued event where mutual fund investors are bailing on investing altogether in times of volatility, or they’re being more risk sensitive. A consistent theme.
Of course many of them are not advised. Some are. The self directed investor is more aware – a better investor.
Dale
Good article linked on how to tell if a company is honest. People should investigate companies rather than just a quick glance at earnings (or adjusted earnings) numbers.
Do you worry that with the prevalence of ETF investing and ballooning values, that overvaluations will occur naturally due to funds flow and investors may end up dumping money into basically what amount to overvalued securities. In particular new investors who are encouraged to blindly jump into ETF’s for easy diversification sake – at precisely the wrong time?
Hi and thanks Family Money Saver. ETFs to not drive the markets or price the markets. They simply replicate the markets. And ETFs are still a small portion of the flows. Remember the stock markets are still priced by the active managers. ETFs go with the flow.
All said, investors do not have to use a cap weighted fund that follows that momentum.
Dale