ETFs and Management Fees in October, 2026

 

September revived it's reputation as being a historically rough month for the Markets and the start of October is not much better but over the long term just a blip on the charts covering a few years.

Down markets and losses tend to keep some investors awake at night like this cover of the October issue of Canadian Money Saver.

On the flip side I like to wait and watch for any lower prices on the stocks I have plans to further buy or buy the dip. 

With the ETFs I got hooked on "DIV" ETFs holding XDIV ... iShares Canadian Core MSCI Canadian Quality Dividend Index gaining 24% year to date along with a 3.17% yield. A combined total return of 27%. The top ten holdings are mainly in the financial and energy sectors.

Keeping management fees low at 11% is a plus I look at when researching ETFs.

Recently I was reading an article about BMO ETF's and stopped at ZDIV which interested me and also with a low 10% management fee. BMO MSCI Canada IMI High Dividend Yield Index ETF launched in February of 2026 with quality dividend paying stocks in the top ten holdings and a different weighting than XDIV. A slightly higher yield at 3.60% with ZDIV.

Can ZDIV, the cheaper ETF to buy at this time, perform or outperform XDIV with a 53% gain for 2 years and higher over 5 years at 90+%? I'll find it an interesting comparison with hopefully a growing total return going forward.

With the current high yield ETFs making waves with yields upwards of 10% or more which have features like bi-monthly payments, etc. ETFs with decent gains along with a yield is an alternative compared to the popular VDY and XEI keeping management fees reasonably low.

Looking down through the top ten holdings in those ETF's, buying the stocks for a portfolio makes for a good starting point or foundation. 

On the topic of waves ... I tend to look a week ahead and browse through upcoming ex-dividend dates. For the 15th of October I seen ALC.TSX listed. Algoma Central Corporation which I hold. Is that an error where November 17th is the next ex-dividend date for ALC?

Going to their site and reading the latest news. October 8th, management announced a special dividend of $1 with an ex-dividend date of October 15th and increasing it's current regular dividend by 10 cents for November 17th.

I'm a conservative investor and while digesting this news which is abnormal for this Canadian Great Lakes Shipping company with a long history, it's stock jumped $5. After reading management's decision and conviction I decided to buy more shares knowing the price will probably drop some after the special dividend is paid out.

Overall, I'm pleased with the 100%% total return gain since buying back in 2023 and 2024 before buying more shares last week. 

Just an example of surprise updates from companies that appear unexpected on the market horizon such as Emera, EMA merging with Canadian Utilities, CU in 2027. ATCO owns CU so they will apparently be spun off as an industrial company when finalised.  There will be more news on that move to come I'm sure. I own EMA with an ex-dividend date nearing month's end.

Stocks and ETFs I mentioned in the article are my personal picks and not investment advise while I measure the risk and potential reward in investing.

It's already the last quarter of 2026 and companies I own have begin updating dates and times for their quarterly results to come and I'm looking forward to some positive forward guidance.

  

Buy Backs and Energy Boom in September of 2026

 

It was a good week for Canada as Prime Minster Carney presented investment opportunities to international and national investors bringing in near $500 billion with a target of 1 trillion. The big banks of Canada have announced millions in funding as well as our own CPP investment board. 

In Atlantic Canada, defence and infrastructure projects where billions are earmarked with a recent article highlighting an estimated workforce of nearly two thirds more would be needed than the current workforce. With the housing shortage that will be a challenge to attract people as rent and housing prices continue to increase since the Covid years at a pace with major cities like Toronto.

Oil and shipping continues to be the talk where there is no end in sight for the Iran conflict with Saudi Arabia getting more involved as their oil supply routes get disrupted temporarily.

With oil prices over and under $100 a barrel these days, Western Canada oil and gas companies are enjoying extra profits for now. Using Suncor stock as a measure, SU was just just shy of a $100 CAD a few days ago.

Buy backs can be a bonus for investors where companies buy back and cancel their stock with a goal to increase the price of the stock pleasing investors and if paying dividends, reduce their distributable cash payment percentage for the company among other factors or use those funds for capital expansion/upgrades.

In a recent update, Gibson Energy, GEI.TSX intends to buy back and cancel 5% of their shares amounting to over 7.25 million shares over a 12 month period. That "could" be a positive move for current holders as mentioned above so I decided to buy more GEI along with the current yield being attractive.  

The Globe and Mail publishes articles on company stats and buybacks with a recent article from Norman Rothery.

Buybacks, or share repurchases, offer companies an alternate way to return money to shareholders other than paying dividends. Companies that buy their own shares (or pay dividends) are usually profitable and, hopefully, have an excess of cash to deploy, which can make them good investments.

Personally, I find the Energy sector most interesting of all the sectors where I keep up on news and updates of what's going on with the companies I hold. 

Energy investment boom

BMO analyst Ben Pham outlined the potential winners from an expected boom in domestic oil and gas investment,

“We believe the development of large scale oil pipeline projects in Western Canada is shaping up as a major investment opportunity for Canadian energy infrastructure companies. Rising oil production, favourable macro and political backdrop, higher commodity prices and tight pipe capacity are the key drivers. Fortunately, there are 2.5M bbl/d of proposals in various stages of development just in the nick of time, though it is unlikely that all will be built and/or built on time. Companies that are participating directly include SOBO (’market perform’), PPL (Mkt), and ENB (’outperform’) with proposed oil infrastructure projects. We also flag ALA (OP), KEY (OP) and PPL (Mkt) for follow-on NGLs/ condensate/exports requirements, GEI (Mkt) for oil storage, ACO.X (OP)/CU (Mkt) for regulated ‘wires’ and CPX/TA (both OP) for power generation”

I don't own ALA, CU or TA at this time but Canadian Utilities, CU.TSX stock has awakened from a slumber since February of 2025 gaining 44% and it's perked my interest after holding it in the past and sold. CU is a Dividend Aristocrat with over 50 years of dividend growth. Noting that the yearly dividend increases has slowed to 1% from an average of 10% after 2018. One of the reasons I sold but with the capital gain added in, makes CU more interesting.

South Bow Corporation, SOBO.TSX is on my list to further buy before the ex-dividend date of September 29th and Capital Power, CPX.TSX. 

The inception date for RCDC, RBC Canadian Dividend Covered Call ETF was January 2023 and I began buying the ETF at that time to boost monthly distribution from companies I own individually along with railroads such as CP in the current top 10 holdings.

The ETF has 79.37 million in assets so far. Total return is around 24.5% for the past year. 

The US banking giant JP Morgan is expanding in Canada and I've been buying their Canadian version of JEPQ with NASDAQ holdings and an attractive but fluctuating yield. They recently added a CAD hedged version of JEPQ to their ETF lineup, JPQH with monthly distributions being paid usually on the 8th day of a month.

September has been historically a flat month for stocks returns with sector exceptions depending on what's going on with the economy and politically these days. For example the surge of interest in gold miners this year.

I've read and agree, it's probably a good time to keep some cash in reserve for buying at lower stock prices however I don't wait around to time the markets. Rarely works with all the moving parts such as inflation, oil prices and supply, political agendas, tariffs, etc.

For October, I see banks and related ETFs on my ex-dividend calendar. Banks are more expensive in 2026 reporting earnings investors like to see as price to earnings levels are higher than normal. There are dozens of ETF options out there and growing to receive monthly payments with banks in the holdings.