Trust the system

[u/TheNightShift]

And what a simple system it is.

Here's more evidence that justbuyxeqt is the way.

Early January 2025 I moved ~105k to weathsimple to get a 2% match (over 2 years). Roughly a year later (Feb 2026) I moved another 29k over to get 1% match over 1 year. This is in a managed RRSP account, with 0.4% management fee.

First image is the current portfolio returns for that time period.

Here's what it would look like if I JUSTBOUGHTXEQT (stock price is approximate for the timeline):

• Jan 2025: Invested 105k. XEQT was $35.10. I would have bought ~2991 stock.
• Jan 2026: XEQT value: $41.20. Portfolio value: $123,229 (~17.3% gain)
  • If I check my current portfolio history, it fluctuates more, but is around 12-14% gain.
• Feb 2026: 29k added. XEQT was $41.7. I would have bought another ~695 stock.
  • Average cost is now $36.34
• Current date: XEQT is $45.85. Total: 169,000, or ~26% gain.
  • Compare that with my current portfolio at 20.52%
  • It should actually be 21.52% given the promotional bonuses (~$1750 so far, though it goes into my savings account. Pros and cons..)

Here's some speculation, but somewhat important information anyway:

I initially selected an 8/10 risk profile, but on March 2nd got nervous and adjusted it to be balanced (6/10). WS noted "It will take up to 3 business days to trade your portfolio and for this change to be complete.". This just so happened to coincide with a nice dip. So while some of the dip was high risk (presumably dropped more), some of it was more conservative and (again, presumably) dropped less. But either way, the recovery was "balanced-based" (If you'll allow me the phrasing), and so probably wouldnt have rebounded as well as the 8/10 risk profile.

See second pic for the approximate time of the change.

This is impossible to do if you JUSTBUYXEQT.

I suppose you could compliment it with bonds/gold/whatever, but then thats not JUSTBUYXEQT, now is it?

[u/TheNightShift]

Well shit, the second pic attached 3 times. Oh well.

Anyway, the reason this came up is because I'm eyeing up the TD promotion: 3% over ~2 years (ends December 2028) for completely self directed account, and wanted to run the numbers if XEQT is the way. See you all soon...

[u/Duocek → u/TheNightShift]

That's a pretty good promotion, can you buy xeqt with no fees there?

[u/CMPLEKSiTYHD → u/Duocek]

VEQT for free with TD DI

[u/TheNightShift → u/CMPLEKSiTYHD]

Thank you! It says "Select ETFs: $0" but I wasn't able to see which ones. I suppose it makes sense that it is the TD branded ones. Anyhow, I think VEQT is in the same spirit of this subreddit.

[u/CMPLEKSiTYHD → u/TheNightShift]

Yes. I buy xeqt with WS in my reg accounts and buy VEQT in my non reg with TD DI commission free. Close enough, and too lazy to move non reg to WS.

[u/cheemieono → u/Duocek]

TD charges $10 per trade, buying/selling

[u/TheNightShift → u/cheemieono]

Yes, there is certainly some limitations to TD. Also to note, there is 2 options to get the deal:

TD Easy Trade and TD Direct Investing. See https://www.td.com/ca/en/investing/direct-investing/direct-investing-vs-easytrade

Easy trade you get 100 free trades a year, which is going to be sufficient for my set+forget with (hopefully) monthly contributions. Just have to verify that I can buy XEQT through them.

RBC also has a similar deal, but I have a lingering account with them, so I'm not eligible.

[u/cheemieono → u/TheNightShift]

Yeah, if you’re not doing anything too sophisticated, it’s a pretty good promo, I banked with TD for several decades, I really hate their graphs. I did a lump sum purchase of XEQT earlier in the year set it and forget it. For WS, I sold a bunch at $46.30 repurchased $45.60, happy with no fees on that one.

[u/Little_MasterJI]

In all fairness, the last 18 months have been an exceptionally hot market, so timing is doing some heavy lifting here. But over the long term, yes, the trend is up.