Views from the Desk
Views from the Desk

2025 ETF Trends in Canada

Nov. 27, 2025

In today’s episode, special guest Andres Rincon and your host, Erika Toth, reflect on the top ETF trends and themes from the year, including industry flows, new innovative listings, and enhanced fee transparency coming soon from the investment industry. Plus, what investors can expect in 2026.

Erika Toth is Director and Head of ETF and Portfolio Consultants at BMO Global Asset Management. She is joined on the podcast by Andres Rincon, Managing Director of ETF Sales and Strategy, TD Securities. The episode was recorded live on Monday, November 242025.

ETFs mentioned:

ETF Flows, National Bank Report, November 2025.

Canadian ETF Fact Sheet, TD Securities, November 182025.

CLOs: Collateralized Loan Obligations

Duration: A measure of the sensitivity of the price of a fixed income investment to a change in interest rates. Duration is expressed as number of years. The price of a bond with a longer duration would be expected to rise (fall) more than the price of a bond with lower duration when interest rates fall (rise).

Alpha: A measure of performance often considered the active return on an investment. It gauges the performance of an investment against a market index or benchmark which is considered to represent the market’s movement as a whole. The excess return of an investment relative to the return of a benchmark index is the investment’s alpha.

Beta: A measure of the volatility, or systematic risk, of a security or a portfolio in comparison to the market as a whole.

Barbell: The barbell investment strategy is a high-risk, high-reward approach that combines a small portion of high-risk assets with a larger portion of low-risk assets, which aims to minimize risk while still allowing for potential capital appreciation. 

Leverage: An investment strategy of using borrowed money - specifically, the use of various financial instruments or borrowed capital - to increase the potential return of an investment. 

OM Fund: An Offering Memorandum fund refers to a type of investment fund that allows companies to raise capital from retail investors without the need for a full prospectus.

Total Cost Reporting: An upcoming initiative under Client Relationship Model Phase 3 (CRM3), as per the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization.

Fund Expense Ratio (FER): A measure of an investment fund’s annual operating expenses as a percentage of its assets.

Management Expense Ratio (MER): the percentage of the annual fees plus the annual expenses, divided by the average net assets of the fund. 

Trading Expense Ratio (TER): The TER represents the costs each fund spends on brokerage commissions for buying and selling the underlying investments. 

Disclaimers:

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This podcast is for information purposes. The viewpoints expressed by the speakers represent their assessment of the markets at the time of publication. Those views are subject to change without notice at any time. The information contained herein is not, and should not be construed as, investment, tax or legal advice to any party. Investments should be evaluated relative to the individual’s investment objectives and professional advice should be obtained with respect to any circumstance. 

Any statement that necessarily depends on future events may be a forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of performance. They involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although such statements are based on assumptions that are believed to be reasonable, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from expectations. Investors are cautioned not to rely unduly on any forward-looking statements. In connection with any forward-looking statements, investors should carefully consider the areas of risk described in the most recent prospectus.

Sector ETF products are also subject to sector risk and non-diversification risk, which generally will result in greater price fluctuations than the overall market.

The Select Sector SPDR Trust consists of eleven separate investment portfolios (each a Select Sector SPDR ETF” or an ETF” and collectively the Select Sector SPDR ETFs” or the ETFs”). Each Select Sector SPDR ETF is an index fund” that invests in a particular sector or group of industries represented by a specified Select Sector Index. The companies included in each Select Sector Index are selected on the basis of general industry classification from a universe of companies defined by the S&P 500®. The investment objective of each ETF is to provide investment results that, before expenses, correspond generally to the price and yield performance of publicly traded equity securities of companies in a particular sector or group of industries, as represented by a specified market sector index.

The S&P 500, SPDRs, and Select Sector SPDRs are trademarks of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. and have been licensed for use. The stocks included in each Select Sector Index were selected by the compilation agent. Their composition and weighting can be expected to differ to that in any similar indexes that are published by S&P.

The S&P 500 Index is an unmanaged index of 500 common stocks that is generally considered representative of the U.S. stock market. The index is heavily weighted toward stocks with large market capitalizations and represents approximately two-thirds of the total market value of all domestic common stocks. The S&P 500 Index figures do not reflect any fees, expenses or taxes. An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, fees and expenses before investing.

You cannot invest directly in an index.

All investments involve risk. The value of an ETF can go down as well as up and you could lose money. The risk of an ETF is rated based on the volatility of the ETF’s returns using the standardized risk classification methodology mandated by the Canadian Securities Administrators. Historical volatility does not dictate how volatile an ETF will be in the future. An ETF with a risk rating of low” can still lose money. 

CLOs are floating- or fixed-rate debt securities issued in different tranches, with varying degrees of risk, by trusts or other special purpose vehicles (“CLO Issuers”) and backed by an underlying portfolio consisting primarily of below investment-grade corporate loans. The BMO AAA CLO ETF pursues its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 85% of its net assets in CLOs that, at the time of purchase, are rated AAA or the equivalent by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization. The BMO BBB CLO ETF pursues its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 75% of its net assets in CLOs that are BBB-rated at the time of purchase. 

AAA herein refers to the order of payments, should there be any defaults, and does not represent the ratings of the underlying loans within the CLO. If there are loan defaults or the CLO Issuer’s collateral otherwise underperforms, scheduled payments to senior tranches take precedence over those of mezzanine tranches (a tranche or tranches subordinated to the senior tranche; e.g., AAA tranches are the most senior, while BBB tranches are mezzanine-level), and scheduled payments to mezzanine tranches take precedence over those to subordinated/​equity tranches. The riskiest portion is the Equity” tranche, which bears the first losses and is expected to bear all or the bulk of defaults from the corporate loans held by the CLO Issuer serves to protect the other, more senior tranches from default.

Commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investments in exchange-traded funds. Please read the ETF Facts or prospectus of the BMO ETFs before investing. Exchange-traded funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated.

For a summary of the risks of an investment in the BMO ETFs, please see the specific risks set out in the BMO ETF’s prospectus. BMO ETFs trade like stocks, fluctuate in market value and may trade at a discount to their net asset value, which may increase the risk of loss. Distributions are not guaranteed and are subject to change and/​or elimination.

BMO ETFs are managed and administered by BMO Asset Management Inc., an investment fund manager and a portfolio manager, and a separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal.

BMO Global Asset Management is a brand name under which BMO Asset Management Inc. and BMO Investments Inc. operate.

BMO (M-bar roundel symbol)” is a registered trademark of Bank of Montreal, used under licence.