Can you hedge against a market crash with ETFs? + MORE Dec 24th

For a while there, it appeared Canada’s housing market was seeing shoots of improvement – but buyers retreated back to the sidelines in November, further dousing price growth and leading to overall improved affordability conditions. As reported by the Canadian Real Estate Association, home sales were largely flat – dipping slightly by -0.6% from October—and remaining nearly 11% below the same time frame in 2024. That led to the average Canadian home price declining by 2%, to $682,219.

As a result, those softening home prices made it easier to purchase property in the vast majority of Canadian urban markets; according to the latest study by Ratehub.ca, affordability ticked higher in 12 of 13 of the nation’s biggest cities. The study, which measures how real estate purchasing power evolves on a month-by-month basis, defines affordability as the amount of income a home buyer would need to earn to qualify for a mortgage in the average-priced home in their city. Ratehub crunches the numbers based on national real estate data, as well as changes to mortgage rates and the mortgage stress test…

Earlier in August 2025, I wrote a column outlining an alternative to the classic 60/40 stock-and-bond portfolio called the 40/30/30 portfolio. The idea was simple: allocate 40% to equities, 30% to bonds, and 30% to alternative asset classes that have the potential to move differently when both stocks and bonds struggle. In theory, that mix would have helped in rare years like 2022, when equities and fixed income fell together.

That approach, however, comes with trade-offs. Higher fees are a real issue, as many alternative strategies rely on active management. Complexity is another. Finding ETFs that genuinely diversify returns rather than just repackage familiar risks is not easy. And even when you get the construction right, one major gap remains. The portfolio is not designed to protect against a true market crash. When I say crash, I mean sudden, deep, double-digit drawdowns like those seen during the 2008 financial crisis or the sudden collapse in March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic…