With North American markets near fresh all-time highs, independent Canadian investment fund manager Harvest ETFs believes more investors are willing to trade some returns for stability.

January has been a brisk month for stocks. Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite index (^GSPTSE) booked a new all-time high on Monday. The U.S. benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) did the same on Tuesday, coming a few points shy of its close above 7,000 points.

Then on Friday, Canada’s main stock index dropped more than 1,000 points after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Kevin Warsh as the next chair of the Federal Reserve. The news sent the U.S dollar higher, putting pressure on gold and Canada’s mining-heavy index. U.S. markets ended the day in the red.

Many stalwarts of Canadian retail investor portfolios, like the shares of the big banks and gold miners, have hit fresh highs in 2026. Harvest’s president and co-chief investment officer says the ever-expanding world of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) now has options-based products to help manage this risk.

“What we thought was, with the skew in the options market, we would actually add put options onto Canadian banks,” Paul MacDonald told Yahoo Finance Canada in a recent interview.

“The difference between covered calls and puts is, when you write a covered call, you forgo some of the upside. When you write a put option, you miss some of the downside,” he added. “Nobody is doing it on the put-side of the equation.”

Harvest is the fourth-largest Canadian ETF provider, with about $10 billion in assets under management. Global X (formerly Horizons) is the largest, at about $48 billion, followed by Purpose Investments, and Hamilton ETFs, at $31 billion and $13 billion, respectively. Of course, their products also compete with offerings from global financial institutions, including Canada’s big banks.

Harvest’s recent push into the popular single-stock ETF category includes offerings for several recently high-flying Canadian stocks like Royal Bank (RY.TO)(RY), TD Bank (TD.TO)(TD), uranium producer Cameco (CCO.TO)(CCJ), Shopify (SHOP.TO)(SHOP), gold producer Agnico Eagle Mines (AEM.TO)(AEM), and oilsands giant Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ.TO)(CNQ).

“You can now buy that same individual stock, and we’ll write options on it every month for you,” MacDonald said, adding that many of these names have been on a “spectacular run” recently.

The market for ETFs has seen explosive growth as well. Last month, analysts at National Bank of Canada said inflows to Canadian ETFs hit a record-breaking $125 billion in 2025. That’s up 64 per cent from the previous high set in 2024. Last year, ETFs also broke records for asset growth, new fund launches, and overall volume, according to the bank’s report.

With earnings season in full swing, MacDonald sees more room to run for sectors like Canadian banks, oil, and gold.

“I would expect more modest returns than we’ve seen in the past year,” he said of Canada’s banking stocks.

“As long as there’s fear and anticipation, I think the commodities are going to stay elevated.” Yahoo Finance