The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition the one-year total return at CIBC to the end of February is 7.5 per cent, the worst performance of the Big Five. The Globe's David Berman writes among its peers, CIBC has the biggest exposure to the Canadian retail market but has stated that it wants to expand into the United States with the purchase of a wealth management firm. Approach this stock as a turnaround story, he says. The shares have lagged their peers. Mr. Berman says it is hard to lose if you buy and hold Canadian bank stocks, which over the past decade have delivered gains of 170 per cent, after factoring in dividends. If your timing had been bad, and you bought bank stocks at their prefinancial crisis peak in 2007, you would still be up 74 per cent today. The Globe writer says this demonstrates that Canadian banks are nearly bulletproof, making them particularly attractive stocks for anyone who can ride out the volatility or buy into the dips. Investors can buy all the banks or invest in a bank-heavy exchange-traded fund. Canadian banks have been keen to diversify beyond their domestic bases in different ways, giving investors a number of options for selecting a potential outperformer.