The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Canadian depositary receipts (CDRs) are available for trading in U.S. companies such as Amazon, Nvidia and Microsoft. The Globe's John Heinzl writes that the big advantage of CDRs is that you can buy them in Canadian dollars, which spares you from paying the steep foreign exchange costs that brokers charge for converting your loonies into greenbacks. CDRs are also currency-hedged, which means the value of your investment should be insulated, at least to an extent, from fluctuations in the Canada-U.S. exchange rate. Another benefit of CDRs is that they are easier to invest relatively small sums of money. The main drawback of CDRs is that their returns have lagged, in some cases by a wide margin, the returns of their respective U.S. stocks. Nvidia CDRs for the two years posted a gain of 215.5 per cent. That is well short of the 231.1-per-cent gain for Nvidia's U.S.-listed shares over the same period. CDRs have their advantages but, given how they have underperformed, you may be better off buying the stocks directly. Mr. Heinzl adds that you could save time and money, and reduce your risk, by investing in a broad U.S. exchange-traded fund that holds those same stocks.