The Globe and Mail reports in its Tuesday edition that if your portfolio is making you queasy, you may want to make some derisking moves. The Globe's regular guest columnist Gordon Pape recommends the iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF. This ETF is designed to replicate the returns of the total Canadian bond universe, including government and corporate issues. It has been a choppy year, but the fund is up a little over 3 per cent so far in 2025. Bonds have a stabilizing effect on a portfolio. Studies have repeatedly shown that during bear markets, portfolios with a higher percentage of bonds fare better. The fund was launched in November, 2000, and has almost $9-billion in assets under management. The effective duration (a measure of interest-rate risk) is seven years. The MER is very low at 0.1 per cent. Payments are made monthly, currently at a rate of eight cents a unit (96 cents a year). At this level, the forward yield is 3.4 per cent. There are 1,813 positions in the portfolio. About 41 per cent of the assets are in bonds maturing in five years or less (lowest risk). If the stock market hits correction mode, the pressure will be on central banks to reduce rates, which should boost bond prices.