Overall, we view these banks near equal in terms of strength. Royal Bank is a Foundational Stock, primarily because it is the largest bank (and company) in the country with exposure to nearly 40 countries and economies around the world. Its diversity is unmatched by any other bank.
Toronto Dominion is a strong player both here and in the United States. It has large-scale exposure to North America and it's been one of the fastest growing banks of the last while, particularly when it comes to dividend growth.
Bank of Montreal out of these 3 has the highest exposure to Canada, with over 60% of its income coming from here. However, expansion into the US is going well, and fast. Its acquisition of Bank of the West will continue to accelerate this.
Historically, buying the weakest performing bank from the year and holding it has proven to be a strong strategy, one that has worked out most of the time. However, we now do this with the 4 best performing banks (NA,TD,BMO,RY) and leave out the laggards, CM and BNS. We feel they are falling too far behind, and Canada's banks seem to be separating into two groups.
As such, we added BMO to the Bull List as it was the weakest performing this year, and is also the cheapest.
Of note, I own equal-weighted positions in the 3 major banks, RY, TD, and BMO. I typically will rebalance these at the end of the year. It is a strategy I have utilized since selling BNS in early 2020.