.. and that is the beauty of these market-linked GICs.  Unsophisticated investors who are not comfortable with buying stocks or ETFs can at least get a better return than with straight GICs.  Probably difficult for Globe and Mail readers to appreciate but there are lots of people (little ole ladies in particular) who aren't interested in learning about different types of incomes and tax rates, or even opening an online bank account to get better interest rates (which the market-linked GICs almost invariably beat over the 3 or 5 year term ayway).