Stock price when the opinion was issued
Defence is expensive. This ETF is aerospace and defence. If you want to be more precise, Raytheon (RTN-N) is a good way, which is focused on cyber defence, missile defence, has the most international sales exposure. He likes the theme of defence spending. You take out some of the idiosyncratic risks by buying this one.
ITA-N vs. XAR-N He knows the defence sector. A problem in defence is the huge run-up in Boeing, which dominates defence. ITA has a cap system in place to deal with this over-concentration in a few defence stocks, but XAR is odd because it's equal-weighted, therefore carries more risk. He prefers ITA.
Aerospace defense is doing well and terrorism is not going away. That is going to keep these stocks doing very well. Wait for a pull back. He does not buy a stock on a day it is up.