Stock price when the opinion was issued
This is as good as any if you are looking for good dividend paying securities that are globally-based. Basically, you are buying a dividend based strategy, which means you are buying into a lot of very mature companies and you should not expect significant growth. It is conservative and the dividend provides nice downside protection. Nothing wrong with this.
Does not worry about volume. Does not know why it has done so badly. He would use VT-N instead.