A Comment -- General Comments From an Expert (A Commentary)

Markets. Looking at European and US situations there are causes for concern. The big question is, are they real causes of concern or something on the other side of the mountain that you won't figure out until you get to the top? He tends to be optimistic. Won't be as severe as 2008-2009 as a lot of people have taken cover and corporations are sitting with trillions of cash.

(A Top Pick Aug 6/10. Up 53.72%.) BMG Bullion Fund. Gold, silver and platinum in Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS-T) vaults.

Market. Just saw statistics that indicated despite the volatility last week, Bulls went from 47.3% to 46.2% and Bears didn't tick higher. This indicates complacency in this market where people are assuming things will ultimately go higher but there are some risks in the market right now. The interest is in yield rather than in capital appreciation.

Gold. Looks like it is going higher and is benefiting from the current environment. Prefers physical gold to producers. Costs of bringing in new mines have gone up and increasing gold prices have not offset this. His preferences are Yamana (YRI), Eldorado (ELD-T), Allied Nevada (ANV-T) and Kirkland Lake (KGI-T).

Market. 3 things are happening. 1) A collapse in confidence by investing public and Main Street and government's inability to deal with the deficit and the issue of more debt. 2) Forecasts that we are already into the 2nd recession in a couple of years. 3) Has all been exasperated by high frequency trading and hedge fund short-term manipulation. Until there is some direction from the government, the economy or steps taken to reduce the impact of short-term traders, markets are going to be in limbo.

Market: Last week people were exiting without any regard to fundamentals. He thought had to go to cash himself. Not making any major changes to his portfolio. We are seeing new leadership starting to emerge. The good stocks in the next year will not be the same as the last. Sees a 25-30% move in the markets in the next year.

Getting more and more challenging to find decent growth in income stocks. With the Fed committing to keeping interest rates low for the next 2 years, dividend yields on a lot of stocks are starting to look very attractive. These are companies that should be able to grow their payout ratios over the next few years. Raising dividends is very important rather than paying out a one-time dividend.

REITs. What happens if property values fall? REITs sold off quite hard in the last sell off but probably because investors were looking for liquidity. Right now this market offers some tremendous opportunities. There should be a good few years in this space.

Oil. Where there is fear, there is opportunity. The most important thing to look in oil demand is emerging, economic growth. Power demand in China was up 12% last month and they account for 50% of oil demand. Tanker rates have been very strong. Global inventories are much lower than last year.

Market. There was a lot of fear last week. You could see it in prices as well as the way the market reacted. Almost everything was oversold. Friday and today felt quite a bit more normal. His equity portfolio has about 18% gold and 17% cash. Expect there will still be volatility over the next 3-4 months as Europe and the US economy is sorted out.

Markets. There is a big spread between bond yields and equity (earnings) yields so he is currently investing in equities.

Markets. Real estate is a good place to park money in times of uncertainty. The world is looking for income and REITs in Canada are providing a very high yield, which is sustainable. They have all brought their payout ratios down to 80%-90% as well and their basic businesses are sound. Earnings are very safe.

Markets are in a crisis of confidence. He continues to put strong emphasis on asset class diversification in equity and bonds so there is as much cash flow coming in as possible and when markets drop-off like this, there is more cash to reinvest in high-quality assets.

Markets. It's going to take us a long time getting out of this so you have to be defensive. Don't take action and sell during this period, but wait until the market stabilizes. There will be more market plummets so make sure your portfolio is set up for the long-term so that you can take advantage when the market recovers.

Canadian banks. Low interest rates will spur people to make other investments which is good for them. The negative is the net interest charges as they will make less money on their spreads lending out to investors. Earnings will continue to grow. His favourite is National Bank (NA-T) followed closely by Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS-T) and would be a buyer today.