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

Uranium: You will get spikes and it will come back down. Look for low cost resources, undermined resources that can be brought to the market as uranium prices move higher.

We have recovered from one of the worst economic environments of his career. He is disappointed that the economy is not stronger than it is. There are some factors that could see the US economy move ahead in the next couple of months. Next year we will have some fiscal drag as the stimulus programs end.

People are giving up on Hat Gas. He thought we may get a bit of a bounce, but not so. It is inescapable not to have some holding of Nat Gas, but he has tried to minimize that. He is bullish on the price of oil on the next 12-24 months. Expected a pullback but did not get what he anticipated. It is putting in a nice base. $90 will be the next stop and before the new year probably. Chinese raising rates had bit of an impact. He is optimistic that the markets are firming here. Sees value in the junior space, rather than the senior space.

There is a lot of noise out there. Just keep in mind what your asset allocation is. Multinational companies are looking attractive. He would not want to buy the US economy but he will buy US stalks because of their global exposure. There are some new ETFs.

Leaps: Long term options. He tends to do options 6 months out, but he doesn’t like to do them longer out.

If your advisor says they want you to take a loan out on your house to invest, just get up and leave. Doesn’t understand why the mutual find companies allow this advice to be given.

Tracking errors in ETFs: There’s always going to be tracking errors, especially in more complicated situations. He is not that concerned about it.

Closed end funds and ETFs: Closed end funds trade on an exchange but other than that there is no similarity. They are not trading at net asset value. He recommends forgetting them.

Jobs are a lagging indicator. The stock market is a leading indicator. It is a bit overbought right now, as are all the stock markets. Is there a correction – the million-dollar question? He is optimistic on next year. We may get a time correction, with a sector rotating market. Commodities have had little rollover here and are pulling back a bit.

You could get a pull back but he is not sure it will happen in the next little while. The market is at a level where you can make some money and fixed income is not going to provide you with that rate of return. He is against QE. Thinks they should step back and see where growth settles back to.

We represent about 3% of the world and should not limit our opportunities. The US is an international market with 50% of earnings coming from outside the US. He overweights financial services.

Tries to ignore the noise and concentrate on investing in good companies. “In the short term the market is a voting machine and in the long term it is a weighing machine. Volatility is your friend,” Warren Buffet. He was not buying yesterday. He keeps a list of companies and prices he would like to buy or sell them at. Overall he has not seen too much recently that he has taken an aggressive stand on. Generally things look pricing, given the market we are in. The money flowing into commodities is somewhat hopeful, based on the idea that we have a global recovery of some sort.

Got a bombshell from Bank of Canada that economy is not going to return to pre-recessionary levels for another year. Things go in and out of favour. If things continue to slow down in the economy then you want to be in value stocks but otherwise you want to be in growth stocks all in. We don’t expect growth to take off until 2012.

We are a bit above the end of the range where he thought we should be so we could pull back 3 or 4 percent. He is a little more bullish on commodities. Today’s sell off gives you a chance to buy things a little cheaper. For his clients he is adjusting because of money they have made and putting more money into income.

Investment Mix: 60/40 is seen as the default portfolio. He thinks this is a bit on the conservative side. He thinks it should be 70/30 stocks to income. As you get older you move more into income from stocks.