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

Natural gas. Great contrarian play however too many companies have large debt loads. Normally goes up approaching winter. Feels there is a home run but can't see exactly where it is.

Market. In a trading range for the time being. Valuations are not expensive. Some economic uncertainties but also some decent economic numbers from manufacturers although Labour and housing are a bit weak. Doesn't expect a double dip recession but sees the economy as slowly grinding higher.

Inverse ETF’s. Basically allow you to go Short the market. He questions why you wouldn't just short it yourself rather than paying fees for an ETF. A painless way of shorting but dangerous because if you don't have the courage to Short yourself, you really shouldn't be buying these.

US taxation. Bush tax cuts are set to expire but because of the current election, he thinks this will be extended. He would be shocked if the Democrats didn't offer that up.

Natural gas. Expects it to be almost a double from here over the next 12-18 months.

Canadian Banks. Have been in a holding pattern since Dec/08. They are in very good shape. Looking for increases in dividends. Should do better in the coming 12 months. (See Top Picks.)

Reinvesting dividends? He definitely does this, as the 40% of return of dividend is very important.

Hedging US $’s? Currencies fluctuate. There are ways to hedge such as shorting T bills in cross currencies but overall the effects of currencies over a long period of time are rather minimal. He has not hedged as yet.

Investors overly bearish because media tells them of technical patterns such as death crosses, inverse head and shoulders, etc. Wrong kind of things that are totally not there. His charts show oversold conditions, investors’ intelligence statistics and stocks above their own 10-week moving average is as low as in March/09. Investors should prepare so that when the majority discover we are in a Bull market, all the things they buy today will participate.

Market sectors. Gold have been and continue to be very bullish. People are running to consumer staples like Loblaws (L-T). People are also going to dividend stocks such as utilities and pipelines. Energy is the least moving right now.

Oil. Energy stocks currently are having a pause. Will probably come alive towards the end of the year.

Bond yields are telling us that the economy is quite weak and is going to stay weak for a while. Long-term bond yields are continuing to come down. Doesn’t see signs of a ‘bond bubble’. Gold’s all time nominal closing high today is telling you that there is uncertainty in the financial system on going and potentially going to get worse. Feels it will continue to go higher.

Copper Prices: Is miss defined. The bond market is saying the outlook for economies are not promising, then you have the rails doing well. It may be China stock piling. He doesn’t think it is a good play.

Bank of Nova Scotia’s BMG Bullion Mutual Fund. The fund holds 1/3 gold, 1/3 silver and 1/3 platinum. Has been making good steady progress in its value.

Gold. Has been in a 10 year bull market and has outperformed just about all other assets. The demand for gold is indicating a lot of uncertainty about global currencies, certainly the US$ because of the money being printed and their debt. This should be an insurance portion of your portfolio. He has 10%-15% in his portfolios.