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

He prefers equal weighting when it comes to, let's say, Canadian banks where there are only 6 of them. Otherwise, when there's a large number of stocks, he's much more interested in market cap weight. 

The basic reason is because the CRA won't let you. They don't allow naked call selling either. In both cases, you're dealing with cash and not a security. CRA views naked put writing as essentially an ongoing business, rather than dealing with a security.

In non-registered accounts, people use naked put writing to generate income. It's all supposed to be cash secured, but he's met people who leverage it 2-3 times. If things go the wrong way, they get clobbered. That's one of the reasons that CRA doesn't want it in registered accounts.

When people looks at some of these ETFs, they usually focus on the dividend yield. He always says "never trust yield", because there's always something going on if the components have a lower dividend yield than the actual yield of the ETF. 

Some companies like Harvest often use leverage to achieve their ends. That doesn't suit his perspective for clients. There's nothing wrong with it, if that's what you want.

Covered call ETFs are good for taxable accounts, as you're getting the dividend tax credit and the added yield comes from the sale of the covered call, which is treated as a capital gain. 

Just remember that sometimes when you're dealing with covered calls on US stocks, dividends coming from those are treated as income in Canada. The capital gains part is still OK.

Thinks it will do well. Frenzy will die down, and you'll see a drop, but that's an opportunity to buy. When you're dealing with MSFT and AAPL and so on, they're tremendous companies. The froth will disappear, but it just makes good buying down the road.

He has no exposure to China. When he looks at China, he sees both an economic and a strategic military challenge down the road. There's no transparency there. The army is involved very much in the economy. He doesn't exclude China completely, but you have to be careful there.

Other South Asian countries, like Vietnam, have done very well. India looks like a great place to invest, but he hasn't been.

He tends to focus on the US. Europe, for example, has some great companies but ridiculous left-wing labour laws where you can't fire anybody.

They're still going to talk tough as they try to get inflation down to the target rate of 2%. You can see the inflation data starting to come down quite quickly. Yesterday, we saw some pretty low CPI numbers at 3.4% YOY.

BOC is forecasting that we'll be in the 3% range by year's end. Not at 2%, but still a significant improvement. Doesn't think central banks are going to feel compelled to raise rates any more than they already have. Slowdown in demand, supply chain issues being resolved, and commodity prices coming down should all help inflation come down to an acceptable range, justifying no further rate hikes. At least in North America, but the UK is a different story.

Both stocks and bonds have been very volatile this year because of inflation, rate hikes, and the fear of recession. Market breadth has not been good, with just a handful of tech stocks lifting the US markets in particular.

In fixed income, there's an incredible opportunity in short-term corporate bonds, which are yielding 6-8%, which are equity-like returns. You're not going to see that very often, and it won't last very long once the rate hike cycle is over and inflation comes down. It's probably the best risk/reward right now.

Lots of equity opportunities out there. The small-mid cap market has been neglected year after year. 

Banking sector is looking very attractive in terms of valuation, same with telecoms, utilities, and pipelines. These sectors are trading at reasonable levels with attractive dividend yields.

Classic Investment Mistakes: Chasing Hot Investment Trends.

Do we really have to explain why this might be an investment mistake? Chasing investment bubbles can be dangerous. A simple rule is this: If you are repeatedly hearing about an investment theme in the media, or at your neighbour’s BBQ, you might already be too late.

In the early days of a hot theme, investors can make a ton of money. Typically, though, valuations get completely out of whack when everyone is participating in a trend. Promoters start hyping garbage companies only remotely connected to the theme. A theme can certainly work for a while, but make sure your investment is backed up by solid numbers, not just hype.
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Inflation came in lower today. The Bank of Canada is playing catch-up. They were initally dovish, then caught up last time then will announce on July 12. Today's inflation number is moving in the right direction and influencing today's rally. Will it influence July 12? He doesn't know. But you're seeing robust economic data in the US and here. Cash is the belle of the ball, paying 5%. Also, some tech is oversold and attractive. It's more likely we will avoid recession, with a 25% cash. Bonds and cash are great.

Believer in Portfolio Theory and risk/return profiles taught by Harry Markowitz.
Risk/return theories taught by Markowitz very important to investor.
Uprising & conflict in Russia not a long term impact for investors (short term only).
Long term investors should focus on long term.

Gold sector very interesting right now.
Real interest rates (bond market) - 10yr - directly correlated with gold price.
Believes that unless UD Fed cuts interest rates - gold prices won't rise.
GDX (basket of gold mining stocks) good way to get exposure to gold market.
Waiting for catalyst - US Fed - decreasing rates to buy gold.
Methods to earn yield off gold stocks with certain gold stocks.

Importance of Cash Flow: Many companies have various accounting charges which impact earnings but not cash flow. REITs also have different accounting treatment on some items. Thus, for certain industries (oil and gas also) it is better to look at cash flow metrics. Cash flow is a very good measure of a companies strength as it is hard to mislead investors on pure cash flow numbers. However, investors need to take a holistic viewpoint when evaluating companies, rather than focusing on a single metric. 
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Until about a week ago it was all about the tech stocks which amounted to irrational exuberance to him. There is now a correction mostly in the tech area and a reversal with some return to value stocks and some early movement into neglected sectors. The TSX, not being tech heavy, is oversold. He is watching market breadth and sentiment indicators which are flashing sell based mostly on tech stocks. This all leads to a short term correction. but the long term trend focusing on value sectors is good.

Bulls and bears prosper, but pigs get slaughtered. Don't get greedy. Take profits. Pay the taxman your capital gains, or you could lose your gains and then some. Wait for something definitive, like something said in the quarterly conference call.