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

US marijuana ETF for 2-3 years? POTX is the largest, and there are a couple of others are out there, but he doesn't recommend them.

Gold. Everyone talks about gold as being a hedge against inflation, but it's not, and hasn't been for quite some time. He doesn't own any gold. Doesn't earn interest. Performance has been lacklustre. Most gold bugs tend to be in the hysterical conspiracy realm. Not an investible asset.

Bond ETF for a steady stream of income? When you're talking about an income fund, quite often the yield is higher than that of the stocks within it. Always question the source of the yield. Also look at the duration of the bond portfolio. You can get this information on any ETF website by looking up "duration". Any medium to longer-term bonds in a rising interest rate environment are going to get clobbered.

US ETF with a good yield for a new investor? You won't find good yield in the US banks, as they're about 1.75%. Try XLF, as it's done well and he'd be buying. If you want to be in USD, this is the place to be. Try ZWK, which is Canadian-listed but deals with the US as a covered call, yield is around 5%. There's also a USD version.

Inexpensive way to play Bitcoin? One ETF is from Purpose Investments, and the other one is from Evolve. He doesn't recommend them. At lot of things about the transactions are uncertain. The US SEC has rejected Bitcoin. The one advantage in Canada is that we deal with spot, or current, prices. Whereas in the US, you can buy it on the futures market, which makes absolutely no sense.

ETF with covered calls and puts? Not aware of one that does both. Look at BMO's ZPW, which writes puts on US stocks.

ETF exposed to Russian oil, low MER and turnover ratio? Russia has a very shallow economy, so he doesn't invest there.

Chinese ETF exposed to all stocks, low MER and turnaround ratio? There are a number of providers, but the one with the greatest following seems to be KraneShares. They have numerous ones, so you're sure to find one that's satisfactory. The MER will be at least 85 bps, since it's always higher when it's foreign. Not sure about the turnaround ratio.

Proxy for a bond ETF in an RRSP? Once you get liquidity issues, ie. no buyers, the price of bonds can drop really fast. So he sold his long bond ETFs. Instead, he bought ZEB as a bond substitute, which holds all 6 Canadian banks. Its MER used to be too high for him, but they recently chopped it to 25 bps, so he bought. But see his Top Picks for a bond ETF.

Using a stop-loss. He tends not to use them, as you can get a surprise. If you put a stop loss on, without a limit, you can end up dumping your portfolio when you didn't really want to do that.

No Berman's Call due to statutory holiday.

The big picture is the sway that options trading has over this market. The 2 days, day before and day of options expiration sees jarring market moves. It happens every week during this earning season. Company fundamentals aren't important in comparison. That's why we're not out of this bear market yet. A stock can fall 30% or 50% from its peak, but nothing fundamental has changed with the company or stock.

If Russia invades Ukraine, what's the impact on markets? Stocks fell 3% after Pearl Harbour but recovered all that in one month. Historically, stocks rally within a week or so in conflicts that the US had direct involvement. In 2014, there was a volatility spike in the Russia-Crimea conflict. If Russia invades Ukraine, it won't be a fun day, but the market will digest it. History shows that the market reacts in a mixed way and it's not necessarily negative.

What could happen this long weekend to impact Tuesday's trade? She's most concerned with two periods. The next six weeks see ongoing inflation and Fed concerns, the reset of high valuation stocks and Russian military conflict against Ukraine. 12 months out: nobody cares about that now, just the present. Bonds didn't protect stocks in January and cash doesn't help against inflation. She has a balance between cyclicals and high-growth tech, as well as an interest in international stocks. The second half of 2022 will be much different (better) from 2022 to-date.