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

4 criteria for metal producers and the sector. Geography. Reserves on the ground. Management. Low cost of production.

Holding cash vs. buying into dividends. He wants to hold higher levels of cash right now, as he's concerned about markets. He still owns good yielders for the cashflow, but he'd wait to buy more.

Asset allocation model. To be disciplined, if you have a position at 5%, which declines by half, buy into it to bring the position back to 5%. This discipline of holding something that hasn't really changed but the price, and selling into something that's done well, is 80% of a portfolio's return. If nothing fundamental has changed, he'll continue to hold a company.

Platinum. He owns platinum through the BMG ETF, as they have silver, gold, and platinum. Better value is in a silver or gold ETF. So he has a lot of cash in the Sprott physical gold and silver ETFs, and they have more upside than platinum or PALL. For silver, he buys the coin.

Commodity ETF considerations. For any commodity ETF, ask yourself if it's pay-per-contract, or are they taking the physical commodity aside and putting it in a vault. Is it a closed-end fund of the commodity? A very important distinction. If anything happens to the derivatives market, the future contracts that back that product might not be there.

Price of gold. Has to go higher. Disconnect between the demand for physical gold around the world and a price that continues to go down. At some point, the price has to reverse. Central banks continue to buy it, and they know that inflation is a problem.

Multiples for blockchain companies. Hard to assess. Just maintain a disciplined asset allocation model. Financial industry is coming on board. The technology is here to stay.

Canadian mid-cap energy producers. Great that they're upping dividends and buying back shares. He tries to pick stocks for older clients within an income portfolio. Problem with mid-caps is the threat of a clean energy mandate. Canada is a geopolitical risk. In Canada, he'd be parking money in pipelines, as we're not building any more, and so the cashflow strengthens. Energy environment still challenging in Canada. He'd rather go with an international play.

After another hideous decline today: Who can triumph over the broken supply chain and survive higher interest rates? Don't focus on rate hikes, which won't kill the stock market. Rather, pick stocks of great franchises.

Earlier in a cycle we see a rise in interest rates, because the economy is doing well. Late in a cycle, the 2- and 10-year yields start to narrow and the yield curve flattens or inverts, and that's when rates become a real headwind. We're now in a re-adjustment period where the high-growth stocks with limited earnings get hit and markets are volatile. Bit it's a healthy shake-out. Near term, inflation will be elevated, but the five-year expectation is 2.6%. So, inflation will trend down. The Fed is managing inflation but doesn't want to kill demand either. Once supply chains return to normal, inflation will decline.

Educational Segment. There has been many talking about value stocks over growth stocks should perform better. What does this mean for the TSX? Canada is more of a value market since there are less high PE tech stocks nor consumer cyclical. There is more mining, energy and finance. Looking at Canadian value ETFs compared to the TSX overall, it started to diverge in September. Want to tilt your exposure to value this year.

Following rhetoric from the Federal Reserve, there is a 50% chance that the BoC will raise rates next week. There could be some implications on the currency side. We could see a complete reversal from incredible support to something less supportive. There are 3-4 rate hikes priced in. There should be no surprises. It depends on how the markets respond. Value outperformance will be a theme for 2022.

Following rhetoric from the Federal Reserve, there is a 50% chance that the BoC will raise rates next week. There could be some implications on the currency side. We could see a complete reversal from incredible support to something less supportive. There are 3-4 rate hikes priced in. There should be no surprises. It depends on how the markets respond. Value outperformance will be a theme for 2022.

Looking at traditional banking, net interest margins and loan charge offs were good. Trading was a bit of an issue for investment banks. However, traditional banks could see positive earnings.