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

Further gains for media stocks and retailers that have managed to thrive during the pandemic? Absolutely. A change that was expected to take 8-10 years has been jammed into a month and a half. They're on a long-term growth path. The economy's moving in that direction and will continue to do so.

Any groups to avoid right now? A little suspect on commercial and retail real estate. Retailers have been hurt and may not recover. Cautious on financials, as the spread is so low. He's not avoiding financials, he just doesn't see a lot of upside.

Recommend any electric vehicle companies? Of course Tesla is way out in front. But mainstream auto makers are about to release products onto the market. One of his favourites is Linamar.

Buy Canadian or foreign banks now? Canadian. More stable. Dividend income is taxed more favourably. They're all similar and do well. BNS exposure in South America gives them a better growth opportunity than the others. The US banks have been known to go bankrupt. European banks are a mess. Morgan Stanley is a good buy for capital appreciation through their money management and investment banking.

Tax loss selling. Usually from Nov 15 - Dec 15. Won't have much of an impact on the market, as most people already sold in the spring and summer.

We're seeing a lot of growth indicators, such as copper. The move towards a greener economy is moving copper. In terms of the S&P500, it was the biggest month since 1987, and small caps saw the biggest month ever. We see some rebalancing today.

The markets wants and needs the stimulus. The short term mistake is to not spend enough to get through the pandemic. Things will normalize in a couple years and we may get back to austerity and balanced budgets, but for the next couple years, governments are expected to spend. The central banks should continue to hold interest rates low.

The year-end rebalancing shouldn't see too much changes between sector. There may be switching out of work from home names and to economic reopening stocks. The stocks that haven't performed because of covid will benefit the most as things normalize.

Educational Segment. In relationship to the longterm trend, and the 200-day moving average, the risk and return ratio is not as good as it could be. The market looks like one you don't want to chase rallies in. Given how far we have stretched from the mean, there is a high probability of a market correction around 10%. A note of caution for investors. Look into periods of weakness to be a buyer.

Market. You have two dynamics that affect asset prices – inflation and growth. You are seeing a switch between these two. We are moving from a deflationary bust to an inflationary boom. Think about the previous decade and what was hot and what was not. We had gold getting a 400% return and the S&P a 5% return, neither compounded. There are shifts, decade by decade between the dynamics for asset prices. This is a really tough environment. Bonds cannot provide any shock absorber as they have done so in the past. He thinks we will revert to the norms in the next decade. You need a diverse set of assets.

Gold ETFs. Will be covered in past picks. Investors buy gold for uncertainty. With the vaccine coming along and uncertainty dropping we are seeing a shift into the inflationary trade. This is a buying opportunity. Most investors don’t have enough gold in their portfolios. Gold ETFs are viable options. They should be in your portfolios.

Health Sciences ETF. If you are focused more on the idea of something vaccine related, look at IBB-Q. Biotech is where you will see that type of technology manifest. XHC-T is currency hedged, if you want that now. It is quite diverse. LIFE-T has covered writes, which do well in a slightly flat or slightly up market.

Small Cap ETF Recommendation. He would go for a global ETF. Be careful of the large caps as they dominate the asset flows.

(A Top Pick Mar 25/20, Up 0%)US $. It could have turned into a safe heaven. The dollar is the primary determinant of many asset classes. Its weakness has create strength in a lot of the commodity complex. He thinks this will continue and things that are resource and commodity based will probably have a bit of a run here.