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

The economy looked like a 2015-16 macro improvement, including Europe, where cyclicals would perform well, but the coronavirus has turned that on its head. A recession, technical or not, is now a possibility. The gameplan has changed. Note there was a ramp-up in stocks before the virus at the same valuations at the peak of the 2000 Dotcom Boom. We were priced to perfection, then the virus and oil shock hit. Interest rate cuts won't solve this, rather governments need a more comprehensive response.

A bank ETF if I invest $3,000 per month. If you need your cash in the short term, don't buy, but if plan to hold longer than two years, this plan is fine. Banks won't go anywhere with or without a recession. You can't go wrong owning the banks which wind up in the middle of valuations. There are more profitable stocks, but nothing wrong with owing a Canadian bank either.

Monday's drop was the biggest he has ever seen in his career. Trump should be able to pass his payroll tax exemption, despite his lack of finesse. It's standard election vote-buying, though there are sound economic reasons. At this stage, it's still reports and rumours, and will take time to finalize. Monday's oil plunge: prices this low cannot sustain, but the forward oil price, not spot oil, is more important--the futures curve didn't go down that much. Really, Saudi Arabia and Russia are playing a game of chicken. The best cure for low commodity prices is low commodity prices. It's jarring for Canadians to see this oil plunge, but these are fleeting prices, but in 12 months, these prices will look attractive.

A retiree with 70/30 portfolio (stocks/bonds) with a 10-year time horizon. How to invest during a correction? There's a lot of newbie money sloshing around the markets now during this correction. This is driven by Wealthsimple and other such platforms, and these investors think they're Wall St. gunslingers, and that's a problem. Buy the dip, like this one one. Keep cool and calm. 70/30 isn't too conservative, and 10 years is a good horizon to earn a fair return. Time heals all wounds. Trading is sexy, but investing is smart.

Market. He likes to look for opportunity in an event like this. If you took money off the table previously then this is an opportunity to put money back in. There is still another 10% of so downside before the average stock gets into value territory. There will be some dividend cuts no doubt. Gold bullion is flat and gold equities are getting hit pretty hard. Gold stocks get sold when someone sells a broad ETF. We should see some normalcy in the markets in the next month or so.

In 2008/9 there was a problem with the commercial paper in Canada. You couldn't redeem for a while. He does not expect that to happen this time round.

They want to steepen the yield curve. You are going to see a big supply response from the treasury. The bond market is already pricing this in. Don’t start trades based on this now.

Educational Segment. What keeps him up at night? It is the lack of corporate profits. For the last 7 years there has been no real growth in corporate profits.

Market. Lower oil prices are really damaging almost all economies of oil producing countries. He sees this as temporary. He is not a Canadian oil investor. It is hard to imagine that OPEC and non-OPEC producers are going to allow this to continue. He is about 30% in cash. When there is maximum fear and uncertainty that is the time to jump in. He chips away every day. He needs to buy things when they are on sale. We have been seeing negative yields in Europe and Japan for the last couple of years. The fed rate cut last week was a waste of time and a miss-fire. If anything, investors are hoarding cash.

Don't add to oil stocks. There are enough other great businesses to invest in. Canadian banks stocks would be preferable. Companies like RDS.B-N benefit even from low oil prices.

Municipal Bonds. They tend to be very small issues and are not very liquid. They are very inefficient to trade. If you hold them, leave them alone. They should be left to institutions.

Gold, how to buy? ETF? GLD-N is a gold bullion ETF. He has never invested in gold. You never get a dividend from gold. It is a difficult investment.

ETFs that let you bet against the market. Inverse ETFs are often dangerous in that they don’t react the way you think. The problem is that they reset every single day. You don’t get the long term behavior you expect.

A phenomenal day with the oil crash on top of the coronavirus. Everything got washed out. The TSX plunged over 10%. Phenomenal. Usually in pullbacks, the TSX outperforms Wall Street because of the yields in Canadian stocks, but not today. The consensus trade of going long oil and short treasuries got wiped out today. The unwinding of bullish bets and hedge funds can take down the wider market. When markets hit all-time highs, the technicals didn't make sense. Today we saw massive breakdowns in key levels of support, like $42 for oil. Be cautious. Industrial production is trending below average. If we don't get the push higher into spring, markets get vulnerable which we're seeing now. Seasonally, we're supposed to be positive now, which is not the case at all. The S&P is below the 200-day moving average, and you don't want aggressive exposure when this happens. 2,800 was support, but we broke below that today. Charts are looking like the Dec. 2018 lows, especially the TSX. As long as we're below the 200-day, there'll be volatility. Don't be aggressive, but nimble.

Buying gold during this chaos? Yes, it has been a good buy during this volatility. Gold has risen as a classic hedge to volatility. Gold is a classic hedge in Jan-Feb when volatility rises. Seasonality ends in late-February. The trend is still higher, though gold is close to its $1,700 target, so he's not rushing to buy it. Next seasonality is late-July to late-September. Other times, gold underperforms while cyclicals do well. Cash is king. He holds 40% cash. Take your profits and hold cash.