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

Substainable investing opportunities? Feels low carbon assets are not properly valued and undervalued vs fossil fuel assets. Sees opportunities in renewable energy utilities and technologies that will benefit in a carbon pricing market, independently of the political environment and the upcoming election.

Canadian solar panel manufacturers? Not any in Canada to his knowledge. There is Canadian Solar but it's actually a Chinese company. He would be cautious when investing in specific manufacturers. If you really want to get in he would look into TAN Invesco Solar ETF. Need to be very cautious with the dynamic in China and price dropping so quickly.

Market. There is a demand for stability and for yield. There were some hundred-year European bonds issued in Austria at just over 1%. You are a lot better with European stocks that have a dividend over 1% and increase their dividends over time. Either the bond market or the stock market is right at being at all time highs. Resolving trade issues over the next 6 months would give reasons for the economy to improve. In a pullback he would look for sectors such as healthcare. Companies have to be able to increase dividends.

Canadian Banks. CM-T has the most exposure to the Canadian housing markets. CM-T is the cheapest but not his favourite. RY-T, BMO-T and TD-T are his preferences. This will be a good place to be if there are no housing blips.

Yielding oil companies such as CNQ-T (Owns), WCP-T, VET-T. CNQ-T is cheap and trades under 5 times cash flow and has great assets. He has been buying it. VET-T is a great company and has maintained their dividend over a dozen years. WCP-T is smaller but an excellent company and trading at a cheap valuation.

Best North American Pipelines. ENB-T and Pembina are the best. You want to see dividend growth. PPL-T is good also.

US stocks hitting record highs. Pushing to new record highs. Weaker economic data fuelling investor optimism because of more dovish Fed rates. From technical perspective, it's a bit frothy. US economic expansion is the longest ever, and will continue. No signs of recession in next 12 months. But good idea to push toward more defensive stocks.

A trader's market? Yes, but potential downside risks. Still have US-China trade issue. It will be resolved before US elections next year. Market doesn't want new tariffs. Also have to watch for slowing, aging global economy. Markets continue to push higher, but have to be cautious. Approach equities more selectively going forward.

For Fed QE, 25 or 50 basis points? Thinks consensus is 25 points later this month. Look at the FANG index, compared to the S&P which has outperformed by 20%. Don't have too much in tech.

Price of gold? Broken above an important technical ceiling, so there's more upside. Holds 3-4% gold as a hedge against what else is happening in the other riskier assets in the portfolio.

Today's record high was a "melt-up." If it continues to go, then this melt-up will be driven by FOMO, rather than stock fundamentals. Likely, we'll see more interest rates cuts in the US of 25 basis points--but we don't need this. There's a ton of investment money out there already, so we don't need that cut. Potentially, trade tensions will ease. Nothing happened at the G20, really. The new NAFTA signing faces a 50/50 chance to complete, given the political turmoil in the States. He expects the China-US trade agreement might happen next year, yet maybe not. Trump has long been playing the trade card with his base, based on trade deficits--which aren't as bad as Trump is leading people to believe. Manufacturing has left the U.S., but the US economy is NOT manufacturing, but high-end service. He's dumbing down issues to play to his base.

Convert ETF bond funds to rate reset preferred shares? They reset the dividend at some point on the yield curve, maybe 1% above the 5-year rate on Canada bonds. The benefit is that if interest rates go up, they will raise their yields which will stabilize their price. They are being impacted by those resetting their rates today as interest rates decline. That's negative. Preferred are better than bonds only if the preferreds are good quality; preferreds pay a better yield and offer a tax advantage.

I'm 90 and love banks, but what happens to the money I invest in those banks. Should I stop investing? You buy a bank GIC that pays under 3% annually for 5 years or you can buy a bank stock that pays a higher yield, offers tax advantages and rises in share price. Which is better? Keep investing.

I'm concerned when funds keep issuing shares over time. Is there a risk of too many shares in a regular stock and the chance of a rollback? No. They are issuing more shares, likely for institutional investors. So they would buy more of the underlying product to support the ETF.

Market Outlook He likes to buy on the contrarian side, when things look really out of favour and sell when everyone gets excited. He needs to be patient sometimes, but he is also willing to cut losses. He will hold for years, especially if he receives dividends to wait. He thinks investors are not patient enough and that leaves them vulnerable to noise in the market. Active funds have been found to have poorer results than passive funds and the fees can kill you over time.