This has a bit of a headwind. In a rising interest rate environment, telecoms tend not to do well. In the midst of buying Time Warner, which has not been approved yet. They are making decisions on whether they want to be a landline company or a cell company, which will affect their future fundamental growth. He has stepped away from telecoms, because there is a lot of unknowns, some of it with regulators.

Sell a $40 Sept 2018 Put for $5.25 and Buy a $40 Sept 2018 Call. He doesn’t have a strong opinion on whether the Time Warner deal goes through or not. It is a political issue that they will have to deal with, and it is going to be a competition issue. Trying to predict the direction the US government is likely to take on anything, is like trying to guess Wayne Gretzky’s next move in a hockey game. If you are happy to own the stock at $35 whether or not the deal goes through, and you are comfortable with it, not a bad scenario.

He is not involved in telecoms. Prefers some of the cyclical areas. Some of the telcos are starting to improve, relative to other sectors in the space, along with financials and energy. Expects you will start to see a lift in some names like this. Dividend yield of 5.21%. Has a decent growth rate. Not sure you will find much capital growth in this when, and if, it starts to rebound. Longer-term, probably not a name he would want to own.

They are currently trying to acquire another small equipment maker, but a higher bidder came out. (See Top Picks.)

This is your classic bond surrogate. Between AT&T and Verizon (VZ-N), it is almost a duopoly. Pays an excellent dividend of close to 5%, and trades at a very reasonable valuation. Thinks their merger with Time Warner will go through and make them stronger.

AT&T (T-N) or Verizon (VZ-N)? Chart shows this one has outperformed by about 10%. Within the sector, there is lots of news. One way to try and resolve this is to start a position in iShares Trust Dow Jones U.S. Telecom Sector Fund (IYZ-N), and you are probably going to see procyclical names again. The sector lagged a little, and as we get past the middle of the year this area should probably pick up.

This and Verizon (VZ-N) in the US, are suffering from the same thing that Canadian telcos are. Low growth, people disconnecting land lines, people disconnecting cable TV to some degree. The lines are blurring between all these companies. If you are buying this, it is really for the dividend, not the growth. He is not crazy about the sector because, as a dividend stock, it is vulnerable to rising rates. He sees the whole sector coming down if bond yields continue to rise.

Mr. Trump was adamant that he did not want to see a merger with Time Warner (TWX-N). However, he has also spoken a lot about getting rid of regulation allowing businesses to move forward. She sold her holdings, as she doesn’t know what business they are in any more, and is very concerned that the culture of providing phone services, and now cellular services, is so incredibly different than the culture it takes to run a Time Warner media company successfully. She is disturbed by this merger.