Taiwan ETF. It is an interesting play from a geopolitical perspective. But you have to worry about the top holding being 24% and a lot of the run-up is about this semiconductor company. Wait for the next market correction of 10% or more before stepping in.

He has said for a couple of years that he wants the industry to mature. He thinks there is some value there at this point. There are really no earnings, however. Usually when a correction hits, stocks without earnings get hit first. He has been buying below $9. Don't commit a lot of money. Just nibble.

China equity ETF. There is not likely to be any escalation in trade risk between China and US. Trump is not going to escalate, but there will be no progress either. China has massive growth problems. The population will peak in the next 5 to 10 years according to the world bank. Their natural growth is held at 2%. There is a big headwind in China and he would not add to it except in pull backs. He prefers the 'A' shares market in the US for China exposure. This is not a no-brainer play.

Educational Segment. The markets are expensive by many metrics but cheap by some others. He presented a table of current vs. historical valuation models of some indicators. He looked at price to sales. The last peak was in the late '90s and we are back there. He looked at Enterprise value to EBITDA and we are also at a peak just above the late 90's peak. We are creating a massive bubble and this is not the time to get excited about stocks. Be conservative. The market may not top for another two years.

Market. Geopolitical risk was as high as it has ever been prior to this most recent event. That even creates uncertainty but it is not a reason to buy stocks on dips. We are in a political world and Trump elevates that. Will he make a choice to do something that would keep the impeachment out of the headlines. People may be discounting this event too much and it may become more of an event than people think. In the US it is show me the money time and unless there is meaningful growth in earnings, then there is no reason to buy the dips. Interest rates are low but it does not make stocks a bullish bet. Gold has received a big lift. See his Educational Segment. If we can break out from these resistance points it could mean $1800 or $1900. The US/China trade we should get a signatory event but we should not get a phase II this year and maybe with a different leading in the US. He thinks Trump will not win the election.

Shorting Corporate Bonds – An ETF Recommendation? The riskiest part of the market is the high yield market. SJB-N is the riskiest of the corporate high yield bonds – junk bonds. The challenge is that you have to pay the yield when you are short – about 5% on average. It is expensive to be short high yield.

Sleep at Night Portfolio – If Larry retires, is it safe? If the market went bear, his portfolios would not go down. When the markets are at a high point and don’t look good, his fund goes down but not as much as the market. When he retires, there will be a strong team in place to replace him. His intelligence is being taken into an artificial intelligence process.

CNQ-T vs. SU-T. He thinks we are at the point where we have peak demand for carbon-based energy. By 2025 every car manufacturer will at least have a hybrid. There will always be at last a little demand for carbon-based energy. Right now we are generating more energy from solar than from coal, so we are moving in the right direction. He is indifferent to the two stocks.

CNQ-T vs. SU-T. He thinks we are at the point where we have peak demand for carbon-based energy. By 2025 every car manufacturer will at least have a hybrid. There will always be at last a little demand for carbon-based energy. Right now we are generating more energy from solar than from coal, so we are moving in the right direction. He is indifferent to the two stocks.

He loves great dividend paying companies. You have to think about after tax. In cash accounts you want to overweight Canada but think much more international in retirement accounts. The question is when a 30-50% correction is coming. Don't sell when you should be buying. He rather reinvests in the ETF on dips rather than using a Drip.

It is a US pipeline play. He thinks it will be in a trading range for several years. It is at the bottom of a trading range right now with a great distribution yield, so that is how he is playing it. He still likes it and owns it and bought a little more on tax loss selling.

Inversion of interest rate curve and does that now reduce recession risk. When the FED starts to cut rates that will uninvert the rate curve. If we were worried about recession then long rates would be skyrocketing and they are not. They are relatively contained. It speaks to economic weakness. The economy is not going to be rip-roaring strong here.

Educational Segment. When he is building portfolios, he is looking for assets that are uncorrelated so he can reduce risk. This is the most important thing if you are taking the sleep-at-night approach. Gold still stands out to him as one of the best asset classes of 2020. He thinks gold still has some upside potential. Monetary policy has not worked well in driving economic growth so it will shift to fiscal policy which will demand that more quantitative easing will have to occur. Jewelry demand is an offset to demand. ETF (investor) demand and central bank demand for gold are the two main points. Investor holdings are the biggest demand for gold. We are back to the level of 2012. That was sparked by QE2 and now we are back to that resistance. If we break through that, there is no resistance to above $1800. He loves the asset class here. Equities give you a 2:1 upside to the commodity price.

Market. Brexit. It looks like a conservative majority but that does not solve Brexit. There is still a lot of runway, but this is a hurtle for the market and a conservative win would benefit the markets. There will be a Brexit, well negotiated. The British pound has responded. He is still contemplating selling his UK small cap stocks prior to the election or slightly after. A week Sunday if the December 15th tariff day. He would be surprised if Trump did not kick it down the road at this point, but the tariffs could be applied.

Park money for 3 to 4 months. This is always a challenge. The general idea is that one is not getting enough safe return. If your horizon is 3-4 months, then you can't get into equities. There are high income savings ETFs that have emerged. CSAV, PSA and HISA. They focus on high income savings. You get over 2% interest today. ZST gives you a money market kind of holding.