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Sold his holdings a little over a year ago. His primary concern is that we are getting towards the end of the auto cycle. Sub prime auto loans of about $27 US billion last year, had delinquencies near a 20-year high at around 5%, indicating people are having a harder time meeting some of their obligations.

Undertook a strategic review not too long ago, trying to figure out what to do given that the CEO had departed. The decision was to try to get somebody else in to grow the business. They have missed a lot of appreciation in commercial real estate values, and this is being reflected in the share price. Trading at about a 20% discount to NAV. Feels the dividend is sustainable. 6.5% dividend yield is secure.

This is anchored by Loblaw’s (L-T). A very stable business with good, long term leases. There is some rent growth and some potential development built in. Think of this as a bond. In an environment where people want less cyclical commercial real estate exposure, they’ll often go to something like this. He likes it as a very stable, long term hold.

You have seen Canadian banks go up, but Canadian insurers got left behind. Insurance companies try to fund liabilities through their assets, and in a low interest rate environment, where you have equity market volatility, it becomes much more difficult to do that. Ideally you want interest rates and equities to go up. He likes the insurance companies here, but thinks you are going to be restrained by the direction of interest rates.

With the “take or pay” agreements which typically underpin a lot of energy infrastructure companies, they are only as good as a credit quality of the customer. In some of the MLPs in the US, customers are buckling and going under, and you have to question how sustainable the cash flow is on companies you are buying. He is not particularly concerned with this one as it focuses more on oil sands. Prefers Pembina (PPL-T). Dividend yield of 6.1%.

Has a little bit of this, but has been paring back recently. When he looks at the US financial sector he has some concerns about M&A activity slowing down, and this one is a big, global, investment bank. Earnings could plateau, and potentially decline towards the latter half of 2016 and in 2017. Prefers some of the other financials including some of the large cap banks.

(Market Call Minute.) Likes as a short term hold, but longer-term he is worried about secular growth. It is in Amazon and E-tailing, and they are trying to reposition the entire store footprint. He would stay away if you are trying to hold it for 5 years, but as a trade it is a good proxy for the equity market going up.

(Market Call Minute.) He likes this. It is externally managed, so there is some justification for a discount. He would buy as a long-term hold.

(Market Call Minute.) They lease their towers back to telecommunication companies under long-term contracts. Have some global exposure. A great way to get a pretty low, but stable dividend.

(Market Call Minute.) Owns global commercial real estate assets in Europe. Management has done a good job of diversifying the portfolio. He would buy this because it represents deep value, but you have to be patient and be mindful of currency fluctuation.

A good way for investors to get pretty stable dividends into their portfolio. It is going to be a defensive name, which is something you probably want to own in this market, given the volatility. They are making a US acquisition which will effectively increase the growth in the rate base from 5% to 7.5% in 2020. Dividend yield of 3.71%.

Does labels, packaging and containers on behalf of a lot of North American companies. Just announced a large acquisition, and if it closes it will be very accretive to earnings, to the tune of 10%-15%, even if they have to pay a little bit more for it. Dividend yield of 0.82%.

He didn’t own this until they cut the dividend. The stock is relatively cheap, and you don’t have to worry about another dividend cut, because the payout ratio is 50%. Management has undertaken a strategic plan to bump up sales and improve margins. Dividend yield of 4.7%.

Economy. To some extent, central banks globally, including the US, have an on/off switch and turning it on seems to be the only policy. We have negative interest rates in 18 countries now. What are we going to do when the next real crisis hits? There is way too much debt in the system and something has to happen. Because of that, he is staying cautious. Another catalyst is the rise of Donald Trump. At the beginning he thought this was going to be entertaining. People attracted to Trump are the US middle class, which is really losing out more and more and becoming economically depressed. We now have a system where the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is depreciating. This is what happened in Latin America, and it is not a healthy society. He has always encouraged people to have some gold in their system.

His company has this as a sector perform with a $2.50 US target. He is not that keen on the company. Management has not really executed as well as he would like.