Has used this a few times as a Top Pick over the last 6 months. If he had to pick one bank in the US, this would probably be it. Very domestically focused. He likes the improvement that is going on in the US economy. They are an enormous beneficiary of rising interest rates. In the most recent quarter, there was one interest rate increase, and this bank had an additional $600 million of earnings from one interest rate increase. Trading at just over 1X BV. You are going to get dividend growth, earnings growth and multiple expansion. This has 5-6 years in front of it.

This is really financial-technology, the platform for small and medium-sized Internet retailers that are selling their products. An enabler of Internet commerce. Growing very rapidly. In the very near term, it appears the market is favouring value over growth slightly more.

There is lots working in large cap technology. The difficulty he has is that they are having a hard time growing. The stock is acting well and is certainly participating. He prefers Microsoft (MSFT-Q).

This was a Top Pick about a year ago, and has been one of his best performing positions over the last year. He really likes semiconductors as a group and technology as a whole, because that is secular growth, i.e., there is change taking place that will go on for a long time. This company is in the absolute forefront of what is happening with things like self driving and Artificial Intelligence (AI). An expensive stock, but in technology, if it is good it should be expensive.

A great business. In asset management, you get paid a fee to manage assets. If you a do a great job in buying them, then people will give you money to manage for them and they’ll pay you an ongoing fee. They’ve done a great job of building a diverse set of holdings, and have had very, very steady growth in cash flow. Technically, it has just broken out. He likes asset management. Prefers asset management in a developed market public equities today, as he thinks that is where things are going. However, this will be a very steady hold. This is a good time to be entering the stock.

This is more of a cyclical trade than a long-term secular trade.

KKR & Co (KKR-N) or Blackstone (BX-N)? He prefers an asset manager that is focused on public market equities. Asset classes are always being revalued. At certain times, certain asset classes do better than others. We have just gone through 10 years where regulation, compliance and rules around being a public company went through the roof, and it became very, very expensive. During that time, managing investing in private companies became very attractive, as they didn’t have the same problems. However, many private companies trade at higher valuations than public market companies, and yet public market companies are liquid every day and can be bought or sold. We have entered a period of many years where public market equities and developed markets, are likely to outperform. Asset managers in that area are under-owned and under-loved, and things are changing for the better. Multiples are expanding. Prefers Morgan Stanley (MS-N).