COMMENT

A Management team that he roots for. They are a condensate producer. Given the valuation is very difficult not like this stock at current levels. Forward thinkers in terms of diversifying. He would like to see some concrete evidence of execution before buying the name.

BUY

A US pumper. Well regarded Management team. Good assets. Pure play on Permian. He sold at 17 and bought it cheaper. Strong balance sheet.

DON'T BUY

Their debt to cash flow it is well above anything he would consider reasonable. Balance sheet is number one. 75% gas.

TOP PICK

100% Canadian name. Trading at 2.9 times EBITDA. Trading at 20% free cash flow yield. 80% of their business is based off of strong WTI pricing on condensate. Difficult to explain when shares are down 30%. (Analysts’ price target is $6.40)

TOP PICK

US pure play on pressure pumping. Q4 was weak due to Christmas and Q1 due to cold weather. Next quarters outlook is very strong. Market remains tight. Free cash flow yield of 11%. Trading at 3.5 EBITDA. (Analysts’ price target is $22.35)

TOP PICK

Coming out of Arc Financial (private equity). Clean balance sheet. Trading at 1.9 times next year EBITDA. Historical average in Canada of a pumper is 7. Liquidity vacuum in the stock market is creating this opportunity. (Analysts’ price target is $18.20)

COMMENT

Market Outlook. Looks at this kind of sell-off as a correction well needed. It had to come. The question is whether or not this is the beginning of a bear market. He thinks it is not. Because the US economy is growing, profits growing at 18-19% with the tax cuts. The problem is that when investors see this type of volatility they tend to catastrophize. Interest rates are still historically low. What is really wrong? We can expect further weakness from here, we can also expect some bumps like today. Be calm, take the dog for a walk.

COMMENT

What is a cost-effective way to protect my portfolio from a downturn? Very simple way. Go to www.m-x.ca which is the Montreal exchange. You will see pages of stats. Pick a month and a strike price and go from there. Now with more volatility they are a little more expensive. Buy put options. You might go to slightly out of the money and they are less expensive. The problem with options in Canada is that there is not that much volume.

COMMENT

Covered calls doesn’t offer too much downside protection, is there a point in a downturn where you get out and take losses? Interesting question. He would trim positions. The risk is that there is more risk on the downside than you have growth on the upside. In terms of exiting entirely, he wouldn’t do it.

HOLD

He likes it and other covered calls on the banks and some of the others in the US. He doesn’t have much faith in Ottawa these days. He thinks policies are ill conceived. We seem to be in the direction of greater regulation and greater taxation. He sees companies retracting from Canada.

COMMENT

Is there a favorite bank you do covered calls on? He hasn’t done a lot of covered calls on individual names. He would look at TD Bank (TD-T) and Royal Bank of Canada (RY-T) if he was going to do some. He would rather do it with an ETF with a basket of banks. It is simpler for clients to understand.

HOLD

They are a little different than most other ETFs. This is a swap-based ETF. Basically, a contract between Horizon and National Bank. These are total return ETFs so there is no distribution so very efficient for people making high income.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick June 30/17 - Down 0.5%) Sold half holdings last week. Good index and good ETF. It is an exit from here.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick June 30/17 - Down 5.2%.) A way to enter Europe with a good yield (6 or 7%). He has been in and out of Europe several times. Always disappointed with the returns. Good ETF.

PAST TOP PICK

(A Top Pick June 30/17 - Up 2.7%.) He continues to hold it. Likes it better than the Canadian space.