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Market. He is saying 'Show me the money!' We have now gone a year without any real earnings growth and there is now expectation for earnings to grow high single digits. When you have a year with absolutely no earnings growth and the markets are up 30% you have to ask how much earnings growth the markets have already priced in. You want to see earnings growth that is unaffected by share buy backs and so on, but he does not think we will see that. You want to watch out for investors fearing missing out and then chasing the market here. There is anticipation of the signing of a US/China trade deal and he thinks it will be pomp and circumstance without out a lot of substance. There were not the escalation of tariffs in December but there was not the roll back. The tariff rate is 16% and that is not a good thing. He thinks there is no phase II coming. The trade balance is the only thing that matters.

A concentrated portfolio is something between 15 and 25 stocks as opposed to the broad index such as the TSX 60 or the S&P 500. It is active management and concentrated. Typically you get a lot more volatility. Remarkably they have done a great job of outperforming while keeping volatility down. They left out energy and have done a little bit better than if you took energy out of the S&P. So he likes it and it seems to be a good strategy so far. But remember that they are not into capital preservation so if the market goes down, it is liable to also do so.

[As sole holding]. It is a yield focused balanced fund made up of a bunch of ETFs that are more yield-centric. The only criticism is that there is probably too much exposure to Canada. When it is in a registered account then you don’t get the benefit of the dividend tax credit. Making it the only holding in an account there is 'manager risk' and perhaps there is too much concentration in Canada if it is in a registered account. Otherwise it is not a bad idea.

He loves the dividend and the strategy. He is the biggest holder of this fund by a long shot. Around $14 he finds he does not love it for capital growth. If we get a pull back then he would go for it.

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. Cool heads have prevailed regarding the middle east incident. It would not be a good thing to proceed into war. The Chinese have to translate the trade deal. Some words in it are hard to translate. The market is assuming things will go well. He is watching ETFs. ETFs in the US are heavily weighted in the biggest stocks. All the same names are owned and for every dollar that flows in, they buy in the relative weight. It has nothing to do with the earning. When they sell they all sell at the same time. There is a business case for diversifying away from highly concentrated ETF owned positions. It is different when a dollar or a sell comes into a mutual fund.

In a highly populated place, this product really does work as well as the ecosystem that surrounds it. This is quite an inexpensive company and there is upside over time. This is definitely one to look at for exposure to the Chinese market.

Chinese ETFs. Many large Chinese companies were on sale recently and we have seen some recovery. He thinks there will be upside here. If you can't buy them directly then by all means buy them through an ETF.

Semiconductors: The index was up 50% last year. Capital is moving into the space. He prefers the analogue space and PHO-T is effectively a 5 G play. It may work, but he would prefer a dividend paying stock.