A Comment -- General Comments From an Expert (A Commentary)

NASDAQ 100 Equity Hedged-CAD ETF (ZQQ-T) versus S&P 500 (CAD-Hedged) ETF (XSP-T)? His preference would be the 500 stocks as opposed to 100 in the NASDAQ.

ETFs to capture future world demand for Canadian resorts is/commodities? S&P/TSX Materials (XMA-T) and S&P/TSX Base Metals (ZMT-T) are 2 that come to mind. Claymore Global Agriculture (COW-T) is not necessarily a Canadian story is probably a good long-term investment as well.

REIT convertible debentures? Generally not a fan of either the debentures or the companies that issued them. Basically they guarantee dilution in the future. 2 companies, Cominar (CUF.UN-T) and Dundee (D.UN-T) have almost 30% or more of their equity market cap in them.

As trusts in other sectors convert to corps and investors turn to REITs, is there danger of a REIT bubble? A lot of capital is flowing into yielding securities such as treasuries, bonds, bond funds, etc. Currently they are trading at 14.2X free cash flow, which is slightly rich so he has been exhibited in cash.

Preferred versus common shares? Preferreds stand above common shares in the capital structure giving them rights to receive dividends before common shares. Preferreds are often bought as a bond substitute.

Intel (INTC-Q), Oracle (ORCL-Q) or Cisco (CSCO-Q)? Each one of these is a market leader in its own category so it would be reasonable to hold all of them.

Top Picks include 3 bonds, short term, medium term and long term. BMW Corp. 3.22% due 3/28/13 bond. (Short Term) Company has a very good product offering. Improving margins. Weak euro favours them.

Top Picks include 3 bonds, short term, medium term and long term. CDP Financial 4.6% due July 2020. (Medium Term) Carries the largest pension fund in Canada.

Medium term Canada Housing Trust bonds? As an alternative to government bonds, it makes sense from a credit risk standpoint. From a valuation standpoint they would prefer provincials, which gives a higher premium and the credit risk is very limited.

Volumes. When the stock is moving up, the volume is generally at the beginning and gradually lightens as the move advances. Then there is a move into a sideways pattern when volume subsides again. If you get a new move up, the volume will increase again.

Oscillator. If you are going to use this, use weekly or monthly charts, not daily. Use 5 weeks minus 15 weeks smoothed by 3. That works the best.

Asset allocation. There are 10 specific S&P sectors. You should own at least 5 distinct separate sectors and no more than a third in any one sector. He would vote for being overweight on Materials and Industrials, Telecom, a little bit of Consumer and would probably pick away at financials but be light on them.

POT is one of the companies he has been asked about on the shows. If you look at the numbers, the debt load, price of potash, he questions the valuation on it. Yet it is based on what people will pay. Both BHP and POT have large debt loads. Interest rates have only one way to go – up. He bought VT. Balance sheets are always critical to contrarians.

Banks: Don’t buy into them now in Canada, but in the states.

Market Timing: He believes in it but takes a lot of bumps because of it. He wants to buy in when the market gets hit, say couple hundred points in a day.