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

Gold. $1300-$1500 this year and $2000 before the eventual end of the bull market and doesn't know when that will be.

Silver, unfortunately, is a very thin traded market compared to gold. Believes you still have to own gold first but one of the big surprises in the year could be a big bump up in the silver price.

Copper is the one base metal that he is most bullish on because of the continuing need for it globally.

The market is behaving like Goldielocks. He economy isn’t. He hopes the market is right, but would rather be safe than sorry. His cash position is now in the 10-15% area. If there is a sell-off he wants to use the money to buy stocks he has been waiting for. Starting to look at more cyclical stocks.

Gold: Looking for gold to reach $2000 in the next 2 years.

With looming interest-rates coming, how will this affect bank preferred shares? Re-settable preferred shares will do better in a rising interest-rate environment than the non-resettables. He is not anticipating rates will go up swiftly. You may want to move some of your money into equities that will have dividend increases.

There is a lot of optimism out there in the equity markets. Sovereign debt issues seem to have been put to the side. He is not in agreement that it is all warranted and is a little bit cautious, but there are selective opportunities in the market. He is looking at defensive sectors.

Most western economies will have to do some painful deliberating. Gov’t is talking about lifting foreign ownership laws for telecom, which could be positive for telecom. Huge under valuation in the large cap oil and gas names. There are some good opportunities for long-term investors. Oil pries will head higher. Gas trend is not sustainable. He is bearish on Nat Gas.

POTASH : Potash can be a cheap for of insurance. We skipped a season in putting it down. You can’t go two years without applying it. Stick with the majors.

Greek bonds are on sale today and there is great demand for them. We have to focus on the Greek situation and of Sovereign bonds. It is good news that the Greek bonds are selling. You see stability there. Is big concern is government deficits around the world getting out of hand. Would look for ways to reduce unemployment in order to address deficits.

He doesn’t care what the market it doing. The problem is that you are trying to look at different kinds of research rather than one kind. He usually adds or subtracts 10 or 15% to or from a position. He doesn’t run screaming to or from a position. He likes to hedge US investments against currency fluctuations.

You pay the cost of a hedge. It is impeded in the cost of the ETF. It is worth every cent.

LADDERED BONDS: Likes them. E.g. CLF-T. Took 25 bonds, 5 at 1 year, 5 at 2 years and so on up to 5. XSB-T has a larger pool of bonds. Both of these have a short duration. He recommends 3 years or shorter.

At these oil prices, it is just a case of being well invested in this sector. The price is neutral – not overly high and not overly low. In gas, own the low cost producer. We are in a gas boom, but there is so much supply that the price is low. The mining side is more problematic. Most things it is very hard to get excited about.

ANNUAL MEETINGS: Are a great opportunity to get a feel for management. Good opportunity to listen to the manner in which questions are answered. Read body language and read between the lines. Is the guy answering the question or is he trying to finesse it. Are they really the kind of person you want managing your money.