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

4.2% Province of Ontario bonds maturing 2018. With the amount of debt Ontario is going to have to issue, you are going to see the spreads fluctuate, probably more to the upside. If you own, consider trading them but you have to be nimble.

Clean Technology is anything that reduces the environmental impact of human behavior. Water, Biodegradable products, alternative energy, Solar, Wind, Environmental, waste management, nuclear. Need to watch regulatory changes. Solar offers most liquidity. Wind is very mature and all the consolidation has already happened.

Gold: Would you buy an ETF or a good quality gold stock? The ETF is a basket of gold stocks so you are alienating a lot of the specific company risks. If you are comfortable with the company risk, you will get a bigger bang for your buck but there is more risk.

(A Top Pick July 24/08. Up 12%.) GMAC Canada Bonds 1 year, which have now matured. Doesn't like the dynamics of this industry.

Jean-Francois Tardif announced his retirement on today's Market Call. I know he will be missed by the viewers of BNN as well as by us at StockChase. We wish him the very best in his new life. Good luck Jean Francois from all of us.

Short Selling: Not an easy thing to do. There are different styles but it is hard to differentiate. Some Short by sector but he does a stock by stock. Shorts if he knows the company is specifically not doing well. Doesn't recommend Shorting for individuals, as it is too hard and too stressful and too dangerous.

Natural Gas: ETFs are not an efficient way of playing ga Prices are different than today's spot. There is a price in the spring, next year and the year after so they always need to roll over those futures. Can be expensive. Stocks are already up from their lows, which reflects that gas prices are going up, which he believes but it's just a question of when. Wait for the gas stocks to come down and then buy those that have great balance sheets.

Gold: Bullish on gold. US is printing a lot of money and the deficit is close to 15%. Probably more next year and the year after. He is extremely bearish on the US$. Everybody should own some gold as a protection against all the global governments printing money.

Canadian Banks: These are way better and have done better than most global banks. The stocks have done very well but if you believe, like he does, that there will be ups and downs in the market, this would be a good time to Sell some and then buy them back at a lower price.

Natural Gas: We can't expect demand to pick up in North America until we see the economy start to improve and there is industrial utilization picking up. However he expects inventory levels to start declining ones the overproduction of gas passes through. The question mark is When! Usually takes 12 to 18 months for that process to go through and we probably have a couple of months to go before the supply starting to come down.

Markets: Each time we move from a secular Bull to a Bear and vice versa, a new theme arises. We are now in a secular downtrend. Thinks there will be an “echo” technology boom because of the BRIC countries rolling out Internet access. (1st technology boom was in the 80's and 90’s.)

Stop Loss Calculation: For an investor, go to Google and search “true range”. The lowest low 10 weeks ago also works well. If you are a trader use the lowest low 10 days ago.

Cdn$: Cdn$ is driven by commodity prices. There has been quite a rally in the last 3 or 4 months. Has a high correlation with crude and base metals. It will probably pause and have a rest here.

Gold: Some of the big gold stocks are acting very well and near their highs. Acting counter cyclically is positive for gold. Your portfolio should only have 5%, 10% tops. Keep an eye on them and see if they break through new highs. If they start rolling over, reduce your holdings. (See Top Picks.)

Gold: Is looking for $1000 in 2010. Watching out for inflation but doesn't see it this year.