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

Buy an oil/gas stock with no dividend? He'd buy, but dividend payers will always have a bit of an edge. When it comes to resource companies, he looks at total return. Lots of clients want income, and dividend stocks are the main vehicle for this. Resource stocks are so cyclical, he'd like them to pay big dividends in good times, and smaller dividends when times are not so good. When times are bad, it's a more efficient use of an investor's capital to put it elsewhere than a resource company.

Ignore the negative headlines. Focus on the long term. Headlines are all doom and gloom, not productive for most investors. Investors who were speculating in the markets earlier this year are losing enthusiasm. Very tough to trade these markets, can't do it profitably. More valuable to avoid capital gains and commissions and trying to guess the next squiggle upward in the line. The companies he invests in don't care about the Fed this next quarter or next. They're still making business plans, manufacturing things, and customers are still buying. All negative news does is make investors worry and make poor decisions.

Omicron variant. For 18 months people have been talking about how bad Covid is, but markets have been moving higher. Businesses like McDonalds and Disney are very adaptable. Shipping lines have eased and still delivering goods in time for the holidays. AMZN has been quite capable of keeping shelves stocked and shipped out. Headline news has already been discounted to a large extent.

Recent selloff. He's been a buyer 100%. DIS, for example, has enormous opportunities in virtual reality. Imagine the unique experiences possible from the comfort of your own home, without having to travel. People aren't necessarily focusing on the longer-term optionality that a company like DIS has.

High dividend yield for a company like ENB. ENB thinks dividend will sustainably increase by 3% per annum. Investors cottoned on to ENB increasing dividends at a high rate, but then having to issue equity to pay for them. Portfolio managers were unwilling to keep it in their portfolios. ENB doesn't fit into the new ESG model. It's really a problem. So ENB has had to adjust its dividend growth model to a much lower number. Lots of debt. If interest rates rise, ENB would find it difficult to raise prices to consumers to service that debt.

Payment system players. Look at GOOG, AAPL, AMZN, or V which is on sale. The system is really changing very much, so you want strong, big players diversified across the globe.

Take profits in the Canadian banks? Don't let market conditions dictate your decision making. His knock against the banks is they've done a great job indebting Canadians. Banks are great dividend payers, well run. It's more whether your portfolio is properly balanced. Do you have enough cash to withstand and ignore the ups and downs of the market? TD and RY have been the best at growing in the US, and that's where you want to go.

Selling at the first whiff of volatility. He doesn't like paying taxes. It's not what you earn, it's what you keep. Giving up 20% of equity and trying to reload at a lower price is not a good risk/reward for him. Repeated buying and selling gets expensive. He's focused on the long term.

Pfizer announced incredibly good news today that a booster should will protect you from Omicron. But Wall Street barely reacted; taming Covid leads to a stronger economy and this will lead to interest rate hikes....If Russia/Putin invades Ukraine, the stock market will get hit and this could be a buying opportunity. Just do not sell...There could be one leg down before the annual Santa Clause Rally.

Policy error is a market threat. Central banks so far do nothing in the face of inflation; the longer the delay in raising rates, the greater the risk. During tax-loss selling, look at longer terms of owning your stocks, not quarterly. Anything that benefit from rising rates, those stocks benefit your portfolio. ENB, for example, raised their dividend today. There's a lot of trading these days, but that makes your broker rich. Asia is very cheap now. Europe is also cheap. He likes ESG themes. The banks are inexpensive. Logistics companies have seen a bonanza, so could face downside.

You make money when buy, not sell, a stock, when you buy something at a discount. Example: buying in real estate a decade ago and sell now. It's critical when companies are on sale and face growth.

When does it make sense for a foreign buyer to buy an ADR/OTC... When you buy an ADR, it'll be cheaper paying constant ADR fees. He tends to buy stocks in local markets and seldom trades stocks. Over time, the relatively inexpensive buying foreign. If you trade a lot, then buy local markets.

Market Outlook The market is trying to decide where it wants to go and the S&P500 is 30% higher than levels pre-COVID. There has been a lot of government stimulus. The new COVID variants are causing the market to pause for now. The market is "shoot first ask questions later", meaning investors are looking well past the current environment. Companies that were first hardest hit recovered well and now they have to justify the earnings outlook. You may have to pay a premium for the very best companies that will benefit most post-COVID.