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

Oil. Feels it is at the bottom as it is at the price of production now.

Markets. The current situation represents a serious buying opportunity. Wouldn't be surprised if the figures shown yesterday afternoon were the bottom. For those people who have some courage, now is the time to show it, especially true if you are under 60.

TFSA vs RRSP? Most Canadians are going to be in a higher tax bracket when they are working than they are when they retire. E.g. If you put $10,000 into an RRSP and you are in a 40% tax bracket, this will give you a $4000 tax refund. When you retire and you take that $10,000 out, you are in a lower tax bracket of 30%, it means you pay $3000 in tax. For 80%-85% of Canadians, he would maximize the RRSP.

In a TFSA account, should we be buying dividend paying stocks are higher risk types? His general bias is towards growthy stocks, but a few are 60 or more, you might have biased towards more conservative dividend paying stocks

Preferred shares? Usually good dividend yields and lower volatility but he prefers things that are more growthy on the equity side. If a company did not pay out dividends, the stock would go up by an appropriate amount. People who are 60 or older may prefer the greater stability.

RESPs for grandchildren? Depends on the age of your grandchildren. For the first 9 years for his daughter he put the money into equities but when she reached 10, he started putting it into income but just recently switched it to a balanced position of 60/40.

Allocation percentages of ETF's or low-cost mutual funds in a portfolio? For a couple in their mid-50s, something like 60% in stocks and bonds in stocks and 40% in bonds makes sense. The 60%, he would divide into 5 equal buckets of Cdn equity, US equity, international equity, emerging market equity and tangibles.

Markets. Over the next 20 years, emerging markets will be the driving force for world growth. It won't be in a straight line. There will be ups and downs. Right now we are perhaps going into a slight slowing period.

Markets. He has shifted to more defensive holdings with higher incomes. Some pretty grim things are discounted into the market and he doesn't think will happen. General Motors (GM-N) have reported a 20% increase in car sales. We are into a slowdown and Europe is troubling at we have lost sight of the big picture. A Santa Claus rally is a pretty good possibility.

Gold. The 2 names that he likes are Goldcorp (G-T) and Iamgold (IMG-T). Sees growth in Goldcorp. Not accumulating at this time but is considering how badly the equities have done compared to the commodity.

Markets. Between Oct 5th and Oct 12th, the markets are going to get a very important low. If this type of market continues, this means the general population is interested in being in the market at all. The only thing helping the TSX was the gold sector and that also is now having a bit of a problem. We now have to rely on utilities and consumer staples to hold it up.

Which technical indicators do you prefer? His #1 tools are the 40 week and 200 day moving averages. This is aside from point and figure charting. After that, there is no one indicator that he relies on. Different indicators are for different times.

Oil. Sees some near-term weakness. $70-$80 range is appropriate given the fundamentals. You now start to invest in oily companies.

Natural gas. Still bullish on this commodity. Favours it relative to oil, because risk/reward is much better in terms of how much lower it goes. Can see a $6 handle, possibly in the next 12-18 months.

Uranium. Looks like it is a 1-2 year period to sort this all out. The moratorium in China has been lifted. China, India and Russia probably constitute 80% of global reactor builds over the next decade. For longer-term players this is an advantage for a purchase.