John Hood.
John Hood is president & portfolio manager, J.C. Hood Investment Counsel. His focus is options and ETFs.
Top picks:
Note: none of these have been bought recently in any accounts – will be buying in January.
Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK)
First Trust Health Care AlphaDEX Fund (FXH)
BMO U.S. High Dividend Covered Call ETF (ZWH)
Past picks: December 13, 2013
Vanguard Large-Cap ETF (VV)
Then: $81.81; Now: $95.32 +16.51%; Total return: +19.30%
Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK)
Then: $55.36; Now: $52.80 -4.62%; Total return: -0.18%
Horizons Floating Rate Bond ETF (HFR.TO)
Then: $10.15; Now: $10.17 +0.25%; Total return: +2.63%
Total return average: +7.25%
Market outlook:
Whenever Sam Stovall of S&P Portfolio IQ is on BNN, I pay attention. I have made a lot of money for clients listening to Sam's historical, statistical narratives. He is calling for the S&P to be at 2,250 at the end of 2015 and anticipates higher values particularly in the tech and health care sectors; hence my choice of Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF. There are other tech ETFs as well including iShares Trust Russell 1000 Growth Index Fund based on the Russell 1000 or PowerShares QQQ Trust ETF. For health care, I was initially drawn to Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF, also from iShares but changed to Alphadex, is the First Trust Health Care Alphadex Fund in USD or First Trust Alphadex U.S. Health Care Sector Index ETF on the TSX. Their Alpahdex methodology outperformed the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF very significantly. It is based on the Russell 1000 is more diversified than just Big Pharma including health care services and equipment as well as a number of large and mid-cap companies. I have sold all European holdings due to concerns about the Euro and Russian belligerence however I am quite prepared to go back in for 5-to-10 per cent of portfolio assets when some uncertainty has diminished.With respect to Canada, I continue to hold all positions and hope that we will be dragged along with U.S. growth.