January 20, 2006
Wealth Expo in Houston, Texas
Lipper Research
Interview with Don Cassidy, Senior Research Analyst with Lipper. Don gave a presentation at the Wealth Expo on fixed income strategies and he tells us how he got his start in Junior High School in Boston: a math teacher in his 50’s that wired circuit boards for IBM and created a stock market game contest. The Dow was around 200 at this time. Don and I chat about a few ideas for fixed income investors to preserve capital. He answers the proverbial question. "What would you sell your mom?" We talk about utilities, closed-end funds, TIPs, inflation, bonds, CDs and "I-bonds". Also includes comments on the new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, predictions for 2006, the inverted yield curve and the best time to buy a utility.

Interview with Daniel Gramza from DMG Advisors, LLC. After working as a trader for Royal Bank of Canada for seven years and in London, Helsinki, Stockholm with 400 institutions, 35 countries and 30 exchanges, Daniel Gramza trained the floor traders at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Recently, he consulted with the Singapore Stock exchange. Later this year, SGX will be transitioning from floor trading to an electronic platform. Technology is changing the way trading is done worldwide. It is a natural evolution globally leveling the playing field. We spoke about trends in the Chinese markets and how the Chinese tend to take on risk as a part of their culture and briefly touched on commodity-based economies. Dan has practiced martial arts for 30 years and is working on a book called "Trading in the Eye of the Storm." It’s a book based on a series of mental techniques that we can use to identify thing that might be holding us back at traders. Dan shares his current positions and much more.

Interview with Justin Burns and Evan Rogers of FXCM How many times have you seen the word FOREX? I caught up with Justin Burns and Evan Rogers at the Wealth Expo to learn about the Forex market. I recall a position on the Japanese Yen years ago when Ron Brown was Commerce Secretary who said, "We (USA) are happy with the strengthening of the yen” on Meet the Press and how currency markets have developed since then. With Congress passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000, smaller retail investors can now participate and learn how to trade.

Interview with Rodger Conrad, editor of Canadian Edge Rodger and I talk about the Canadian elections and how this may affect the markets. Described as the “Canadian Decade” because of an increase in energy and commodity prices and the appreciation of the Canadian dollar as well as the possibility of a pro-investor and pro American shift in policy. We talked about income trusts that pay dividends of 15% to 20%. Flow through entities that pay out most of their cash flow to the investor as a distribution. Income trusts can be in oil and gas, trucking companies or even environmental clean up companies like New Alta. Most of the Canadian population lives near the Canadian border, but will there be a labor shortage? Rodger gives us his 2006 predictions on energy.

Interview with Elliott Gue, editor of The Energy Strategist Elliott is also the editor of the free bi-weekly Energy Newsletter. Elliott accurately predicts the pulse of the energy sector when we talked about the nuclear power sector since it is not as overplayed as oil and natural gas while focusing on services rather than producers. Like deep water drillers TransOcean [RIG] who have the most uncommitted rigs going out to 2006 and 2007. That means they have old contracts expiring and the scheduled new contracts can be renewed by new companies at higher day rates that rent the rigs. (Two to three times higher now.) The nuclear power image has changed a bit since Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Elliott talks about 65% of the world wide uranium fuel that Camco [CCJ] controls. He also shares interesting insights on the coal business that mines underground versus strip mines and huge costs. Stock mentioned are Massey Energy [MME] and Alpha Natural Resources[ANR]. Predictions for 2006 are more liquified natural gas or LNG coming in to the United States and opposition to regasification projects. Also mentioned are projects by Teekay LNG Partners [TGP].

Interview with Neil George, editor of Personal Finance newsletter For over 40 years, the Personal Finance newsletter and translated in many languages. Unbiased information published bi-monthly. Neil talks about his start in Central and Eastern Europe and working for Merrill Lynch's banking arm living in Austria and doing currency translations for business behind the "Iron Curtin". Neil also discuss resource markets, trusts, and predictions for 2006. Companies mentioned include Ark Energy [ARK-U], Enerplus Resources [ERF], Archer Daniel Midland [ADM], GE and Vestas Wind Systems [VWSYF].