Chevron Corp.

TD RESOURCE FUND $17.79 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, M5W 1P9. Tel: 1-800-386-3757; Web site:www.tdcanadatrust.ca. No load: deal directly with the bank.) invests in companies with superior asset bases, proven management and the ability to internally finance growth. The $129.1-million TD Resource Fund’s top stock holdings are mostly of “Average” quality or higher. The fund’s holdings include EnCana Corporation, Suncor Energy, Talisman Energy Inc., Goldcorp, Yamana Gold, Petro-Canada, Red Back Mining, BHP Billiton, Husky Energy, Chevron Corporation, Marathon Oil Corporation and Nexen. TD Resource Fund’s industry breakdown is: Energy, 59.3%; and Metals & Minerals, 38.5%. Its MER is 2.15%....

Although resource companies will need an economic recovery to show renewed growth, we think the long-term outlook for global resources demand is still positive. Meanwhile, we think you should cut your risk in this volatile sector by investing mainly in profitable, well-established companies that have an asset base they acquired when asset prices were low, or in mutual funds that hold those stocks. Here are two Aggressive resource funds that expose investors to two different levels of risk, measured by the stocks they hold. Both are down in value lately, but we think they have long-term gains ahead. TD RESOURCE FUND $17.79 (CWA Rating: Aggressive) (TD Asset Management, P.O. Box 7500, Station A, Toronto, Ontario, M5W 1P9. Tel: 1-800-386-3757; Web site:www.tdcanadatrust.ca. No load: deal directly with the bank.) invests in companies with superior asset bases, proven management and the ability to internally finance growth....

A: Western Lithium Corp., $0.95, symbol WLC on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 35.7 million; Market cap: $33.9 million), is a Vancouver-based resource company focused on developing a lithium resource in northwestern Nevada. Western Lithium first sold shares to the public at $0.50, and began trading on Toronto in July 2008. Lithium is used in batteries, glass and ceramics, lubricants, refrigeration, pharmaceuticals, polymers and in aluminum production. Lithium demand is projected to increase with the development of lithium-ion and lithium-metal batteries for electric and hybrid-electric cars. Lithium trades at about $3.50 U.S. a pound, up from $1 U.S. a pound in 2003. Western Lithium’s main property is its Kings Valley project in Nevada. Chevron Resources began exploration drilling at Kings Valley the late 1970s, but in January 2009 Western Lithium completed an updated resource estimate that indicates the property could contain as much as 1.2 million tonnes of lithium carbonate. If recoverable, that’s a significant deposit, as the total amount of the world’s recoverable lithium carbonate is estimated at 150 million tonnes....

ProShares Ultra Oil & Gas ETF, $28.41, symbol DIG on New York, (Shares outstanding: 23.3 million; Market cap: $662.9 million) seeks returns that correspond to twice (200%) the daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil & Gas Index. The ETF first sold shares to the public at $70 and began trading on New York in January, 2007. The ETF’s top 10 holdings are Exxon Mobil (34.9%), Chevron (13.1%), ConocoPhillips (6.4%), Schlumberger (4.7%), Occidental Petroleum (4.3%), Devon Energy (2.5%), Apache (2.3%), XTO Energy (1.9%), Marathon Oil (1.8%) and Anadarko Petroleum (1.6%). As a general rule, we advise against the kind of leverage used in ProShares Ultra Oil & Gas, just as we advise against options trading, currency speculation and bond trading. In all these activities, it’s a rare investor who makes enough profit to compensate for the risk involved. Our view is that if you like the outlook for a market index, you should invest in stocks that will profit from a rise in the index....

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $17.85, New York symbol GE, moved up this week after the company said it would further scale back the activities of its struggling finance division. GE Capital now accounts for about 50% of GE’s total earnings. Through sales of certain financing businesses, the company now aims to reduce GE Capital’s earnings contribution to 30% by the end of 2009. GE now feels it will earn $0.50 to $0.52 a share in the fourth quarter of 2008. That’s down from its earlier forecast of $0.50 to $0.65 a share. These figures exclude restructuring and other charges of up to $1.4 billion. Even with these charges, GE will still earn over $18 billion in 2008. The company also plans to keep paying its $1.24 dividend (6.9% yield) in 2009. GE is a buy....

DIAMONDS TRUST SHARES $86.04 (American Exchange symbol DIA; buy or sell through brokers) hold the 30 stocks that make up the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Currently, the fund’s top 10 holdings are IBM, Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp., 3M, Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s Corp., Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart Stores, United Technologies and Coca- Cola. Expenses are about 0.18% of assets. Diamonds Trust Shares are a buy.

S&P DEPOSITORY RECEIPTS $87.32 (American Exchange symbol SPY; buy or sell through brokers) are commonly called ‘Spiders’. The fund holds the stocks in the S&P 500 Index. This index is comprised of 500 major U.S. stocks chosen for market size, liquidity, and industry group representation. The 10 highest weighted stocks on the index are Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble, General Electric, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Chevron Corp., Microsoft, Wal-Mart Stores, JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Pfizer. Expenses for the fund are just 0.10% of assets. If you want exposure to the S&P 500 Index, S&P Depository Receipts are a buy.

We still think high-quality mutual funds with a long-term focus will beat indexes over long periods. If funds invest as we advise — sticking with well-established companies and spreading their assets out across the five main economic sectors — they will tend to lose a lot less than the market indexes in periods when the indexes fall sharply. That’s because big market slides are particularly hard on the hottest, most popular stocks of the preceding market rise, and investing as we do leads you to avoid excessive investment in the hot stocks. Index funds, in contrast, do tend to load up on the hottest, most popular stocks as they rise. That’s because, as they rise, these stocks make up a rising proportion of the index. The most recent example is Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, which had the highest market cap on the Toronto exchange in June, 2008, on the strength of soaring fertilizer and agriculture prices. The shares have since dropped 70%....

UNITED CORPORATIONS $47 (Toronto symbol: UNC) (165 University Ave., 10th Floor, Toronto, ON M5H 3B8. 416-947-2583. Buy or sell through a broker) invests in a wide variety of average-quality to above-average quality Canadian and foreign stocks. At last report, 35.3% of the fund’s $1.0 billion portfolio was invested in Canadian equities, 23.7% in the U.S., 20.2% in Europe, 6.3% in the UK, 12.5% in Asia and 1.0% in Mexico and Latin America. The fund’s largest holdings included Bank of Nova Scotia, EnCana, Royal Bank, Nexen, Potash Corp., Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Manulife, TD Bank, Pfizer and CN Railway....

ECONOMIC INVESTMENT TRUST $75.50 (Toronto symbol: EVT) holds a well-diversified portfolio of high-quality Canadian, U.S. and foreign stocks. The $589.8 million fund’s largest holdings include E-L Financial, Algoma Central Railway, Chevron, Nissan Motor, Royal Dutch Shell, Altria Group, Dow Chemical, ConocoPhillips, Allianz SE, Arcelor Mittal, ING Groep, Vodafone Group plc, Renault, Xstrata plc and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial. The fund breaks down geographically as follows: Canada, 50.7%; the U.S., 15.7%, Europe, 20.6%, Asia, 12.3%; and Latin America, 0.6%....