David McMillan

The Water Energy Nexus

Eternal Bear - thanks for the error checking as you are quite right. The error is on my part and should have read a doubling in ~112 years,using the 2008 population estimates of 1.33 billion and a linear current growth rate of 0.62%.

It may have been better stated that my emphasis was on urbanization and industrial development as the most significant driver for water stress, even though population numbers can play a huge factor. It is also distinctly possible that we may even see China's population numbers decline in this century while water demand and scarcity reach even higher levels.

The Water Energy Nexus

One I am watching closely right now is WTR (Aqua America Inc). This stock is currently present in all 4 ETF's Claymore and First Trust have it in the ~4% range for their allocations and it is positioned under 2% in the Powershares models.

Aqua America is the holding company for various regulated utilities services to customers in 13 different states throughout the nation. They have a very strong operating margin and revenue has been strong even throughout 2008. They aggressively pursue smart acquisitions (more than 100+ in the last few years alone), and are backed by an experienced and solid management team.
Visit ir.aquaamerica.com/ for more information.

Alternatives and Absolute Return with ETFs

Thanks for the feedback Aquater and good selection in mentioning PRPFX.

Rather than a 'hodge podge concoction', the portfolio has been carefully crafted with a great deal of attention given to offsetting non-correlated asset classes, macro level themes and specialty plays managed using a top down economic forecasting approach.

By only managing 20 ETFs allows for a very simple model to be handled by our portfolio team and one that only requires reallocation on a quarterly basis. Inclusion of sectors only recently appearing in the ETF universe is also providing significant alpha to the composition in the first half of the year.

To provide greater detail on the specific weightings and recent modifications I can be reached off list at mcmillan@agilewealth.c...