FEATURED PRO: Jean-Francois Tardif has been part of the team that manages the Sprott series of funds at Sprott Asset Management in Toronto since 2001. He is the lead manager of one of the firm's new funds, the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund.

Fund Form: The Sprott Canadian Equity Fund has a three-year compound annualized return of 33 per cent, the Sprott Hedge Fund has a three-year compound annualized return of 23.2 per cent and the Sprott Opportunities Hedge Fund has a return of 19.9 per cent since its inception in April.

Management Expense Ratios: 2.0-2.5 per cent (plus performance fees).

Tardif's Perspective: "I'm anticipating that interest rates and inflation in the U.S. will rise in 2005 and obviously that would hurt the stock market. There's a risk of recession in the U.S. in 2005 or 2006 and if the U.S. gets a cold, we'll probably get it in Canada too. The U.S. dollar will continue to weaken due to the very large trade deficit in the U.S.

"We believe the way to go is to invest in real things, like energy, and we believe energy will be the place to be in '05. Even if we go into a recession, we'll still need energy – and energy demand will increase because of demand from Asia. Investing in precious metals is another way to protect against the drop in the U.S. dollar and a grim economic situation. I think people should avoid U.S. cash, not be fully invested and look at alternative investments such as hedge funds that provide an opportunity to short-sell stocks."

FIRST STAR

* EnCana Corp. (TSX:ECA)

* Recent Price: $66.78.

* 52-Week Range: $47.04-$67.55.

* Snapshot: EnCana is the world's largest independent oil and gas company. The company explores for, produces and markets natural gas, crude oil and natural gas liquids.

* CEO: Gwyn Morgan.

* Head Office: Calgary.

* Vital Stats: Current Price/Earnings Ratio, 18.5; Revenue (last 12 mos), $13.7 billion; Earnings (last 12 mos), $1.7 billion; Market Cap, $30.85 billion; Shares Outstanding, 462 million; Dividend Yield, 0.8 per cent.

* Tardif's View: "EnCana is basically transforming itself to focus on so-called resource plays, which are long-life assets with low decline rates. The company wants to sell some of its conventional assets while investing in unconventional assets. As a result, the company will end up with a growing production with free cash flow that will allow them to pay down debt and buy back a lot of shares.

"The stock is very reasonably priced. Although the stock trades at lower market multiples, their reserve life is better than most companies and their assets are longer life than most companies."

* Tardif's Risk Rating: Medium.

* Web Watch: www.encana.com

SECOND STAR

* Cameco Corp. (TSX:CCO)

* Recent Price: $110.

* 52-Week Range: $57.25-$119.84.

* Snapshot: Cameco is the world's largest low-cost producer of uranium, providing 20 per cent of the world's uranium supplies, and also operates uranium fuel services facilities.

* CEO: Gerald Grandey.

* Head Office: Saskatoon.

* Vital Stats: Current Price/Earnings Ratio, 37.1; Revenue (last 12 mos), $959.7 million; 5-Yr Revenue Growth, 4.7 per cent; Earnings (last 12 mos), $191.2 million; Market Cap, $6.73 billion; Shares Outstanding, 57.5 million; Dividend Yield, 0.5 per cent.

* Tardif's View: We're very bullish on uranium prices and this is one of the very few uranium stocks you can buy. Cameco has the biggest deposit of uranium in the world and is positioned to benefit greatly from rising uranium prices. Uranium prices have doubled over the past 18 months as supplies are depleted and we believe that it will double again in the next 18 months. If the price of uranium doubles, the price of the stock should double again.

* Tardif's Risk Rating: Medium.

* Web Watch: www.cameco.com

THIRD STAR

* Badger Income Fund (TSX:BAD.UN)

* Recent Price: $15.25.

* 52-Week Range: $4.92-$16.30.

* Snapshot: Badger is North America's largest non-destructive excavations company based on its hydrovac daylighting system.

* CEO: Tor Wilson.

* Head Office: Calgary.

* Vital Stats: Current Price/Earnings Ratio, 37.1; Revenue (last 12 mos), $73.7 million; 5-Yr Revenue Growth, 0.1 per cent; Earnings (last 12 mos), $9.2 million; Market Cap, $170.77 million; Units Outstanding, 10.6 million; Monthly Distribution, .0735 cents per unit.

* Tardif's View: "This company continues to perform extremely well and we expect them to increase their distributions to unitholders many times in the future. The percentage of cash flow that they're paying out (to unitholders) is very low now, around 50 per cent, so there's a lot of room on the upside in terms of distributions. The fund price isn't dirt cheap as it once was, but it still is at a very reasonable level and I expect it will probably hit $20 by the end of '05.

"A good percentage of their earnings are coming from the oil and gas sector but they're also continually finding new applications for their technology."

* Tardif's Risk Rating: Medium.

* Web Watch: www.badgerinc.com

Tardif's Edge Record (past 12 mos): +23.9 per cent. Best Pick: Cameco (TSX:CCO) +82 per cent. Worst Pick: Dorel Industries (TSX:DII.SV) -4.5 per cent.

Disclosure: Tardif has investments in the Sprott funds in which the featured stocks are held.