Investors should look past the so-called "fiscal cliff" and add risk to their portfolios, Larry Kantor, head of research at Barclays, said Monday on CNBC.
"It's not that we're expecting the economy to do a whole lot better. It's more than the absence of a negative, " he said on "Fast Money ."
Despite the looming "fiscal cliff, " which would trigger massive, automatic federal spending cuts in January, Kantor pointed to a slew of recent, positive economic indicators.
"People getting very nervous about the U.S numbers, which were very weak as you know until about a month ago, " he said. "Now you're seeing better-than-expected retail sales, a better-than-expected employment report, better-than-expected auto sales."
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Even the two most-often cited challenges to a global recovery were tempered, according to Kantor.
"China just had trade data that really says that the month before, which was very weak, was an outlier, and the exports situation is better, " he said. "Even in Europe, things aren't completely collapsing with industrial production moving up. You're not going back into a recession."
Fighting the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing was not a winning trade, he said.
"The Fed announcement is extraordinary in its open-endedness. Basically, the Fed's saying, 'We're going to keep buying until the economy starts growing faster.' That's pretty nice because when the economy starts growing faster, that's good news, " he added.
Corporate bonds and cyclical stocks were among Kantor's picks.
"What we see is more of a stabilization and maybe doing better in the next quarter, " he said.
Trader disclosure: On Oct. 15, 2012, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Joe Terranova is long VRTS; Joe Terranova is long WFM; Joe Terranova is long SBUX; Joe Terranova is long NFLX; Joe Terranova is long SWN; Joe Terranova is long TRV; Joe Terranova is long VZ; Joe Terranova is long XOM; Joe Terranova is long CVX; Joe Terranova is long COP; Joe Terranova is long GLW; Joe Terranova is long EMC; Joe Terranova is long SU; Joe Terranova is long CSTR; Joe Terranova is long CHKP; Joe Terranova is long NXPI; Joe Terranova is short Dec Mini S&P Futures; Josh Brown is long JPM; Josh Brown is long WFC; Josh Brown is long GDX; Josh Brown is long GLD; Josh Brown is long XLU; Josh Brown is long XLF; Josh Brown is long WMT; Josh Brown is long TGT; Mike Murphy is long AAPL; Mike Murphy is long WFC; Mike Murphy is long ANR; Mike Murphy is long S; Mike Murphy is long TWI; Stephanie Link is long JPM; Stephanie Link is long WFC; Stephanie Link is long SBUX; Stephanie Link is long CVX; Stephanie Link is long SWN;
For Anton Schutz
Anton Schutz is funds long C
Anton Schutz is funds long GS
Anton Schutz is funds long MS
Anton Schutz is funds long BAC.
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