The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition Cara Operations, which is planning a $200-million initial public offering, enjoyed overwhelming market demand when it announced it was going public this year. The Post's John Shmuel quotes sources familiar with the deal as saying market demand was much higher -- in the $5-billion range -- making it one of the most oversubscribed IPOs in Canadian history. This illustrates the biggest problem in the Canadian stock market right now: a lack of options. The collapse in oil prices means investors have poured out of energy stocks and driven up prices for just about everything else. As a result, stock picking is going to be increasingly important this year. "There's no question that the TSX is a difficult trade right now," said Bill Strazzullo at Bell Curve Trading. "When you look at on a fundamental basis, the run-ups in most of the non-resource sectors in the past year, it doesn't look very promising. You have to be careful about what you pick." One of the few areas where cheap companies abound is the mining segment of the Toronto Stock Exchange, but with metals showing little sign of recovery, Mr. Taylor said buying into this sector as a whole is still risky.