Believe it or not, a motion to the European parliament recommends that autonomous robots be deemed “electronic persons”. The motion for resolution suggests that self-learning robots, those that make independent decisions and interact freely, be held to have an “electronic personality”. Show More

The digital platforms Facebook and Google are transforming advertising because they have surmounted that perennial marketing problem whereby much of the money spent on marketing failed to reach likely prospects. The numbers surrounding Facebook’s advertising reach are huge. The platform has 2.4 billion users, about two-thirds of who log in... Show More

Four years ago, Microsoft became our largest holding. We bought it for US$28 a share, at a time when Steve Ballmer's rule was ending and people thought the Windows business would disappear. Windows wasn't about to disappear. With the Office software, Microsoft probably had the best applications business in the... Show More

Strava is an app that styles itself as “the social network for those that strive”. Runners, cyclists and others use the app to track, share and compare their exertions and even determine a ‘Suffer Score’. Show More

We are in uncharted waters. Prices for sovereign, corporate and high-yield bonds and equities are at, or near, record levels thanks to the ultra-low policy interest rates and the massive quantitative-easing programs of the G3 central banks (the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan)... Show More

Beggars in China with QR codes hanging around their necks and others pleading with matrix-barcoded tins caused a stir when they appeared on Chinese city streets in the past year or two. Fellow Chinese shouldn’t have been surprised. These beggars are only keeping up with one of the most-rapid trends... Show More

Feel like a coffee? At a Starbucks café in the US you could try the Eggnog Latte or the Gingerbread Latte or one of the Frappuccino® cold coffees. If you want a hot chocolate, the choices include the new Toffee Almond milk or the Snickerdoodle. Prefer a tea? Perhaps you... Show More

Type relentless.com into a browser and where will you end up? At amazon.com. When Jeff Bezos established Amazon as an online bookseller in 1995 he toyed with calling his venture to dominate retail ‘Relentless’. Show More

In 1995 – three years before Google was founded, nine years ahead of Facebook, a decade before YouTube and 11 years earlier than Twitter – a US court judged that internet-based Prodigy Services was akin to a publisher because the web-services company vetted and deleted inappropriate material from online message... Show More

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broader S&P 500 Index and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index have set record highs in 2017. A common theory as to why US share indices have risen is the increase in value of the so-called FAAMG stocks – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Google... Show More

Perhaps the defining trait of globalisation is how companies stretched their assembly lines around the world so that goods were made across many countries a long way from where they were sold. Innovations such as barcoding, the pallet, the shipping container (especially) and industrial forklifts that reduced transport costs and... Show More

The Magellan Global Trust is a new investment vehicle to be listed on the ASX that is designed to offer investors a steady income stream from a global equities investment fund; specifically, a target cash distribution of 4% p.a. Other features include a reinvestment plan that provides a 5% discount... Show More

Milton Keynes is a UK town where many streets are reserved for pedestrians and bicycles. That made it a suitable place to test driverless cars, one of the great possibilities tied to the rise of artificial intelligence. Show More

As the Magellan Global strategy celebrates its 10-year anniversary, Hamish Douglass sat down to discuss the high and lows of the past decade and why successful investing is about looking forward not backward. Show More

Portfolio Manager Gerald Stack discusses the role that sovereign risk plays when selecting infrastructure stocks, US President Donald Trump’s proposed plans for infrastructure and whether the rally in infrastructure stocks is stretching valuations. Show More

Hamish Douglass, CEO, CIO and Lead Portfolio Manager (Global), discusses why rising tech stocks are still well priced, the strategy driving Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods and what this means for other retailers. Show More

In mid-April, the ‘Shadow Hackers’ online group made public some malicious software known as ‘EternalBlue’ that had been stolen from the US government’s National Security Agency, which develops hacking tools to gather intelligence. Show More

The shock election of Donald Trump as US president sparked excitement that his pro-growth policies would reinvigorate the US economy. Talk these policies would be accompanied by faster inflation boosted US long-term interest rates by about 50 basis points over November. While Trump inspired a 14% rally in US equity... Show More

Portfolio Manager Gerald Stack discusses whether or not rising interest rates will hamper infrastructure stocks, why he insulates the portfolio from changes in the oil price and why he has reduced his cash holding, of late. Show More

Hamish Douglass, the CEO, CIO and Lead Portfolio Manager (Global), discusses why capital preservation is important, gives his five biggest risks for global markets and explains why he is cautiously optimistic about President Donald Trump’s pro-growth. Show More