What exactly is a defensive asset? The answer to this depends very much on who you ask. For some people the priority is liquidity so just holding cash might make sense. For others, it means they have very limited performance volatility so perhaps you could consider a term deposit. And... Show More
As Peter Lynch once famously said “You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don’t understand that’s going to happen, then you’re not ready, you won’t do well in the markets”. Today I’m going to discuss some ways in which investors can protect their portfolios from downside risk. Show More
Yesterday, in part one of this series, we discussed the importance of conducting due diligence on the strategy and process your investment manager. Apart from the initial investigative work, it also helps to know whether the manager is doing something genuinely different from others. After all, if your fund manager... Show More
Considering the strategy of an investment manager, which is essentially their investment approach and process, is a crucial element when assessing a fund manager, and one which is often underemphasised. While returns can and will fluctuate over time - and hence chasing past returns is a poor manager selection approach... Show More
Prudent portfolio management shouldn’t rely upon the assumption that everything will remain the same or that economic settings of the past will continue. Unfortunately, this is how many portfolios in Australia are typically managed. This is particularly dangerous when one considers that current economic settings are quite different to what... Show More
The single best way to generate strong returns is to identify stocks that are trading a long way from their fair price. This not only generates better results, but also creates a margin of safety that helps us hit our 80% success rate benchmark. As our objective at Monash Investors... Show More
At Harvest Lane, one of our core strategies involves taking a position in stocks that are subject to a takeover (also known as Merger Arb) and/or some other type of corporate activity. If the right opportunities are selected, this strategy produces limited downside volatility of returns, exhibits low correlation with... Show More
Monash Investors established their absolute return fund in July 2012, and since that time, the fund has experienced an annual net return of 15.91% p.a., with lower volatility, fewer drawdowns and a lower beta than the major market indexes. Importantly these returns have been achieved with little to no leverage.... Show More
Ignore the index and focus on these five quality value stocks instead. The Australian stock market has gone nowhere since September last year; it's a classic sideways market that resulted after it moved above fair value in early 2013. Unlike 2012 - the last time the market showed value -... Show More