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
Sitting in a pub with property man Pete Wargent a few months ago, we were discussing the property market of Sydney in the 2008-10 ‘downturn’. I use inverted commas because barely a blip registered on any city-wide measurement of house prices. Show More
Forager’s two funds have quite high cash weightings today. It’s almost 28% in the Australian fund and 30% in the Forager International Shares Fund. On our recent roadshow tour, many intelligent questions were asked about the current cash weightings. Is it reflective of our thoughts on value available in stockmarkets?... Show More
While the profit and loss statement is doubtless very important for investors, the balance sheet should not be underestimated; it may even be more important. Below we run through the top points to consider when coming face-to-face with a balance sheet. Show More
The most effective strategy we have at Wilson Asset Management to manage volatility is our nimble and flexible mandate. We have the ability to hold high levels of cash when we cannot find suitable investment opportunities. Under our mandate, we can hold anywhere between 0 and 100% cash levels and... Show More
One of the common critiques about gold is that it is impossible to “value”, with no cash-flow that one can use to determine whether the current price is cheap, expensive or fair. This “failing” of gold leads many to simply write gold off as an “investment” per se, as it... Show More
Australian investors have largely missed out on the 20-year bond rally, preferring instead to invest in cash for their liquid/defensive asset holding. However, they missed out on a major benefit of holding high quality bonds – the negative correlation they provide to equities. This particularly came to light in the... Show More
“We’ve never in history, run sophisticated economies, with sophisticated financial systems, through declining populations. It is a truly unique event.,” said Mark Burgess from Jamieson Coote Bonds at the recent Livewire Live investor forum. “ affects all asset classes in strange ways… House prices don’t work when demographics don’t work.”... Show More
With interest rates at historical lows, it is easy to forget how valuable cash can be. Show More
The impact of history’s greatest monetary experiment is now upon us. Low interest rates, flat yield curves and the pursuit of yield have rendered it difficult for value investors to find interesting new opportunities. In this environment, I’d suggest building up some cash. Cash is like an option over every... Show More
Increasing valuations due to low interest rates, rather than growth in economic value, has been the culprit in the S&P500, almost tripling since its low point in March 2009. Warren Buffett has said if interest rates remain low for many years then there’s plenty of room for the market to... Show More
We believe market volatility is set to expand significantly in the near term. Investors are growing more and more disillusioned with the rhetoric of unqualified optimism. Things are not getting better and because of failed expectations, the threat of a concerted risk asset sell-off climbs higher. Show More
In our opinion, we’re in a cyclical bear market for global equities. The centre of the global challenges in this bear market is China (& surrounding, related EM economies). As such, while US equities are expected to trend lower, US government bonds are an attractive safe haven. We would also... Show More
Aussie market moved up and down and finally finished mainly flat. There is enough negative news that can derail optimism in early March. The currency is holding up like a rock and we will need RBA to move on rates to get that down. It’s time to buy some gold... Show More
Aussie market expected to open flat, but should trade down as the market moves to reduce exposure going into the weekend. There are enough negative news that can derail optimism in early March…(1) Oil likely to slide (2) US Fed meeting in mid-March (3) Chinese equities fell over 6% (4)... Show More
This time last year we ran a short survey with the Livewire audience to find out their predictions on interest rates, the AUD as well as the best and worst performing asset classes for the year ahead. With CY15 rapidly coming to an end it is time to check the... Show More
Dr Shane Oliver spends much of his time making sense of the macro economic environment and sharing his views on how investors might think about asset allocation. To put his mind to work we asked Shane to talk us through how he would invest $1 million today. Oliver says that... Show More
In my AFR column over the weekend, I evaluated the performance of our preferred portfolio posture in 2015, which is a bar-belled strategy split between cash and alpha-focussed long-short and market neutral hedge funds with minimal beta. Given extreme market volatility, abysmal equity market returns, and never-ending shocks, this approach... Show More
The AFR reports that Australians are facing an unprecedented “income squeeze” forcing us to raid our savings at rates not seen since the GFC. Andrew Charlton, co-founder of economic advisory firm AlphaBeta says "Australia's living standards are falling on a sustained basis for the first time in 50 years –... Show More
Just shy of 80% of the net worth of everyday Australians is trapped inside owner occupied housing and superannuation. That is the finding's of a Roy Morgan survey which spoke to over 250,000 Australian's. Show More
