In my column today I reflect on the explosion in fund managers raising money via LICs/LITs and how these vehicles allow them to legally circumvent the Future of Financial Advice laws that expressly ban payments of conflicted sales commissions to brokers/advisers selling funds to retail investors (click on this link... Show More
It has been an incredibly ugly period for funds management in recent months, albeit a very informative one for their investors. Unfortunately, the market environment is transitioning, and in response many fund managers have – simply put – been found wanting. It is exactly this type of period when manager... Show More
Well, October 18 was a brutal month for microcaps with the S&P/ASX Emerging Companies Index closing down 10.9% for the month, Yikes! Although things have stabilised in November there has been no major recovery of the losses in October. Not that the larger cousins escaped without injury, the S&P/ASX All... Show More
FY18 was a strong year for both microcap and small caps indexes. Once again, microcaps significantly outperformed large caps. The S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Accumulation Index returned 13.7% for FY18 a healthy return. In contrast, the S&P/ASX Emerging Companies Index posted a stellar return of 23.2% for FY18. Leading to an... Show More
Many textbooks and articles tell you how successful fund managers go about analysing companies when they invest. However, what they don’t tend to disclose is that a lot of investment success is also a result of never doing certain things. Show More
I keep a track of what some of the better fund managers are doing. It is all part of my "Flow Analysis" highlighted in this article. Below is a table from the AFR on 25/1/2018 listing the best and worst performing fund managers last year. One way to track what... Show More
Many investors talk about quality businesses and many, like us, seek to buy these businesses for our clients. But what exactly is quality, what are the signs to look for, and why is it so important? Show More
The Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofAML) Global Fund Manager Survey for November has just been released. The survey was conducted from 9 to 14 November, i.e. after the US election results were known. Responses were provided by 177 fund managers from around the world with combined assets under management... Show More
Some years ago, I had a relation of mine tell me he was selling some shares in a Microcap company he bought only six months earlier. I asked him what the reason for him selling was, and he responded that he made a 50% gain and was taking profits because... Show More
This is the question most prospective investors of our managed funds and anyone interested in small cap investing ask us. Identifying investment ideas, whether it is ASX listed companies or global companies can come about many ways. It could be we stumble upon them by trawling through all the companies... Show More
Part one of our Perspective series examined the dire situation facing active managers as their legacy business is under threat from the rise of passive investment strategies. This concluding piece examines why active will continue to exist and actually how passive strategies need active strategies for passive to function properly.... Show More
Kevin Bertoli, Portfolio Manager at PM Capital, says he is spending a lot of his time in conversation with the management of listed companies to understand the impact of higher rates. Bertoli says the feedback from the companies they are invested in suggests that the economy is travelling along nicely.... Show More
External research house Zenith Investment Partners revealed the winners of the 2015 Fund Awards last Friday 9 October. We are very pleased to announce that Wilson Asset Management won the Listed Investment Companies category for the second year in a row. The event, held in Sydney, was attended by more... Show More
We take a look at the recent SPIVA AUS/US 2014 scorecard on Active Managers vs their relevant benchmark indices. The results show that only 1 in 4-5 managers outperform their benchmark index. This suggests there is a huge amount of money that is invested with managers, paying fees, when the... Show More
Macquarie is currently yielding a 4.6% forward dividend (March year-end FY16F), and based on our estimates is growing earnings at 30% CAGR for the three years to FY16F. Macquarie is taking advantage of buoyant conditions across key segments including 1) Asset Management, 2) Corporate & Asset Finance, 3) Commodities &... Show More
Why investors will shift to passive investing. Passive investors believe that over the long run the prices of stocks and bonds will reflect the true value of those securities, so they set up long-term strategies to capture the performance of the entire market. Comparatively, active investors believe the market is... Show More
Macquarie Bank research suggests Australia is in the early stages of an economic expansion (or soon will be) and that investors should consider positioning themselves for a sector rotation. The sectors that traditionally perform best during these early/mid stages of the cycle are: banks, transport, capital goods, media, insurance, retail... Show More