One of my all-time favourite movie scenes is when Woody Allen stands in the queue in Annie Hall (1977) and he ends up having a discussion with the loudmouth academic behind him who professes to know everything there is to know about Marshall McLuhan. Show More
10 years into a bull market, and with most major indices showing triple-digit percentage gains from their lows, finding value is tough. Compounding the challenges, ‘value stocks’ by the traditional definition have underperformed throughout this period. Despite this, some value investors are still posting outsized returns. If history is any... Show More
Despite political tension and underperformance of the European Financials sector in the June quarter, results in 2017 and the first quarter were solid. We saw upgrades for the European banking sector through 2017 on the back of improving loan losses and continued uptick in lending growth. The banks are also... Show More
ABS data recently showed that global investing flows have overtaken those for local investing. With the ASX lagging global peers for the last decade, it’s not hard to see why. But is the grass really greener out there? And if so, what are the risks and where is the value?... 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
Cochlear (ASX:COH) is one of Australia’s shining examples of technical adroitness and export attractiveness, an example to entrepreneurs of what can be achieved in Australia despite punitive wages and regulation. Show More
Value investing has a long and illustrious history, championed by none other than Benjamin Graham, the man who arguably invented scientific stock analysis in the 1930s. Show More
The significant outperformance of Resources over Industrials since February 2016, is a major factor contributing to the recent underperformance of Value managers like IML, compared to Growth and Momentum strategies which I discussed in a recent wire. Show More
In the world of haute couture, a famous designer once quipped – “In a world full of trends, I want to remain a classic”. At Investors Mutual we would rephrase it as: “In a world full of trends, we want to remain a true-to-label value investor”. Show More
When Warren Buffett first started buying businesses with ‘moats’ in the 80s, such as Coca Cola, his disciples thought he was crazy. More than 30 years later, buying businesses with a moat is accepted wisdom. Morningstar even offers a 'moat rating' on thousands of stocks from around the world. Show More
The following is an extract from a note that was recently sent to investors in the Montaka Global Fund. There is a famous quote attributed to Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s (at least as we know it today): “The key to success is being in the right place at... Show More
In 2016, Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) raised the eyebrows of many investors when it expanded into the UK and Ireland hardware business. Two years later and $1.7 billion down on its investment, WES has decided to pull out. It shows yet again why growth through acquisition can be a risky strategy. Show More
Long before the term disruption was popularised by Silicon Valley, high quality business managers have been alert to the existence of change. In fact, Joseph A. Schumpeter, in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy noted; Show More
Today I review the investment classic authored by Christopher Browne, ‘The Little Book of Value Investing’. Browne was a partner at Tweedy, Browne Company – the oldest value investing house on Wall Street. Again, I recommend reading the book in its entirety. However, here are my favourite chapters. Show More
Join Nathan Bell, Head of Research, and Alex Haynes, Head of Distribution, as they explore the huge rewards and pitfalls of investing in IPOs and spinoffs. Show More
The market moves in cycles which are often extreme. We are currently experiencing a market which appears almost exclusively focused upon momentum rather than value, quality or traditional fundamentals. Should investors give up on fundamental value investing strategies and follow the markets’ momentum focused lead? Or is it time to... Show More
With the bull market entering its tenth year and interest rates increasing, what’s worked so well since the GFC, including buying high growth stocks, defensive businesses and high yielding stocks, is unlikely to work well through the cycle’s next phase. Show More
In the past companies used to buy a database, install it on their hardware, and deploy it locally. But what we've seen over the last few years is the rise of cloud computing, a significant evolution in the way in which we save, store and access data, and that has... Show More
The following is an extract from a note that was recently sent to investors in the Montaka Global Fund. The second best book that I read in 2017 was Professor Andrew Lo’s Adaptive Markets: Financial Evolution at the Speed of Thought. Show More
JD.com (JD) is often referred to as China’s Amazon. However, JD is online retail shopping with a difference. Firstly, buying behaviour and the online shopping experience in China is quite different to Australia and the United States. Online shoppers in Australia typically buy discretionary items such as books, shoes and... Show More
