“We haven’t seen a secular bear market for nearly 40 years,” said Johnathan Ruffer, chairman of UK-based multi-asset manager Ruffer, in the firm’s third-quarter update. The outspoken contrarian delivered something of a warning for the cohort of “clever” economists, political journalists and hedge fund managers who think they can understand what is going on in…
Both Magellan (ASX:MFG) and Platinum Asset Management (ASX:PTM) have been gaining plenty of unwanted attention lately. Both their hallmark strategies are suffering from periods of underperformance, the former due to a lack of cyclical exposure, and the latter an ingrained value focus. It is somewhat interesting therefore that both are banking on China as being…
“Money makes money. And the money that money makes, makes money” – Benjamin Franklin To many, this quote likely stands out as being one of the most capitalist comments that could be made. But the quote refers not to greed, but rather to the benefits of compounding returns. Franklin’s line has been encapsulated in the…
It didn’t take long to see headlines about another technology sector sell-off feed through the market. It seems like a monthly occurrence that the threat of higher bond yields sends the technology sector into free fall. The most common explanation any time that bond rates increase, and the tech-dominated Nasdaq or S&P500 fall, is that…
One of the most important roles of a financial adviser is to assist investors in navigating their own ‘behavioural biases.’ The world of behavioural finance was little known until a few years ago, before being made famous by The Undoing Project, Michael Lewis’ biography of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, two of the founding fathers…
Emerging markets, but primarily China, have garnered the majority of headlines in recent weeks. Whether it was the implications of Australia’s submarine deal with the US, the impending collapse of Chinese property development giant Evergrande, or the regulatory ‘crackdowns’, sentiment towards investing in the region has rarely been worse. Despite the laundry list of issues,…
Listening to a podcast this week, it was eye-opening to hear an alternate view to the current simplistic views being espoused about markets being ‘overvalued’ or in ‘bubble’ territory. The point made on the popular Animal Spirits podcast was that the paradigm of markets has changed in the last few decades. Those who invested through…
Whether we like it or not, the industry super fund sector has been one of the biggest competitors to financial advisers supporting retail clients. The combination of significant marketing budgets, strong headline returns and a near-clean-sheet through the Royal Commission has made the industry funds synonymous with superannuation in Australia. I have little doubt that…
One of the more interesting learnings from the pandemic so far has been the varying methods of communication used by political, media and industry leaders alike. What becomes even clearer, listening to far too many press conferences, is how important it is to use words that resonate with your audience. Nowhere is this fact more…
The Firetrail Absolute Return strategy has experienced a difficult few months after an extended period of outperformance. The long-short strategy, which seeks to balance its long and short positions to remove the so-called ‘market risk,’ had seen a number of stock-specific issues dragging performance lower before staging a recovery in August and September. Portfolio manager…
