Despite a brief moment in the sun during the depths of the pandemic, Modern Monetary Theory or MMT, somewhat disappointingly remains on the fringes of economic and financial market analysis. Mainstream economists, but particularly politicians from both ends of the spectrum, continue to stoke fear of ballooning government debt, and flag inflationary concerns that simply…
Munro Partners and its chief investment officer, Nick Griffin, seem to have a unique ability to look beyond the day-to-day noise that occurs in financial markets and frame the opportunity for global growth equities in seemingly simple terms. Since starting from scratch at $0 in assets in 2016 the group recently surpassed $1 billion in…
It is an all-too-common occurrence these days that a financial adviser meets a prospective client following a significant inheritance, divorce or in the worst-case death of a partner, with the surviving party having little in the way of financial let alone investment experience. The sheer strength of asset markets in recent years is that almost…
Leading equity manager Martin Currie has suggested the superannuation, advice and wealth management industry may have it all wrong, in its new research piece titled ‘Investing for a sufficient retirement income’. In the paper, chief investment officer Reece Birtles advocates for a “rethink” of the traditional risk-return-dominated approach to portfolio construction, suggesting a “sufficient income…
Global asset manager Natixis Investment Managers recently released their latest Global Investor Survey. Undertaken with the support of CoreData Research, the ‘pulse check’ of global markets surveyed some 8,550 individual investors from around the world, 400 of which were located in Australia. Titled ‘The next normal’ the report asks the important question of whether investors…
Not a day goes by that we don’t hear about the massive semiconductor shortage created by the pandemic. Supply chains around the world which span Europe, Asia the US and most importantly Taiwan are struggling to come to terms with a massive surge in demand for computer chips at a time when the ramp up…
Leading investment bank JP Morgan this month released an article titled “Are commodities still a good inflation hedge amid decarbonization?” The piece, penned by Kerry Craig, Ian Hui and Gareth Lam, offers a detailed analysis of what may be one of the most popular ‘reflation’ trades occurring at the present time. One would struggle to…
Christopher Joye and his growing team at Coolabah Capital regularly stand out among the smartest minds in the industry. Whether analyzing the topic of credit spreads in bond markets or COVID-19 infection rates, they have shown an innate ability to look beyond headline data and connect the dots with what is occurring in the real…
This week saw the release of the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO’s) latest quarterly data on the self-managed super fund (SMSF) sector. The information provides a unique insight into what has been a sector under pressure for many years now, as both regulators and industry fund alternatives fine-tuned their focus. The takeaway from the latest publicly…
2020 and much of 2021 have been fertile hunting grounds for smaller-company investors in Australia. So much so, that the last 12 months has seen an influx of new managers raising money to invest in pre-IPO, IPO, and other fast-growing small-cap sectors. Firetrail’s Australian Smaller Companies Fund, while launched in February 2020, is no Johnny-come-lately….
