Investing 101

Inflation has remained in the headlines through February and will likely continue to do so throughout the remainder of the year. Yet whilst the headlines suggest both inflation and interest rates are heading higher in a straight line, the real world impact is far more nuanced and uncertain. This was the central focus of a…

Thematic investing has been among the most powerful and popular trends in the last several decades. The idea of identifying the next Apple or Amazon is one of the main reasons many people get into investing, and likely the biggest creator of wealth in recent history. The last few months have reiterated that investing solely…

There is little doubt that advisers and asset allocators around the world have been rapidly researching which investments have performed best in periods of elevated inflation. Among the most common responses are traditional “macro” hedge funds and “trend-following,” or managed futures strategies. The latter seemingly performed well during both the dotcom crash and the global…

With reporting season now upon us, it’s that time of year again when ASX-listed companies begin sending in their earnings results for the December half-year of 2021 (for some, who use the calendar year as their financial year, it’s full-year result time.) Market analysts and broking houses are expecting results to be a bit of…

“Don’t ask yourself if it’s going to rain, ask yourself if you have an umbrella, in case it does,” says Hugh Selby-Smith, co-chief investment officer and head of research at specialist global equity manager Talaria Capital. Drawing on decades of experience, the firm’s January investor update offered both a history lesson and an insight into…

Blackmore Capital’s chief investment officer (CIO), Marcus Bogdan, provided a rundown on sectors that look attractive following the January sell-off. Bogdan says, “The market was very much polarised in January, and our focus is looking at sectors that underperformed quite dramatically in January. The two sectors that stand out at the moment are healthcare and…

Whilst insurance companies are typicalled considered “technical, mundane and incredibly boring,”  Ed Waller and his team at Yarra Capital Management believe there is a time, a price and a place for almost everything. And for the first time in close to a decade they believe insurance is now compelling. Deputy Portfolio Manager of the Yarra…

Investor awareness of the private debt sector is growing, and will only grow more as the dedicated funds in the marketplace continue to rack up strong performance, adding to the options available to hard-pressed yield-oriented investors. The Alceon Debt Income Fund is certainly one of the products to which yield-focused investors have turned, with its…

Leading investment bank JP Morgan recently released its 2022 Global Alternatives Outlook, which seeks to understand the key trends and risks facing investors over the next 12 to 18 months. Since 2020 the “alternative” assets have seen record capital flows, as advisers sought to add further diversification to portfolios and gain access to the advertised…

Speaking ahead of the Federal Reserve’s much anticipated announcement, Paul O’Connor, head of multi-asset at global manager Janus Henderson, highlights that there are many more risks on the horizon than interest rates alone. In terms of the adjustment that markets are making in light of a potentially higher discount rate, “it is far from obvious…

Uncertainty has returned to the market after a bumper 2020, fuelled by persistent inflation and a pandemic that never really went away. But in its latest alternatives outlook, JPMorgan warns that investors “aren’t seeing the forest for the trees.” “Up close, the ‘trees’ in the 2022 outlook are clear,” writes Anton Pil, global head of…

The last two years have been a near-perfect storm of activity for many financial advisers. The onset of the pandemic placed significant pressure on advisers to respond to client queries at a time of immense stress; many advisers were trying to deal with a flood of new clients as industry numbers dwindled and the big…