Markets

The world of alternative investments is at a crossroads. As markets defy expectations and liquidity concerns take centre stage, investors find themselves forced to rethink how they deploy capital in an increasingly complex environment.

Bringing together our insiders community to share perspectives, debate strategies, and refine their approach to portfolio construction is always an enlightening exercise.

For decades, advisers have relied on bonds as the go-to counterweight in a balanced portfolio. But as the correlation between bonds and equities turned positive in 2022–2023, shock ensued; and many investors are rethinking what they thought was a truism.

Private credit investing has seen exponential growth in recent years, fueled by structural shifts in financial markets and a growing demand for flexible, non-bank lending solutions. Private credit is no longer a niche – it’s a major force in the market.

It’s the showdown of the equities funds management world: not value vs. growth, but long-only versus long-short. Do long-only managers fight with one hand pinned behind their backs, as their long-short counterparts assert? We tested a random pair.

The release of a landmark report by corporate and financial regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) into the nation’s rapidly expanding private markets – and shrinking public markets – has brought this dichotomy into the spotlight, as indeed it has around the world.

In case any active managers needed reminding, asset consulting firm Frontier Advisors has confirmed that 2024 was the most challenging year for global active equity managers in more than two decades.

The real estate sector has long been a cornerstone of wealth generation in Australia, offering stable, income-generating assets that hold intrinsic value due to the finite nature of land. At The Inside Network Alternatives Symposium, Julian Biggins, co-CEO of MA Financial, outlined why advisers should be paying close attention to the opportunities emerging in the real estate market.

Investors always have to trust the fund managers to which they entrust their capital; but even better than trust is alignment.

As the investment landscape evolves, the role of alternative investments remains a topic of debate. Some argue that traditional asset classes – shares and fixed income – are sufficient to build a well-diversified portfolio, while others see alternatives as essential for achieving uncorrelated returns and risk-adjusted growth. Here, we explore both perspectives.

Australian investors have poured money into private equity (PE) investments in recent years, but asset valuations are prone to the same combination of multiple and margin compression, and interest-rate pressure, that affects the listed markets. A big chunk of the pile of PE value is potentially facing high fire risk.

Often you will speak to a fund manager that will talk about its specialist approach, the market niche that it understands well and can leverage, and how the expertise of its team is a differentiator. It’s rarer, however, to see that manager make an investment that exemplifies all of the talk.