Defensive assets

Speak with any financial adviser today, and it’s likely that their biggest investment concern isn’t related to the equity component of their portfolio. After two years of strong markets, most are sitting on strong returns despite the recent uptick in volatility. With the near-consensus view that interest rates are set to move higher sooner rather…

Traditional fixed income allocations, whether in the form of corporate or government bonds have been on the nose in 2022 and most of 2021 for that matter. The threat of inflation and associated rate hikes led many to rename the sector as ‘fixed loss’ rather than fixed income. Andrew Canobi, co-Portfolio Manager of the flexible…

The surprises over the last 12 months should give some indication of the significant uncertainty facing investors in 2022, with forecasts for global GDP growth and inflation having a high chance of coming in well above or below consensus. Market expectations for 2022 have moved significantly in recent months, on the whole pointing to a…

Specialist alternatives investment research firm Evergreen Consultants has released a research report on AAM Investment Group’s Diversified Agriculture Fund (ADAF), attaching a “Highly Commended” rating. This is the highest rating in the rating scale, meaning the fund has scored consistently very well across all areas of Evergreen Ratings’ research and analysis framework. As a result,…

While all eyes remain focused squarely on whether inflation is “transitory” or not, “persistent” is the adjective that value manager Allan Gray uses to describe the position of the equity market. Speaking in its monthly update, the firm’s Australian managing director and chief investment officer Simon Mawhinney flagged the “exuberance for some stocks and disdain…

“Learning to live with COVID will be the major theme of 2022,” according to Ken Leech, chief investment officer of leading fixed income manager Western Asset. But not necessarily in the way we think. As the Omicron variant ravages Australia and other parts of the developed world, Leech highlights continuing travel restrictions and lower vaccination…

If we are truly honest about the state of the Australian investment industry when it comes to alternatives, we were very much a backwater for many years. That is, at least, at the mass market, retail, or wholesale level. For many years, the best alternative assets advisers could access were the so-called “black boxes” of…

Leading thematic manager, Capital Group, is confident that the market downturn of 2020 was short-lived and entirely related to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to vice-chairman and president, Rob Lovelace.   Expanding on this point, he says that the “the powerful upswing in equity prices since then is simply a continuation of the bull market we’ve…

L1 Capital has taken out the prestigious ‘Alternative Investment Manager of the Year Award’ at the annual Australian Alternative Investment Awards for 2021. The award presentations were held in conjunction with the 20th anniversary Hedge Funds Rock charity dinner in Sydney last Friday night (December 10). They represented a welcome and lively return to normality…

Investment manager Daintree Capital, together with distribution partners Perennial and eInvest, held an investor webinar on its recently listed Hybrid Opportunities Fund (ASX:DHOF), which was quoted on the ASX earlier last month. With interest rates at all-time lows and the RBA giving “a very low probability” to the current surge in inflation triggering an early…

And just like that, the year is almost over. As 2021 comes to an end, there’s a lot to celebrate, both good and bad. The pandemic is largely behind us, with multiple vaccines administered across the world, but at a great cost and a hefty debt bill. But there is light at the end of the…

According to experts, higher inflation would be the worst possible scenario for long-term or long-duration bond owners like Jamieson Coote, yet the team is welcoming the challenge, highlighting a number of issues that tend to be misunderstood by less experienced investors. Chief among these is the forgotten “carry and roll” strategy that has actually delivered…