Fixed income in 2026: deficits, AI and the case for global diversification
Fixed income is no longer a passive anchor in portfolios. AI debt issuance, swelling US deficits and stubborn inflation all point to the need for a fresh...
Why finance needs more women
There goes International Women’s Day. In financial markets, many have highlighted notable woman who have made their way to a distinctive and influential...
Climate change, COVID travel and the law of large numbers
Covid and COP26 may not seem like a natural pairing beyond their headlines and emotive reactions they induce. Yet there are long-term investment consequences...
'Act of faith' central to active management decision
An enduring question is whether one can identify a fund manager that can deliver outperformance relative to the index. Even before ETFs become the alternative,...
Compromise is required in adaption to ESG
Don’t tell your young folk; but being good is hard. One can “veneer” an ESG, sustainable, ethical or any-nomenclature-one-likes approach, and...
Big, energetic and different
Outside equity, fixed income and well-known alternatives there is another world of investment options that rarely find their way into portfolios. Examples...
Accelerating change and finding unexpected winners
With a current focus on climate and sustainability transformation, other life-changing developments may be battling for similar attention. ETFs have a habit of...
ESG - investing for impact is more art than science
ESG is now a required mantra. The most unusual funds claim this status even if they include gambling, governance recalcitrant or those with socially...
China's credit crunch
Many concepts in science illustrate the incapacity of the natural world to control everything. Once you introduce or determine an aspect, others fold-in or...
Sweating listed and private equity
Is private equity (PE) the key missing part of adviser portfolios? Endowments, the Future Fund (FF) et al, have heralded their high allocation to PE amid...
Bank's market dominance facing existential challenge
Just what is China doing by limiting all kinds of activity and corporations? Many see this an authoritarian regime imposing restraint on its citizens. Yet this...
'Wash and clean' equity portfolios as valuations spike
The now not-so-new ETFs that follow well-known indices have been a hugely welcome introduction. One does not have to debate the inexplicable underperformance...
Transparency demanded in private markets; why make it so hard?
Why make it so hard? Occasionally, maybe even frequently, we come across investment strategies that are unexplored or even unknown. Naturally, the first port...
Courage required in the search for growth amid thematic boom
Themes and long-term investing go hand in hand with wide divergence between the merits of ETFs and active funds. A recent plethora of appealingly named ETFs...
Transparency key as advisers delve into private markets
With the astonishing skew to “what is working well,” reading monthly fund reports one would expect equally astonishing alpha. Clearly, that is not...
A new supercycle?
The huge movement in commodity prices in the past year cannot have escaped any investor’s attention. Should there be new allocations to commodities and...