technology

A small coterie of now well-heeled technology entrepreneurs is responsible for much of the progress seen in that segment of the Australian investment advice landscape for the past 25-or-so years, mostly starting in the days of dial-up modems. Two of them have just joined the board of the latest financial adviser systems firm, the four-year-old…

Franklin Templeton and Quantifeed’s plans to lead the digital advice sector Alex Ypsilanti, CEO and co-founder of Quantifeed, and James Verner, vice-president, digital strategy and wealth management at Franklin Templeton, spoke with The Inside Network’s Peter White about the new partnership and their first big project. These days you don’t get very far in terms…

Long-short strategies, which involve giving a fund manager the flexibility to profit when share prices rise or fall, were gaining traction before the pandemic. The trend has continued to accelerate since, but they remain an under-represented part of most investor portfolios. Whether due to a lack of understanding or perceived higher risk, heightened equity market…

The Dr Cathie Wood-led ARK Investment Management is facing a different kind of pressure as 2020 draws to a close. According to Bloomberg, ARK’s ETF distributor, Resolute Investment Managers, is seeking to exercise an option acquired in 2016 to buy a controlling stake in the business. The ARK Invest strategy has been a clear winner…

A major milestone for Pfizer On 9 November 2020, Pfizer announced that its vaccine candidate, developed in collaboration with BioNTech, was more than 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis. After discussion with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Pfizer…

And still they keep coming – here’s the fourth instalment of our series on the fascinating ASX cohort of medical device developers. As always, don’t let the impressive sexiness of the technology persuade you on its own that these stocks are headed for the stars. In each of the three cases presented here, previous investors…

Long-short strategies, which involve giving a fund manager the flexibility to profit when share prices rise or fall, were gaining traction before the pandemic. The trend has continued to accelerate since, but they remain an underrepresented part of most investor portfolios. Whether due to a lack of understanding or perceived higher risk, heightened equity market…

Managed Accounts, or Managed Discretionary Accounts (MDAs), are a relatively new investment solution available to consumers and financial advisers following recent advances in platform technology. MDAs have evolved to a point where advisers can offer clients a broad range of investment assets and clients have complete visibility of the investments held in their portfolio. What…

The Financial Services Council (FSC) is to now prepare a policy discussion (a ‘green paper’) for the industry and government, to be delivered in 2021, following the release of a major report by Rice Warner proposing sweeping changes to Australia’s financial advice system. The Rice Warner report was commissioned by the FSC and discussed at…

It’s been a while since “value investing” made sense: the style has suffered a dreadful stretch of performance since the 2008 financial crisis. The ‘Warren Buffett’ mantra of buying low (cheap) and selling high has seen value-oriented managers underperform the market year after year. But that’s not to say value investing is dead, it’s just…