Investor Education Articles

April confirmed what markets had begun to suspect: the global macro backdrop has changed. Higher geopolitical risk is now structurally entrenched. Markets have quickly adjusted to this unfortunate new reality across all asset classes. Geopolitical risk has reasserted itself as a primary driver of energy prices, inflation expectations, and capital flows. Investors still anchored to the old world of low inflation, cheap money, and frictionless globalisation risk being structurally mispositioned.

By now, most of us have realised that the US-Israel-Iran war will have longer-term consequences beyond recent volatility. It’s accelerating a structural shift in global markets defined by tighter energy supply, more persistent inflation, and the fragmentation of trade and capital flows.

Investors are familiar with the positives of adding global equities to their portfolios. Think diversification, exposure to some of the biggest companies in the world and the potential to access different growth themes.

These days, most investors are well-trained to minimise their fund and ETF costs. It’s been drilled into their minds that an apparently small fund fee difference can create an enormous performance drag over the long term. Hence, management expense ratios, brokerage fees, and tax leakage dominate product comparisons and marketing narratives.

Portfolio rebalancing isn’t a major focus for most investors. Yet, it’s one of the few disciplines that materially shapes long-term investment outcomes. It determines how risk compounds, how your behaviour interferes with your performance, and ultimately whether your portfolio shape is intentional or accidental.

The idea of regular, consistent payments is a critical part of an income-focused portfolio. Ensuring that a portfolio actually looks and works that way across extended periods can take a bit more planning. It’s not as simple as bunging everything into a bond and taking a monthly coupon.

For bond investors, the first few months of 2026 have been chaotic to say the least. It has been a year in which duration, inflation sensitivity, and market structure have mattered again, often brutally.

Readers may have noticed a shift in the Contrarius Global Equity Fund’s Top 10 holdings compared to a few months ago. We have previously noted that we are finding attractive value in selected companies that we believe to be AI-Winners and those that we believe to be AI-Proof, while attempting to avoid those we believe to be AI-Threatened.

The decade-long narrative in funds management has been that passive investing is winning at the expense of active management. It’s hard to argue with that. Fees have fallen, passive fund transparency has improved, and cost-focused investors have taken advantage of the opportunity.

If your portfolio has a home-town bias, you aren’t alone. Typically, Australian investors have a high allocation to domestic equities – even on an institutional level – and for a range of reasons. Think familiarity, access to franking credits and solid returns in recent times.

Early retirement isn’t just a dream; it’s a financial goal that is more achievable than many people realise.

Over the past decade, we’ve witnessed the barriers to investing falling one after another thanks to technology, regulatory change, and product innovation. As a result, a space that was once dominated by institutions and high-net-worth individuals has become radically accessible.