Investor Education Articles

Strange times are afoot in financial markets with contradictory assumptions being priced into various asset classes. Here’s a great summary of the confusion investors must contend with at present… In the words of Charlie Munger, <i>‘If you're not a little confused about what's going on, you don't understand it.’

Picking the right fund manager to manage your assets is arguably an underrated and under-discussed process which is as complex as stock picking. As with all financial decisions, it’s important to ensure your fund managers’ strategy and process aligns with your risk appetite, return objectives, and time horizon. You’ll also want your fund managers to have conviction in what they’re doing. On that front, there’s one question investors you can ask prospective fund managers which reveals their genuine conviction level above all other questions… do you have skin in the game?

It’s long been recognised that stock markets have a habit of making intelligent people look stupid. The fundamental reason is simple but often ignored… share price movements can be wild and unpredictable, and often confound investor’s expectations. And yet, with investors increasingly watching their stock price movements like hawks the temptation to account for unexpected stock moves with rational explanations often leads to sub-optimal results.

The baby boomers have long been recognised as the wealthiest generation ever. But as per the famous expression, you can’t take it with you. With baby boomers’ ages ranging from fifty-nine to seventy-seven, there’s no escaping the fact we’re close to witnessing a passing of their wealth to the next generation. Given the extent of this impending wealth transfer, the investment implications of this thematic are worth being aware of.

Aussie investors are generally overweight equities so establishing the right timeframe for equity investment is a common question. It’s also core to ensuring your portfolio delivers the performance you want and deserve. And with average holding periods moving in the wrong direction, the chances are high that many investors are leaving valuable returns on the table. So it could well be time to ask yourself… what’s the right timeframe for investing in equities?

Most successful investors will testify to the fact that selecting outperforming stocks is as much about identifying high quality management teams as it is about analysing the numbers, arguably more so. With outperformance in mind, one of the leading indicators of a high quality management team is their ethics. It’s an area worthy of investor attention.

When US Fed chairman Jerome Powell admitted last year, ‘We now understand better how little we understand about inflation,’ it confirmed what many investors suspected…inflation is a more complex beast than most people, including central bankers, realise.

Are you considering diving into tokenised investments, but having reservations about their connection to blockchain—the technology that underpins all cryptocurrencies? Rest assured, you're not the only one. Since scaling meteoric highs in 2021, cryptocurrencies have been weathering a period of price volatility, putting some investors off investing in anything blockchain related.

You may have heard the classic joke about economists… Economists were created to make weather forecasters and astrologers feel better about the accuracy of their predictions. US economists have certainly lived up to this stereotype of late. There’s rarely been a period when economists have been more wrong-footed by a strengthening economy.

In investing circles, few names resonate as strongly as Warren Buffett. Hailed as the "Oracle of Omaha," Buffett's investment prowess has made him one of the wealthiest and most respected figures in finance. Known for his unwavering patience and long-term view, investing in undervalued companies with strong management and clear competitive advantages, along with his belief in understanding businesses, rather than merely trading stocks, has made him a legend.

Gold investors seem to be a dying breed. With momentum-focused investors increasingly focused upon AI-focused opportunities at the expense of all other sectors, it’s easy to see why. Age is also a factor. Some younger investors question whether the gold investment case carries as much weight in an era when digital solutions dominate. But what if the market is dismissing gold at the very moment it’s about to break out and prove its role as an important portfolio diversifier?

If you’ve been following the financial news closely, you've probably heard analysts warn of the risks facing consumer discretionary stocks due to the looming retail slump. Those risks are now manifesting as Australia is in the midst of a consumer recession with three consecutive quarters of declining retail turnover. So the post-covid retail honeymoon is over—and consumers are opting for value-driven choices as the tailwinds provided by the excess savings accumulated during Covid wane.