Few companies have dominated the popular zeitgeist like pay television streaming service Netflix. Similarly, few companies have been such a lightning for what is both good and bad about so-called growth stocks. According to market analysis, Netflix was the top performing stock in the S&P500 for the entirety of the 2010’s, delivering a return of…
Westpac (ASX:WBC) has been sold-off heavily this week after delivering an unexpected “shocker” of a result. Shares finished down 7 per cent on the day of reporting, despite the company reporting a doubling of profit to over $5 billion. Analysts and fund managers were clearly concerned about the various mis-steps of management over the last…
This may sound repetitive, but the opportunity in Big Tech has never been better. The US quarterly reporting season has all but confirmed that the most important companies in the world remain in robust health. That is, of course, with one small caveat; your definition of technology. The term Big Tech has come to encompass…
SMSFs have been at the centre of the superannuation arms race for several decades. As a financial adviser, I am regularly stuck in the middle of administration and combative nightmares. On the one hand, we meet many investors, both advised and un-advised, who have SMSFs in place, but clearly don’t have the time, interest or…
Despite a growing chorus of calls for a significant market correction, as is usually the case in October, nothing has been forthcoming during the most dreaded of months. In fact, it has been a story of the opposite, with US markets near all-time highs and massive flow of dividends and buybacks combined with zero term…
Both Magellan (ASX:MFG) and Platinum Asset Management (ASX:PTM) have been gaining plenty of unwanted attention lately. Both their hallmark strategies are suffering from periods of underperformance, the former due to a lack of cyclical exposure and the latter an ingrained value focus. It is somewhat interesting therefore that both are banking on China as being…
“Money makes money. And the money that money makes, makes money” – Benjamin Franklin To many, this quote likely stands out as being among the most capitalist comments that would appeal to a billionaire professional investor, managing over $100 billion for investors all around the world. Yet at the core of this quote is the…
News this week that investment platform operator Hub 24 (ASX:HUB) had acquired SMSF service provider Class Super (ASX:CL1) marks the latest nadir in an arms race that has been going for decades. The deal is a no-brainer for Hub 24, which gains access to a business in Class that manages more data sources than almost…
While every self-directed investor knows that Australia’s sharemarket represents just 2 per cent of the world’s listed companies, investing into overseas markets remains a bridge too far for most. ASX-listed exchange-traded funds remain the most popular, however, the likes of iShares S&P500 (ASX: IVV) is gaining in popularity. The most common concerns cited by prospective…
Evergrande, debt ceiling and volatility September saw the end of the strongest period for markets in several decades, with most major indices posting a negative monthly return. This ended a run of as many of eleven months without such a result, all starting when the COVID-19 vaccines were announced in November 2020. The Australian market…
