Investing 101

This most simple of quotes is likely to be tested in the coming months after what can only be described as a bumper year for commodities. Seen as one of the few true inflation hedges, professional and amateur investors have been pouring into everything from energy to iron ore, lithium and rare earths in the…

The Fear and Greed Index is a tool that investors in traditional sharemarkets have used for decades to measure the current sentiment of the market. It has only recently been applied to crypto markets, which seem more sentiment-driven than any. The index looks at cryptocurrency markets and assesses whether they are becoming overly fearful or…

Global asset manager, Nanuk Asset Management, which specialises in sustainability, presented its “Hydrogen or Hamburgers” webinar to investors last week. It was an interesting take on some of the confronting issues, such as the global efforts to address climate change and the realisation that technologies like solar, wind and batteries have widely become a success,…

After collecting dust for almost a year, neobank Douugh (ASX:DOU) has been quietly positioning itself to take over the world with its cutting-edge global fintech technology. It’s been roughly a year since the company listed on the ASX and in that time the neobank has garnered significant interest in its full-service fintech banking app. Douugh…

Australia’s premier iron ore miner, Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) has posted its interim result, for the December 2021 half, with an underlying net profit of US$2.78 billion, which was a touch above an expected $2.70 billion. Here are the highlights: Total revenue of US$8.1 billion, down 13% (H1 FY22 US$9.3 billion) Underlying earnings before interest,…

An army of ASX shares has been updating the market today with their first-half results for FY22. Here are the seven I like the look of and are on my watch list. Keep up to date with the February 2022 reporting season calendar. 1. EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML) The EML share price has fallen…

The Nasdaq 100 powered to all-time highs last year, driven by the famous “FANG+” stocks. Nasdaq Total Returns While making up just nine of the 100 stocks in the Nasdaq, the ten FANG+ stocks – Facebook (now called Meta Platforms, which ruins the acronym a touch), Amazon, Apple, Nvidia, Netflix, Google (which trades under the…

The proliferation of data and information has done little to improve the outcomes for self-directed investors. With information on almost any issue and a social media system built to reinforce our own beliefs or views in many cases, making sound investment decisions has never been harder. As an experienced financial adviser, I like to think…

From an almost uphill battle, car manufacturers have experienced a massive turn around in electric vehicle (EV) sales over the past two years. Globally, says the International Energy Agency (IEA), EVs accounted for almost 9 per cent of the car market in 2021, hitting 6.6 million vehicles, which represents a tripling of their market in…

As Australia gears up to open its borders, the local equity market is positioning itself for higher inflation and higher bond yields. DNR Capital’s portfolio manager, Sam Twidale, says the “winning stocks are coming from the value and cyclical sectors such as Resources and Energy, especially in the small-cap sector.” Inflation has also changed from…

It’s been an extraordinary year for cryptocurrency. From Bitcoin hitting US$1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) in market value to Elon Musk’s Dogecoin tweets, it’s been a record year for the digital asset class, which, according to CoinGecko, surpassed US$3.3 trillion ($4.6 trillion) in total value as of last Monday. It does set up some big expectations…

After much deliberation, Australia has made the move to reopen its international borders to fully vaccinated tourists from February 21. Prime Minister Scott Morrison ended one of the world’s strictest and longest-running pandemic travel restrictions, saying, “It’s almost two years since we took the decision to close the borders to Australia.” The impact of Australia’s…