Asset allocation

Over the last few months, there’s been a lot of coverage on cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, and its status as “digital gold.” The reason it is often referred to as “digital gold” is that bitcoin was seen to have been able to provide a store of value like gold. An uncorrelated asset won’t fall when the…

If you’ve been following the Nickel price, you will have seen the craziness that took place in early March just after war broke out in Ukraine. The London Metal Exchange (LME) cancelled nickel trading after an unprecedented 250% price rise was triggered by Western sanctions against Russia. The price surged to hit US$101,365 a tonne,…

Given the dramatic falls seen in markets last week, Australia now presents a particularly compelling opportunity to capitalise on the rotation towards value. That’s the view put forward by Martin Currie, an active equities investment manager and part of the Franklin Templeton Group. Reece Birtles, Chief Investment Officer, Martin Currie Australia, says “extremely high valuations…

At our core, almost every investor feels like a contrarian at some point in time. It is only natural to see value in something that has fallen significantly in a short period of time. And to be honest, I must have considered buying the leveraged Nasdaq ETF at least 10 times in the last few…

Private equity is eating the ASX alive. Nearly every other month there is another billionaire dollar private equity approach of an ASX company. The latest is the $20 billion deal for Ramsay Health Care (ASX: RHC). Uniti Group, Vocus and Sydney Airport are recent other examples that the tyre kickers have poached from the ASX…

Despite the media hype surrounding last week’s US rate hike, interest rates are going up but not as fast or as damaging as everyone thinks. The RBA upped rates for the first time in over 11 years by 25bps to 0.35 percent from 0.10 percent. Roughly a $65 a month increase, on a twenty-five year…

March stands out as being one of the most difficult periods for investors in a generation. On the one hand, bond markets send fixed income to its worst return in more decades, and on the other, equity markets were sold off broadly on valuation concerns as bond yields ended a forty-year downward trend. It is…

The demand from investors for “sustainable” investment products has doubled in the past two years. There are now so many options available for investors to choose from, it can be difficult to choose the right product that aligns with one’s sustainability goals. If you aren’t sure what stocks to buy, a good way to gain…

From the outset, it is important to highlight that I do not disagree that interest rates should be higher than the current ’emergency’ settings by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Rather, in my view, much of the data suggests that interest rate hikes will do little to solve the inflation challenge facing not just…

Australia, being a major global commodity producer, has the potential to become a ‘superpower’ in the new commodity currency order. This is especially true if we consider the current geopolitical events that are taking place: Australia’s strong position should benefit from the renewed focus on gold. Jodi Stanton, CEO of Rush Gold says, “As a…

One of the more interesting and powerful implications of the pandemic, relating to investment markets at least, is the velocity at which every new piece of news or data is priced-into markets. We only need to look back at the events of March and April 2020 to be reminded that we experienced both the fastest…

For as long as Warren Buffett has been value investing, which has been seven decades, gold bugs have been spruiking their favourite precious metal’s ability to safeguard a portfolio during times of war and act an inflationary hedge when fuel prices rise. An inflationary hedge is one that protects against the decrease of the Australian…