Betashares

The effects of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed have changed the way we interact and conduct business forever. The virus had a big impact on almost every sector of the economy, forcing employees to work from home and businesses to accelerate the process of digitisation out of necessity rather than choice, in order to…

Vanguard this week released its ETF Quarterly Report highlighting some of the key trends emerging from the fast-growing ETF sector. The analysis covered every exchange-traded fund on offer, including the reasonably new “active ETFs” such as those issued by Magellan, Munro Partners and Loftus Peak. It was another quarter of records, with the sector seeing…

With the onset of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed, the move to digital accelerated, becoming a shift of necessity rather than choice. The move occurred almost seamlessly. Bricks-and-mortar retailers shifted online, triggering a move to digital with buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) vendors popping up offering solutions to replace physical cash. This is just one example…

Notwithstanding the political and superannuation industry talk of an infrastructure-led economic recovery in Australia, and elsewhere, the listed infrastructure sector has been looking decidedly unloved of late. And much of the sector’s underperformance against the broader market this year has not been justified in terms of company earnings. Guiseppe Corona, the London-based head of global…

In uncertain times such as the present, with asset prices and exchange rates fluctuating unpredictably, many investors are looking to make sure their portfolios are well-diversified, a and to shore-up the defensive areas of their portfolios; while also looking to hedge risk in other parts of the portfolio – and even to take advantage of…

As a change of pace, I thought I would touch on one of the more popular investments in recent times, gold bullion. I have personally recommended clients hold gold within balanced portfolios for several years, and they have been rewarded with double-digit returns over the period. Despite its increasing popularity, the yellow metal remains misunderstood…

In a sea of potential contrarian trades, oil is one that stands out. The North American West Texas Intermediate (WTI) benchmark has lost more than 75 per cent since the start of 2020, seeing it fall to its lowest price since 2002. The European Brent grade has dropped by almost 65 per cent. They are…

Growth managers continue to show their wares in the first quarter of 2020, holding up better than their value counterparts across Australian equity funds, declining only slightly less than the benchmark. The COVID-19-induced volatility over the first quarter led investors to assume that value strategies would come out on top. Morningstar says: “Looking at the…