Sep 20
The typical approach to portfolio construction in the world of financial planning is a 2-step process (of course, this is after the desired risk and return characteristics are settled). The first step is setting asset allocation and the second is investment selection where most of the industry chooses to select from a variety of managed fund strategies. …
Aug 26
What a fascinating investment world its been over the past few months. We’ve had concerns about Greece exiting the Euro, commodity price crashes, a Chinese sharemarket crash and now some of the biggest developed economy sharemarket declines since the dark days of the GFC. Volatility has been somewhat benign for a long time thanks to …
Feb 21
Following are my recent thoughts around markets with many charts to support these views. These views are far from complete but do represent a reasonable summary at this point in time. Income Assets Source: RBA, Delta Research & Advisory The above left chart suggests the market believes the cash rate is heading towards 1.5% …
Aug 01
I’ve just returned from a manager research trip in the UK where we visited a variety of strategies from a variety of managers and fortunately for me, with some of the leading thinkers and researchers in the advice industry (hat tip D&G … and I don’t mean Dolce and Gabbana). Several of the managers we …
Jun 14
The common criticism of market-cap weighted bond indices is that they are inefficient because they are obviously weighted towards those with the most debt. Thus indicating that the index potentially carries more risk than necessary, or than we may want in a portfolio, because those with the most debt carry greater default risk than those with very …
May 05
Given the start of MySuper this year, superannuation trustees have released numerous lifecycle funds to satisfy this new legislation. Whilst lifecycle funds have been popular among superannuation trustees, the investment and adviser community haven’t been so complimentary. Either way, lifecycle funds definitely have a place in the investment landscape and they provide an approach to …
May 14
The Rimsec Monthly Research report came out today which has commentary on current investment market themes, interest rate thoughts and some information on one of the significant risks within China…their property bubble. Anyway, if it is of interest you can download it by clicking here. Send article as PDF
Feb 11
Source: www.incrediblecharts.com As the above chart shows the Australian Sharemarket has had a stellar run over the last 3 months. Not a hint of volatility just upwards she goes from around 4350 to just short of 5000…throw in a very small number of dividends and its a superb return. Newspaper talk has suggested that there is a …
Feb 06
Source: RBA The RBA released its chart pack today and there are few charts I always like to look and in recent months its been the above, Forecast Earnings per Share. Its very difficult to see but the update to this chart shows a tiny movement sideways…so…its the first time for quite a few months …
Dec 08
Source: Mornngstar Direct, Delta Research & Advisory The above chart shows distributions of excess monthly returns over the UBS Bank Bill index from July 2000 to November 2012 for four different indexes that more or less represent the different strategies a bond portfolio can accept… Citi AusBiig 1-3 Yr index … representing short duration Citi …