Market Watch
Market Watch
Why Exchange Traded Funds are only set to grow
March 15, 2017
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are increasingly becoming a crucial part of an investor’s tool kit, offering exposure to factor tilts and different asset classes and geographies in a highly liquid, simple and cost-effective manner. They have proved incredibly popular with investors and financial advisers. ETF growth is expected to continue as investor awareness increases and...Read More
Advisers spend a lot of time on strategic asset allocation decisions, particularly the choice between growth and defensive assets. But in the current environment of low rates and high volatility, we think that advisers need spend more time on another aspect of clients’ portfolios: their exposure to currencies. Not only does currency exposure have a...Read More
Is gender fairness a secret to investment outperformance?
February 20, 2017
I recently had an ‘a-ha’ moment. I was sitting in yet another room full of women talking about the importance of gender diversity. It dawned on me that we’ve talked about diversity for so long that we’ve become dulled to the issue. We’ve heard the arguments so many times that we’ve stopped listening. Advisers might...Read More
Opportunities and challenges: the sharing accommodation economy
February 15, 2017
In September of 2016, Airbnb raised US$850 million in new equity, valuing the company at US$30 billion dollars and subsequently crowning it the most valuable lodging provider in the world without owning a single room. It is a particularly 21st century phenomenon that a company that started eight years ago, with no tangible product of...Read More
At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.50 per cent. Conditions in the global economy have improved over recent months. Business and consumer confidence have both picked up. Above-trend growth is expected in a number of advanced economies, although uncertainties remain. In China, growth was stronger over the...Read More
One way to assess policy options and limits
January 31, 2017
Since the global financial crisis (GFC), one of the dominant patterns in global economic policy has been the search for more tools to provide stimulus in an environment where low growth and low inflation have proven extremely persistent. Faced with the difficulty of what to do when cash rates reach the lower bound of zero,...Read More
Record numbers of visitors pouring into Australia suggest flights full of free-spending tourists landing at crowded airports around the country, cramming through immigration to dash to the nearest shopping centre and lift the nation’s retail sales figures as quickly as possible. Actually, the description is only a slight exaggeration as Australia’s tourism industry undergoes resurgence,...Read More
4 reasons why listed real estate is now safer if a downturn hits
January 16, 2017
Advisers who moved their clients into listed real estate after the GFC made a brave call, given that investors in the sector suffered terribly during the economic turmoil. However, in the last five years, those clients who were invested in the listed real estate sector have benefited from strong total returns. Notably, global listed real...Read More
At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.50 per cent. The global economy is continuing to grow, at a lower than average pace. Labour market conditions in the advanced economies have improved over the past year. Economic conditions in China have steadied, supported by growth in infrastructure and...Read More
There’s no escaping a lacklustre return potential
December 5, 2016
While the high inflation of the 1970s and early 1980s was bad for investment returns at the time, it left a legacy of very high investment yields which helped set the scene for high investment returns through the 1980s and 1990s. Back in the early 1980s the RBA’s ‘cash rate’ was averaging around 14%, three-year...Read More