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Home / Author: Craig Stanford

Craig Stanford

Do bonds still offer a buffer to equity volatility?

Most Australians place their superannuation into a balanced fund, making the relationship between bonds and equities a vital part of performance. Does the traditional correlation between shares and bonds still hold? 

Why bother with hedge funds?

Despite negative headlines regularly aimed at hedge funds, they experienced strong inflows in the six years until the end of 2015. What are the benefits of hedge funds for a portfolio?

Why Australian investors use offshore funds

There are legitimate reasons to use an offshore financial centre, which should not be confused with a tax haven where data is withheld from tax or regulatory authorities in other countries.

Just how risky are hedge funds?

The commonly held belief that ‘hedge funds’ are riskier than ‘equities’ isn't necessarily true, depending on what type of risks you want to avoid. A few failures give the overall sector an undeserved reputation.

The long and short of hedge funds, Part 2

Part 2 focusses on the criticisms that are often levelled at hedge funds and how to manage these disadvantages to your level of tolerance. The challenge for the hedge fund industry is to deliver more retail-targetted products.

The long and short of hedge funds, Part 1

Investing in hedge funds is one of the more polarising topics in the investment world, with strongly-held views at each end of the spectrum. Part 1 of this two-part series looks at the advantages of these 'alternatives'.

Latest Updates

Retirement

The retirement scorecard: how many of these questions can you answer?

From the maths of retirement, estimating spending and picking the right asset allocation to survive a poor decade, here are the questions every retiree – current or future – should be able to answer for themselves.

2026 is not 1999

The US market looks eerily similar to the dot-com era with soaring AI spending and tech giants dominating returns. But one difference separates today’s boom from the dot-com bubble and it could determine what happens next.

Planning

Taxing time for trusts

Trusts are facing a shake-up, but an overhaul may not be necessary. Families can explore restructuring strategies that preserve succession and the asset protection benefits that have made these structures valuable.

Economy

Why the US economy is stronger than you might think

War, inflation and higher rates were expected to derail America. But has the market got it wrong? Three forces are driving the economy beyond expectations, revealing implications for stock prices and portfolio positioning.

Gold

How much trust is in your portfolio?

Everyone talks about diversifying assets. Far fewer think about diversifying trust. As inflation, debt and market assumptions collide, the question is whether portfolios need greater protection from unexpected outcomes.

Retirement

Retirement in reality - 7 months in

Seven months into retirement, I'm still uncovering surprises. This month was spent reflecting on the slow pace of health change, the myth of neatly scheduled part-time work and the unexpected persistence of retirement guilt.

The new geography of technology leadership

The next chapter of technology may not belong to the companies or business models many expect. As the landscape shifts, some opportunities are emerging in places that remain surprisingly overlooked by global markets.

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