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6 October 2025
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Election set, Phil King on longs and shorts, dividend sustainability, legal cases hit SMSF trustees and auditors, infrastructure, private equity.
It's as legitimate an investing technique to short sell an expensive company as it is to buy or go long a cheap company, with the added advantage of less competition on the short side.
Check the cash flow characteristics and sustainability in any company before investing, as various ratios can be an early sign that the business is churning through rather than generating cash.
Two court cases have laid the blame for poor SMSF documentation and investments at the feet of auditors. It's not a 'tick and flick' exercise and there are lessons for SMSF trustees and professionals.
A recent case highlights the importance of SMSF trustees exercising discretion to pay death benefits in good faith, with real and genuine consideration and in accordance with the purpose of the conferred power.
Both the Government and Labor have made impressive commitments to infrastructure, but it focusses heavily on roads and rail. Australia's economic potential depends on more essential services.
The finding of the Report is that Labor's franking credit policy is inequitable and flawed, but many say the inquiry was politically-motivated, as the Labor members of the committee deliver a dissenting report.
Most individual investors have difficulty accessing private equity directly, but unlisted and listed funds are opening this diversifying asset class to a wider range of investors.
The days of company boards making decisions in isolation from their shareholders have long gone, and investor expectations are rising across many cultural and social issues.
This AI cycle feels less like a revolution and more like a rerun. Just like fibre in 2000, shale in 2014, and cannabis in 2019, the technology or product is real but the capital cycle will be brutal. Investors beware.
An explosion in low-skilled migration to Australia has depressed wages, killed productivity, and cut rental vacancy rates to near decades-lows. It’s time both sides of politics addressed the issue.
LICs are continuing to struggle with large discounts and frustrated investors are wondering whether it’s worth holding onto them. This explains why the next 6-12 months will be make or break for many LICs.
Australian housing’s 50-year boom was driven by falling rates and rising borrowing power — not rent or yield. With those drivers exhausted, future returns must reconcile with economic fundamentals. Are we ready?
Younger Australians think they’ll need $100k a year in retirement - nearly double what current retirees spend. Expectations are rising fast, but are they realistic or just another case of lifestyle inflation?
This week, I got the news that my mother has dementia. It came shortly after my father received the same diagnosis. This is a meditation on getting old and my regrets in not getting my parents’ affairs in order sooner.