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Sunday, 24 October 2021
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New ways to hedge the risks in an equity portfolio are now readily available, including bear funds designed to make money when the market falls. They're not for everyone so check with a financial adviser.
It's not easy focussing on the long term when the short-term news is bad, but strong businesses find a way to thrive when times are tough. Here are three timeless facts and three evergreen mistakes.
The varying degrees of market performance are due to the mix of sectors and stocks in each index. The best plan of attack is to find quality companies in essential services at favourable prices.
The traditional notion that retail investors buy high and sell low has not been supported by activity at this broker, who has seen investors looking for bargains after the Covid-19 sell-off.
Downside risks remain and we expect another leg down, but active managers should take advantage of market dislocations. In the current context, humility and risk management are key.
Fear of missing out in a rallying stock market pushes many investors back into shares even when the outlook is poor. Bear markets usually last longer than we have seen so far during the coronavirus.
As hopes of a V-shaped recovery diminish, so will the revenues of many highly-geared companies. Client redemptions and downgrades will force selling at distressed prices beyond the Fed's capacity.
The tax cost of a ‘portfolio makeover’ from moving equities to a more efficient structure may now be minor compared with the benefits. The market fall is not just an opportunity to find bargains.
All crises are inherently different, but investor reaction to them is remarkably consistent. There's no evidence to suggest this has changed, which means there are importnt lessons from history.
Bear markets caused by recession fears follow a pattern, but we have never seen anything like coronavirus. If financial stimulus and medicine prove ineffective, all bets are off.
The COVID-19 bear market hit severely, making it the quickest collapse in history with the S&P500 down 34% in a month. But compared with other bears, there are reasons this could be shorter.
Investors need to rethink risk and uncertainty in extraordinary times, as traditional sources no longer deliver income. Where can investors go to generate adequate investment returns?
The RBA Governor says rising house prices are due to "the design of our taxation and social security systems". The OECD says "the prolonged boom in house prices has inflated the wealth of many pensioners without impacting their pension eligibility." What's your view?
We tend to forget that house prices often fall. Direct lending controls are more effective than rate rises because macroprudential limits affect the volume of money for housing leaving business rates untouched.
The survey drew a fantastic 2,000 responses with over 1,000 comments and polar opposite views on what is good policy. Do most people believe the home should be in the age pension asset test, and what do they say?
Any policy decision needs to recognise who is affected by a change. It pays to check the data on who pays taxes, who owns assets and who earns the income to ensure an equitable and efficient outcome.
With articles on the pensions assets test read about 40,000 times, 3,500 survey responses and thousands of comments, there was a lot of great reader participation. A few comments added extra insights.
It is hard to think of any area of widespread public concern where the same policies have been pursued for so long, in the face of such incontrovertible evidence that they have failed to achieve their objectives.