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8 October 2025
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The tech giants are in a money-throwing contest to secure AI supremacy and may fall short of high investor expectations. The companies supplying this arms race could offer a more attractive way to play AI adoption.
Equity indices have evolved over time, led by step-changes in our ability to manipulate data. Despite the rise of passive investing, they weren't initially meant to be investment tools.
Capitalisation rates, commonly known as ‘cap rates’, are a fundamental metric in Australian property investing. However, this seemingly simple and ubiquitous measure can be far more complex to use when comparing different types of properties.
The Big Four banks look similar but they are at fundamentally different stages as they move to simpler business models. Amid challenges from operating systems, loan growth and neobank threats, one factor stands tall.
Most investors in new capital raisings during COVID have been well-rewarded, and when investments match an ethical investing charter, it helps to position for a recovery as well as longer-term sustainability.
The implications for hybrids, bank margins and bank fees from the increase in the risk-weighting of residential mortgages and learning our banks are not top quartile among the capital levels of global banks.
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.