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Wednesday, 23 September 2020
Recently trending Who's next? Discounts on LICs force managers to pivotFour simple things to do right nowWelcome to Firstlinks Edition 373Welcome to Firstlinks Edition 374Reporting season winners and losers in listed property trusts
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Eventually, prices become so extreme they bear no relationship to reality, and a bubble forms. I believe we are there today, not for all stocks but for many in the technology space.
Last week's poll on whether equity managers should be holding large allocations of cash had more than 400 responses. Disclosure is the key to keeping investors happy.
An investment with any fund manager should be part of an asset allocation decision, but what happens when your equity manager decides to do a major switch to cash? It messes up your plan.
If an investor had been living on the moon or under a rock for a year and returned on 30 June 2019, on seeing their portfolio, they would have thought it was a delightful year full of good news.
Cash is often seen as the residual, 'uninvested' part of a diversified portfolio, but it should form a prudent and wise amount of ballast, especially when enhanced cash improves returns.
Nobody revalues their own home each day in the way they revalue listed equities, but does that mean the value is constant? The daily unit price is calculated in some super funds using unlisted asset valuations.
APRA’s letter to super funds highlights concerns about 'cash' investments. A lack of understanding might haunt investors when the next downturn comes as too many people forsake protection for yield.
The wholesale market, accessible for retail investors via managed funds (including ETFs and LICs) offers better cash yields than bank term deposits but at a higher risk. This risk can be managed via a diversified portfolio .
Continuing our look at 'safe havens', gold and bank deposits are often considered alternatives to 'risky' shares. How have they performed in times of stress, and do they rate as long-term investments at other times?
Leaving a term deposit to rollover automatically at the end of each term will almost certainly guarantee a worse return than if you read the rollover letter and do some research instead.
At any point in the cycle, the portfolios of either the optimists or the pessimists perform better. Despite stretched valuations and rising rates, the optimists are winning at the moment.
Cash gives options over future lower prices, and it avoids the risk of permanent capital loss. But it comes with another risk, the loss of purchasing power, and is not a good long-term investment.
The boards and managers of six high-profile LICs, frustrated by their shares trading at large discounts to asset value, have embarked on radical strategies to fix the problems. Will they work?
Markets have recovered in the last six months but most investors remain nervous about the economic outlook. Morningstar analysts provide four quick tips on how to navigate this uncertainty.
It was a milestone for strange times last week when the company with the longest record in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index, ExxonMobil, once the largest company in the world, was replaced by a software company, Salesforce. Only one company in the original DJIA exists today. As businesses are disrupted, how many of the current DJIA companies will disappear in the next decade or two?
Suddenly, it's the middle of September and we don't hear much about 'snap back' anymore. Now we have 'wind backs' and 'road maps'. Six months ago, I was flying back from Antarctica after two weeks aboard the ill-fated Greg Mortimer cruise ship, and then the world changed. So it's time to take your temperature again. Our survey checks your reaction to recent policies and your COVID-19 responses.
Many property trust results are better than expected, with the A-REIT sector on a dividend yield of 4.8%. But there's a wide variation by sector and the ability of tenants to pay the rent.
COVID-19 and the events of 2020 show why, more than ever, SMSF trustees need to prepare for the ‘unexpected’ by having an Enduring Power of Attorney in place. A Power of Attorney is not enough.