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22 May 2022
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Investors often overlook the capital risk in high-yielding stocks. It's better to ensure capital grows and investors can sell a portion each year to make up for the shortfall in income from dividends.
The role of a portfolio manager changes when normal opportunities become constrained. Flexibility and diversification in seeking alternatives in new markets is vital to adapting.
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 .
Hybrids are complex instruments but they can be viewed as a bond with an embedded option, and they convert to equity in certain circumstances. Investors should consider the risk of this happening.
The yield quoted for a bond can be calculated in many different ways, depending on its characteristics or the investment horizon of the bond holder. Which yield are you buying?
With the cash rate now at 1.5%, the margin between dividend yields and interest rates is at historical highs. However, payout ratios are high and forward earnings growth is subdued.
It has always been an anomaly of the Australian financial system that retail investors have not had ready access to high quality corporate bonds. Listed XTBs address this, with floating rate notes also coming soon.
Diversifying your portfolio into global equities can have its advantages, but how do you choose? Dividend growth can be an indication of a company's ability to generate long-term value.
Investment conditions across all asset classes are especially challenging at the moment, with investors struggling to find attractive yields or capital appreciation while managing risk.
Many people would place ‘capturing the illiquidity premium’ on a list of benefits from long-term investing, but achieving additional returns is not as simple as just buying and holding an illiquid asset.
With cash investments providing such poor returns, the search for yield has driven up share and property prices, some to unrealistic levels. It has also corrupted our sense of risk which is a dangerous combination.
Whilst the latest cut in the target cash rate to 2.25% is a positive move for equity investors, it's a negative for savers, especially retirees living off the income generated by their term deposits.
Every successful fund manager suffers periods of underperformance, and investors who jump from fund to fund chasing results are likely to do badly. Selecting a manager is a long-term decision but what else?
In almost 1,000 responses, our readers differ in voting intentions versus polling of the general population, but they have little doubt who will win and there is widespread disappointment with our politics.
Conservative investors who want the greater capital security of bonds can now lock in 5% but they should stay at the higher end of credit quality. Rises in rates and defaults mean it's not as easy as it looks.
In the last decade, ETFs have become a mainstay of many portfolios, with broad market access to most asset types, as well as a wide array of sectors and themes. Is there a favourite of a CEO who oversees 30 funds?
Believe it or not, betting agencies are in the business of making money, not predicting outcomes. Is there anything we can learn from the current odds on the election results?
Single-member SMSFs face challenges where the eventual beneficiaries (or support team in the event of incapacity) will be the member’s adult children. Even worse, what happens if one or more of the children live overseas?