13 August 2026

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Home / Author: Ashley Owen

Ashley Owen

The end of six wonderful years for investing

There are enough negative factors in play to suggest great caution with asset allocation in portfolios, as a wonderful run of results for investors came to an end in 2018. Here are four common factors in market collapses.

Ashley Owen
10 January 2019
3

The sorry tale of our big banks

The history of the Big Four banks is littered with bad strategies by overpaid executives, taxpayer-funded rescues and a lack of competition. As the banks clean up the Royal Commission mess, Macquarie has overall done better.

Ashley Owen
23 October 2018
8

Aussie shares: 50 years and we’re finally ahead

It's too easy to look at a long-term chart of rising share prices and be reassured about performance. But adjusted for inflation, many of our largest companies have gone nowhere in half a century.

Ashley Owen
29 August 2018
15

Why dividend yields in Australia are so high

Australian companies have a long and frustrating history of wasting billions of dollars of capital on overseas dreams, and institutional investors should be taking a harder line to protect their capital.

Ashley Owen
2 August 2018
5

Winners and losers in sharemarkets, 2017/18

The Australian market again delivered strong returns in 2017-2018 with big sector differences, but there were large variations in global performance depending on the currency hedging strategy.

Ashley Owen
5 July 2018

Little room for error in equity markets now

Investors are complacent and expect double-digit profit growth to continue for many years, but the market consensus for EPS growth is now in dangerous territory with more downside potential than upside.

Ashley Owen
10 May 2018
2

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The role of shareholder yield in a portfolio

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Australian inflation still well above the RBA's target

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Retirement in reality - 5 months in

Retirement planning doesn't end when work does. Five months in, Joanne reflects on retiring at a different time to your spouse, coping with setbacks and the importance of rest. Some lessons only become clear after the fact.

Dr Joanne Earl
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