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Ashley Owen

US Government has previously defaulted, it’s not risk-free

The US Treasury defaulted three times on its treasury bills in 1979, but the problem is primarily one of politics, not insolvency. Another default may be enough of a shock to get the parties together to work on real solutions.

US Government shut-down – been there, done that

The current US budget crisis will not be the first time its government has run out of money. Scary as this may sound to investors, the impact on markets of recent government shutdowns was different to what many expected.

Hold the champagne, that’s not a recovery yet

Many people are claiming that after six years, the market has recovered its GFC losses, but it's worse than that. In fact, the All Ordinaries index today is barely above its 1968 peak in real terms after inflation, some 45 years later.

Are rising oil prices bad for Australian shares?

Rising oil prices may sound scary to investors, but if we go beyond the popular myth and look at the facts, we see a very different picture. Rising oil prices are more often accompanied by rising stocks.

Invest like Buffett? Diversification, Part 2

How is Buffett anything like a 60-year-old retiree who either cannot or does not want to work full-time anymore? Despite what the books say, you can't 'invest like Buffett' and focus on preservation of capital in retirement.

Diversification works?

Nobody ever built a great business, or created a great nation, or amassed a great fortune, or became a great painter or musician or sportsperson or anything else, by diversifying. You need to specialise, concentrate and focus.

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Investment strategies

9 lessons from 2024

Key lessons include expensive stocks can always get more expensive, Bitcoin is our tulip mania, follow the smart money, the young are coming with pitchforks on housing, and the importance of staying invested.

Investment strategies

Time to announce the X-factor for 2024

What is the X-factor - the largely unexpected influence that wasn’t thought about when the year began but came from left field to have powerful effects on investment returns - for 2024? It's time to select the winner.

Shares

Australian shares struggle as 2020s reach halfway point

It’s halfway through the 2020s decade and time to get a scorecheck on the Australian stock market. The picture isn't pretty as Aussie shares are having a below-average decade so far, though history shows that all is not lost.

Shares

Is FOMO overruling investment basics?

Four years ago, we introduced our 'bubbles' chart to show how the market had become concentrated in one type of stock and one view of the future. This looks at what, if anything, has changed, and what it means for investors.

Shares

Is Medibank Private a bargain?

Regulatory tensions have weighed on Medibank's share price though it's unlikely that the government will step in and prop up private hospitals. This creates an opportunity to invest in Australia’s largest health insurer.

Shares

Negative correlations, positive allocations

A nascent theme today is that the inverse correlation between bonds and stocks has returned as inflation and economic growth moderate. This broadens the potential for risk-adjusted returns in multi-asset portfolios.

Retirement

The secret to a good retirement

An Australian anthropologist studying Japanese seniors has come to a counter-intuitive conclusion to what makes for a great retirement: she suggests the seeds may be found in how we approach our working years.

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