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8 January 2025
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Members of the Reddit army who believed they were inside the tent sharing views with fellow rebels cannot know who is on the other side of their trades - or even who they are talking to in their group.
After some poor experiences during the GFC, hedge funds offering uncorrelated returns have greater appeal as traditional markets struggle, but don't pay up for simple market exposure.
Despite negative headlines regularly aimed at hedge funds, they experienced strong inflows in the six years until the end of 2015. What are the benefits of hedge funds for a portfolio?
The major hedge fund index has performed poorly in the last few years, and there are reasons why hedge funds might find excess returns elusive for a while longer.
Australian investors may be wary of the European share market with Greece and Brexit in the news, but there's a good investment and diversification case, with access now made easier by Europe equity ETFs listed on the ASX.
The commonly held belief that ‘hedge funds’ are riskier than ‘equities’ isn't necessarily true, depending on what type of risks you want to avoid. A few failures give the overall sector an undeserved reputation.
Part 2 focusses on the criticisms that are often levelled at hedge funds and how to manage these disadvantages to your level of tolerance. The challenge for the hedge fund industry is to deliver more retail-targetted products.
Investing in hedge funds is one of the more polarising topics in the investment world, with strongly-held views at each end of the spectrum. Part 1 of this two-part series looks at the advantages of these 'alternatives'.
The story of a US hedge fund fighting to recoup its Argentinean bond investment has both stunned and amused all who have followed its progress over the last 12 years. Will the seizing of a naval vessel bring it to a close?
Most trend-following funds (managed futures or CTAs) have performed poorly recently, and investors are asking if they will work again. History shows how crisis and non-crisis periods influence this investment style.
A report card from AQR’s tenth anniversary seminar in Sydney covering two of the presentations. One on market respect and strategy, the other in defence of High Frequency Trading and the role it plays.
A presentation or panel discussion is time well-spent if you can extract one new idea, and in Boston, a few were surprisingly original, including that it is better to think of the economy as a biological organism.
Last year, I wrote an article suggesting returns from ASX stocks would trample those from housing over the next decade. One year later, this is an update on how that forecast is going and what's changed since.
ASFA provides a key guide for how much you will need to live on in retirement. Unfortunately it has many deficiencies, and the averages don't tell the full story of the growing gender superannuation gap.
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.
Check out the most-read Firstlinks articles from 2024. From '16 ASX stocks to buy and hold forever', to 'The best strategy to build income for life', and 'Where baby boomer wealth will end up', there's something for all.
2024 was a banner year for equities, with a run-up in US tech stocks broadening into a global market rally, and the big question now is whether the good times can continue? History suggests optimism is warranted.
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.