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22 December 2024
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A growing number of Australians are choosing to hedge their international equity exposures. Currency movements are difficult to predict so investors should treat currency hedging as a way to manage risk, not to add return.
The decision whether to hedge your international equity portfolio can impact your investment over the short and medium term, but an analysis of the data shows that currency impact over the long term is negligible.
2022 is another example of gold providing portfolio protection when it’s needed most. Australian investors may be able to magnify the protective benefits by purchasing gold in Australian dollars.
We tend to think of the 'stockmarket' as one beast, but it pays to know the drivers of the different parts, especially global versus Australian stocks. The outlook favours global due to better sector exposure.
As more Australians tilt their investments to global equities, they often overlook the exchange rate risk and fees. The move from US57 cents to US73 cents in six months shows the unhedged impact.
Government bond yields are so close to their lower bounds that they are unlikely to provide the returns of the past, nor act as a counter to falling equity markets. What are the investment choices?
As uncertainty intensifies around geopolitics and markets, gold has rallied strongly in 2020. While most investors think of gold for price growth, does it deliver defensive features to a diversified portfolio?
New ways to hedge the risks in an equity portfolio are now readily available, including bear funds designed to make money when the market falls. They're not for everyone so check with a financial adviser.
An investment in gold without hedging the currency risk of the USD price can deliver portfolio diversification and protection, with the AUD price often rising when equity markets are falling.
The S&P500 experiences a one-month return of -10% or worse only 1.5% of the time. Most drawdowns were much shallower and occur at higher frequencies, but are they worth spending money to protect against?
There are many ways to hedge against volatility, but often at a cost to the overall return of the portfolio. At what point is a smooth journey worth the impact on the destination?
Investors who want to limit equity market losses while retaining the upside may use put options. The cost for banks seems relatively low at the moment, but understand what you're doing.
It’s with heavy hearts that we announce Firstlinks’ co-founder and former Managing Editor, Graham Hand, has died aged 66. Graham was a legendary figure in the finance industry and here are three tributes to him.
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.
Australia is in the early throes of an intergenerational wealth transfer worth an estimated $3.5 trillion. Here's a case study highlighting some of the challenges with transferring wealth between generations.
The Future Fund's original purpose was to meet the unfunded liabilities of Commonwealth defined benefit schemes. These liabilities have ballooned to an estimated $290 billion and taxpayers continue to be treated like fools.
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.
The Big Four banks have had an extraordinary run and it’s left income investors with a conundrum: to stick with them even though they now offer relatively low dividend yields and limited growth prospects or to look elsewhere.