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21 December 2024
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The complexion of a stock market is ever-changing, with companies coming and going. But what happens to indexes, and the ETFs that use them as benchmarks, when a company is removed because of a merger or acquisition?
Index fund inflows to the US market are relatively tiny. Yet a new research paper suggests that they have distorted the size of the market's largest stocks to a surprising degree.
Famed investor David Einhorn says passive investing has broken markets and it's forced him to change his investment style to stay in business. How has passive investing transformed markets, and what happens next?
One of the hardest decisions for many people – excluding those who want to keep on working – is choosing when to stop. Moving into pension mode is a big decision, and here are some options and considerations.
It's important to look beyond the short-term volatility caused by military events, inflation, rate hikes, and other daily dramas. Here's how simple, diversified, long term portfolios continue to deliver healthy returns.
The S&P/ASX 200 index is one of the most concentrated sharemarket indices in the world. Equal weighted indices can offer an alternative and have historically outperformed their market capitalisation counterparts.
From a financial view, most earnings calls and stock picks are a waste of time. For most people, their investing would be better served in an index fund. So why bother with it? The best reason is because you enjoy it.
There are thousands of different indexes, and they are not all diversified and broadly-based. Watch for concentration risk in sectors and companies, and know the underlying assets in case liquidity is needed.
Investors should prepare for a decade of returns below historical averages for both stocks and bonds. Over the next decade, equity returns may be tiny compared with the lofty double-digit returns of recent years.
Our next article on modern retirement income products looks at Magellan's FuturePay. It aims to provide predictable income without having to sell down capital, but at its heart, it's an equity fund with added support.
Warren Buffett explained why he believes most investors should not pick stocks but simply own an S&P 500 index fund. "There's a lot more to picking stocks than figuring out what’s going to be a wonderful industry."
Popular belief is that all index funds are the same, but it pays to follow this framework, which shows there is more to consider than the cheapest management cost. Replicating an index is not easy.
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.