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3 July 2024
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While capitalism has its downsides, no system allocates resources better, and the result is a complex, adaptive economy. But indexation has amplified the disconnect between valuations and fundamentals, with worrying implications.
When looking at long-term equity index charts, it’s easy to forget the individual stocks underpinning the indices don’t move as a unified block. This has important implications for how you try to extract returns from markets.
Direct indexing is on the rise both in Australia and globally, especially among those working with an adviser in a separately managed account. Yet, what is direct indexing, and what are its benefits and drawbacks?
Why are prices rising but not the CPI? When we measure inflation, we aren’t measuring raw price changes, we’re measuring the pleasure-adjusted or utility-adjusted price changes, and we use it incorrectly.
Howard Marks' memos to his clients are always worth reading, and when a highly successful manager acknowledges the strengths of index investing, it's worth checking what he says.
It's pleasing to have been contributing to Cuffelinks since the start in 2013. Fundamentally sensible and technically useful articles again dominated in 2017, but five in particular stay in the memory due to their special insights.
Indexing has come under increasing criticism as it has grown rapidly. Three issues dominate the arguments but the indexing benefits of low cost and diversification means active and index funds have a symbiotic relationship.
The distinction between active and index management is increasingly blurred, while active managers as a group face large outflows and struggle to justify their fees. There are big players on both sides.
It's difficult for investors to find active fund managers that consistently outperform the market over multiple periods, and the claim that active managers do better in falling markets also lacks recent evidence.
Smart beta strategies are now common but they were a quirky idea when Rob Arnott set up his first fund. This veteran of US investing talks about asset allocation, demographics and the state of the asset management industry.
There seems to be more confusion than clarity about the mechanics of how the new $3 million super tax is supposed to work. Here is an attempt to answer some of the questions from my previous work on the issue.
Washington H. Soul Pattinson is an ASX top 50 stock with one of the best investment track records this country has seen. Yet, most Australians haven’t heard of it, and the company seems to prefer it that way.
We are often quoted life expectancy at birth but what matters most is how long we should live as we grow older. It is surprising how short this can be for people born last century, so make the most of it.
A new report suggests Australian housing is twice as expensive as that of the US and UK on a price-to-income basis. It also reveals that it’s cheaper to live in New York than most of our capital cities.
Here are 10 rules for staying happy and sharp as we age, including socialise a lot, never retire, learn a demanding skill, practice gratitude, play video games (specific ones), and be sure to reminisce.
There’s an epidemic in Australia that has nothing to do with COVID-19, the flu, or the respiratory syncytial virus. This one is called FORO, or the fear of running out of money in retirement, and it's a growing problem.