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22 December 2024
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Munger is best known as Warren Buffett’s sidekick though he’s a formidable investor in his own right. Here he addresses what makes Buffett great, Costco's retailing genius and Berkshire's investments in Apple, Japan, and China.
Everyone including investors needs to evolve to get better. Here are five steps to improve your investment toolkit, including thinking probabilistically, running your own race, and measuring yourself objectively.
Active funds cost more than passive because the investor is paying for the skill of the manager, so why are fund managers reticent to describe their skill rather than their outcomes. Here are five reasons.
Over decades, relatively few companies generate all the stockmarket's outperformance. Is this an argument for passive investing or does it prove active investing is rewarded? Bessembinder lets you decide.
Charlie Munger is famous for applying different 'mental models' to get an edge in markets. In this vain, here's a look at how ecological niches can be applied to stock markets and may help you become a better investor.
Few of us will reach 80 years old without some kind of mental impairment that will cloud our financial decision-making. It's wise to take such decision-making out of our hands while we have the mental capacity to do so.
Individual investors think professionals have ‘smart money’ advantages enjoyed on the inside. While some perks are worthwhile, others are a rort, and overall, it's easier to invest with the freedom of ‘small money’.
If it's common knowledge, it's not an outperformance edge. You may have insights about China, a great company, US ingenuity, inflation or interest rates, but if they are common, they are already priced in.
Every successful fund manager suffers periods of underperformance, and investors who jump from fund to fund chasing results are likely to do badly. Selecting a manager is a long-term decision but what else?
It is common to see 'smart beta' as the core of a portfolio supported by high conviction active funds, or a core active manager blended with a complimentary smart beta strategy. It also removes key person risk.
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.
The Warren Buffett/Charlie Munger partnership is the stuff of legends, but even Charlie admits it is coming to an end ("I'm nearly dead"). He is one of the few people in investing prepared to say what he thinks.
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.