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21 January 2025
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As markets whipsaw, the risk that volatility might undermine investors’ ability to achieve their return objectives looms large. What can investors do to mitigate that risk and avoid falling short of their goals?
Price is a subjective measure with no mathematical definition, but valuation approximates the truth. With many stock prices down, investors looking to buy should consider three steps suited to current market conditions.
The valuation maths of many expensive companies simply cannot work. They assume low interest rates for long terms, but strong economic growth to drive ongoing success. You can't have both.
Promoters of new listings can over-hype a loss-making company to achieve a desired valuation, but the market is increasingly critical of expensive IPOs. There are many ways to value the future.
Platinum's Kerr Neilson shares his insights into long term investing in global markets, especially the disruptive effects of technology and globalisation. And always with a focus on the price of a stock.
The investment landscape might have changed dramatically over the last 25 years, but investors can still rely on many of the same principles from the past to make sound investment decisions in the present.
Valuations of technology companies are driven by both external and internal factors, but it's still more art than science. There's no magic formula amid the guesswork but there are some basic principles to follow.
With investors gravitating towards ‘safer’ equities for yield, the equity risk premium is playing an important role in the variance of earnings multiples between defensive and cyclical sectors of the Australian equity market.
Cuffelinks reader, James, has some additional questions covering: bonds for capital gain or income, bonds in a growth strategy, passive vs active investing, unconstrained bond funds and duration risk.
When share prices are rising faster than corporate earnings, it is almost certain that the value available in the market is declining, and ultimately, value is a crucial driver of long term investment performance.
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.
The housing market was subdued in 2024, and pessimism abounds as we start the new year. 2025 is likely to be a tale of two halves, with interest rate cuts fuelling a resurgence in buyer demand in the second half of the year.
The renowned investor has penned his first investor letter for 2025 and it’s a ripper. He runs through what bubbles are, which ones he’s experienced, and whether today’s markets qualify as the third major bubble of this century.
This examines the performance of key asset classes and sub-sectors in 2024 and over longer timeframes, and the lessons that can be drawn for constructing an investment portfolio for the next decade.
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.