Several weeks ago we ran an episode with the same topic, where we spoke at length about traditional sources of yield, and reached the conclusion that due to record low rates, in the future investors would need to expose themselves to risk in order to gain returns. Today we look further at the future of
We are proud to announce that the MB Fund has again been named a finalist in the upcoming 2020 ifa Excellence Awards in the “Innovator of the Year – Company” category. It’s been a big year for the MB Fund. We: Had our third birthday in July: marking 3 years of fund performance that we’re
Our attention turns this week to what is most Australian’s second biggest asset, Superannuation. Super means a lot things to every Australian. For some it’s a tax efficient long term savings vehicle that if managed well can provide security and reassurance that retirement will be comfortable and reliable. For others it is an annoying, mandated
September has historically been the worst month for the stock market, and this year was no exception with global equities producing their first monthly negative return since bottoming in March. In Australia, rising concerns about the deteriorating trade relationship with China, Victoria’s continuing shutdowns and looming end-September step-downs in income support programs all took a
On the agenda today: • prof. Keen’s recent work on the appallingly bad neoclassical economics of climate change, in which he contends numerous errors have been made in calculating the economic effects of climate change. Correcting for these errors makes it feasible that the economic damages from climate change are at least an order of
I wanted to talk about the Australian budget. I’m not seeing what the admirers are seeing. At first, I was worried that I’d missed something. But yesterday’s dovish speech by Governor Lowe suggests the Reserve Bank are seeing exactly the same thing I am. Four months ago, I wrote what good government stimulus would look like. This budget
A special episode of the podcast this week, in which MB Fund’s Chief Strategist David Llewellyn Smith, Chief Economist Leith van Onselen, Head of Investments Damien Klassen, and Head of Advice Tim Fuller dive into Dr Frankenberg’s Mad Budget Experiment! (aka Australia’s Budget). On the agenda: • The budget numbers & policies • Economic, political
After 5 years of falling RBA rates and the fact that income needs are rising against falling “safe” investment returns, what can clients do? Growth was good before March this year, but what now? Is it a short term hit to growth or something more sustained and how can this be used to provide income
Markets move in cycles. The last 40 years have seen interest rates down from 20% to less than 1%, quietly fuelling a rise in bond returns over the same time. This has driven the return of the benchmark 60/40 portfolio (60% stocks and 40% government bonds). Over the 40 years, the benefit of the 60/40
Our attention turns locally this week, as the country begins take stock of the coronavirus impacts and look to the future for drivers of Australia’s favourite asset class, property. As news breaks that lending standards are being relaxed and the Reserve Bank of Australia continues to pump freshly printed monopoly money into the economy through
Nobel prize winner Harry Markowitz gets the credit for coining the phrase that “diversification is the only free lunch in finance”. Add the insight that stock markets are at least semi-efficient, and a multi-trillion dollar exchange-traded fund (ETF) industry was born. And indeed, many exchange-traded funds are worthwhile investments, providing low-cost diversification. But some take
Before COVID-19 hit, Nucleus Wealth launched an Australian property calculator. The idea I wanted to illustrate is that house prices are very sensitive to interest rates. So, with interest rates so low, property was going to be stuck in purgatory: if the economy improved and interest rates increased then higher interest rates would cap property
This week we look to the upcoming US election as the country grapples with the coronavirus, civil unrest and a toppling stock market. Can Trump pull off another shock win and buoy markets with more of his trade mark tax cuts and incongruous twitter activity, or will old man Biden clinch the win for the
August saw the market continue the recovery as investors cheered positive news of a potential COVID-19 treatment and welcomed a month-long succession of upbeat economic data. The month’s recovery was underpinned by a series of better than expected economic reports, including an increase in manufacturing activity, better-than-anticipated factory orders, and a lessening of new jobless
In today’s investment webinar,MB Fund’s Head of Investments Damien Klassen, Chief Strategist David Llewellyn Smith, Head of Operations Tim Fuller and funds manager John Deniz turn their attention to if Gold is the anti-dollar. On the agenda, the correlation between USD & Gold, where we see the gold price heading, the US budget deficit and
The digital games and interactive media sector is probably much larger than you think and still growing. To put it into perspective, one of the highest rating movies ever, Avengers: Endgame, grossed US$858m during its opening weekend. Grand Theft Auto V’s release, earned US$1b in just over three days. Originally just a PC/console experience, ubiquitous
Is the Gammaquake over or just beginning? What actually is gamma and why should you care. Join us today to discuss recent market movements and what they mean for investment portfolios In today’s investment webinar MB Fund’s Head of Investments Damien Klassen, Chief Strategist David Llewellyn Smith and Head of Operations Tim Fuller investigate if
Markets took a tumble last week, is this the start of the end? It could well be. Markets certainly looked like they were in the final stages of a blow-off top over the last week or two with fewer and fewer stocks driving the gains and technical issues in options markets driving stocks higher. Maybe
Over a year ago I made some comment on breaking news that the wealth arm, Dixon Advisory within listed wealth giant Evans Dixon had been publicly called to task on recommendations for clients to invest in several of their in-house investment products that had performed poorly. One particularly egregious performer was their heavily recommended US property fund, URF,
In today’s webinar MB Fund’s Head of Investments Damien Klassen, and Head of Advice Tim Fuller are joined by Professor Steve Keen to determine if MMT is the solution to an economy ravaged by Coronavirus. On the agenda, we give an overview of how the Coronavirus crisis will have impacted the already fragile economy when
In today’s investment webinar Nucleus Wealth’s Head of Investments Damien Klassen, Head of Advice Tim Fuller and Prof. Richard Holden explore what measures are left for both monetary and fiscal levers with the chance to prevent, or exacerbate the indelible effects of the pandemic on the Australian economy. Join us as we discuss the ongoing
Investment markets are in the eye of the storm. The initial storm danger came as COVID-19 hit, decimating jobs and smashing demand. Governments and central banks ably stepped up to stem the damage, and investment markets calmed. But insolvencies and bankruptcies have only been delayed, not avoided and the employment recovery is unlikely to be
With the Australian property market in a marked period of uncertainty due to Coronavirus, we take an on-the-ground look at what’s happening within the broader lending market. This means diving into the world of bad debts as they relate to bank lending, developers, commercial and residential property to get an indication for just how great
Many of you will have seen Trump’s announcement essentially trying to prevent pension funds from considering ethical issues for investing. To quote The Australian: After a remarkable run of success in the investment sector, ethical investing has received an unwelcome jolt from the US government with a Trump administration proposal to remove so-called Environmental, Social and
The landscape of the financial advice industry has changed rapidly over the past decade, meaning major changes for clients and advisers alike. To unpack the changes, what these mean for clients and advisers, and what the future of financial advice looks like, we’ve brought Tristan Scifo and Harry Goldberg from Purpose Advisory onto the panel
Join us as we discuss Technology’s ever-growing role in the world, the resulting deflation it will generate, and the major structural changes to the economy as we know it caused by this. We discuss these changes in industries it’s already happened in, as well as some likely candidates such as energy and automotive. We wrap
We are in a strange political environment. Globally there have been trillions of dollars of government stimulus announced, deficit hawks have turned chicken, and formerly staunch opponents of government intervention have been leading the charge. How should investors assess each government stimulus announcement? One day the Australian government told us they had the right level
Join us as we discuss CBA’s real-time tracking of the Australian economy, the difficult path ahead, the role of government in stimulating growth, and Gareth’s views on the housing market. In today’s investment webinar MB Fund’s Head of Investments Damien Klassen, Chief Economist Leith van Onselen, Head of Financial Advice Tim Fuller and CBA’s Head
Today we look at a rough roadmap of what would need to happen on the road to suspending capitalism and markets being artificially held up indefinitely. Whilst we’ve already passed a few markers, there are numerous steps in fiscal and monetary policy to get us to the point of economic hell. Tune in today as
Diversity issues have exploded into the global zeitgeist over the past few months as Black Lives Matter protests have rocked cities around the world. From an investment perspective, diversity is an interesting concept. There have been a lot of studies into the diversity of gender and race on company performance with, well, diverse results. The
