Strategy

Portfolio construction is a dynamic concept that should vary from person to person to match their investment preferences and goals. For the average Australian, most of their investment wealth will be held within superannuation that more often than not will be split primarily between stocks and bonds.

As a trader one of the worst things one can do when in the midst of difficult dry spell is to be distracted by what others are making.

As one of the top three retirement killers, it consistently surprises me how widely misunderstood and underestimated the impact of volatility is.

First and foremost, without financial security, decisions are made by others. Your lifestyle in retirement may be decided by the age pension. Your ability to assist others could be a direct concession on your own quality of life.

There are many financial ratios that, when combined, can display the real financial circumstances of a company. Like tools in the garden shed, each has their specific use.

If professional fund managers like Mirrabooka has seen their option-income almost halve, is it worthwhile creating income via an options strategy? Importantly how do you judge what is a sufficient yield to justify the strategy?

I have been a self-managed retail investor for over 30 years so I am a little embarrassed to say that I have finally worked out a way to document every transaction in a capital account in a similar way that my bank statement tells me every transaction in my savings account.

My nine most important lessons from investing over the past 35 years are that: there is always a cycle; the crowd gets it wrong at extremes; what you pay for an investment matters a lot; getting markets right is not as easy as you think; investment markets don’t learn; compound interest applied to investments is like magic; it pays to be optimistic; keep it simple; and you need to know yourself to succeed at investing.

The proportion of big global investors preparing for equity falls is the highest in the survey’s history while allocation to safe-haven cash has risen seven percentage points to a net 33% overweight.

After taking a back seat over the last six months as negotiations appeared to make progress the US/China trade war is back on with the President Trump – “tariff man” – ramping up tariffs on Chinese imports again and threatening more and China moving to retaliate. This note takes a simple Q & A approach to the key issues.

Will Berkshire want to lift its bank shareholdings much higher than current levels if a new Fed rule becomes fact?