Forum Fodder | Friday 23 October 2020
"Over a decade, from 2008 to 2019, the US saw e-commerce penetration increase by about one percentage point per year - from six to 16%. And, in a 10-week period of Covid, we saw a decade's-worth of adoption." - Scott Berg at Portfolio Construction Forum Strategies Conference 2020
All the best for another week's continuing education! - Graham

LATEST ON-DEMAND CE...

Markets
What’s next for the global economy?
This crisis may morph over time. The second quarter of 2020 looked like an I, free fall. Quarter three looked like a V, as any rebound from very low levels of activity initially does. My baseline scenario is an anaemic U-shaped recovery.
Nouriel Roubini, Roubini Macro Associates | More

Markets | Strategies | Investing - As seen at Strategies Conference 2020
This is not a tech bubble… (yet!)
Covid has accelerated tech adoption on an unprecedented scale and while the winners have been broad, not all are equal. Short-term investors with simple valuation techniques are missing the bigger picture.
Scott Berg | 0.50 CE | More

Finology
Research Review: Time preferences, present bias and financial behaviour
These two papers provide a more sophisticated, behavioural understanding of time discounting, to enable more nuanced conversations with clients about current and future consumption, and help mitigate the potentially negative impacts of present bias..
Rob Hamshar | 1.00 CE | More

Right for the right reasons
Should jobs in the services sector be able to rebound much more rapidly than in manufacturing sector.
John Hingher, Meyer Handelman | Comment

Research Review: Helping clients achieve their goals
I think having non-specific goals to do with family members under your duty of care would have a meaningful impact.
Isaac Kuruvilla, Sydney Diocesan Secretariat | Comment

Research Review: Helping clients achieve their goals
Many advisers consider a client's non-specific (and potentially non-financial) goals to be an important part of client-centric practice...
Rob Hamshar, Portfolio Construction Forum | Comment

Finology | Invitation to those who give investment advice
Complimentary survey to benchmark your Client Care & Practice knowledge and skills
FASEA requires that financial advisers continually improve their client care and practice knowledge and skills - doing so makes obvious business sense, as well. Our new Finology Benchmarking Indices (FBI) self assessment tool helps you benchmark your investing biases, beliefs and behaviours versus peers, to further empower your “client care and practice” knowledge and skills. It's complimentary to our members who give investment advice, while we continue to develop it.
Take the Finology Benchmarking Indices self assessment

UPCOMING LIVE CE...

Strategies
Markets Summit 2021 - Mark your Diary!
Established in 2009, Markets Summit is THE investment markets scene setter of the year. Presented in Sydney each February, the face-to-face and online learning program features 20+ leading investment thinkers - geopolitical specialists, economists, market/asset class experts, and investment strategists - from around the world, offering their best high conviction ideas on the drivers of and outlook for the markets (on a three- to five-year view) in the context of the theme - and the implications for portfolios. Mark your diary! Wednesday 17 February 2021
Meanwhile "attend" Markets Summit 2020 "Be Alert! High VUCA ahead" on-demand.

UPCOMING CERTIFICATION...

Certified Investment Management Analyst^® (CIMA^®)
Are you involved in any aspect of constructing multi-manager portfolios?
CIMA certification is the peak, international technical portfolio construction certification program designed for investment management analysts – that is, those involved in any aspect of constructing multi-manager portfolios, whether practitioner or advocate. Stand For More - more knowledge, skill and expertise - with CIMA certification.
Enrolments are now open for the next intake

RECENT ON-DEMAND CE...

Markets
Dollar sensationalism
The dollar's recent slide is one in a series of readily explicable fluctuations. Indeed, the most striking takeaway is its resiliency. The explanation is "TINA" - There Is No Alternative.
Barry Eichengreen, University of California | More

Philosophy
All things considered... Market pricing
Market pricing goes to the heart of everything we do in constructing portfolios. But the risk-free rate is artificial as central bank manipulate interest rates to stimulate economies. The implications for asset allocation are significant.
John Coombe, Joe Fernandes, Tim Farrelly & Robert Prugue | 1.00 CE | More

Investing
Research Roundtable - UBS CBRE Global Real Assets
This Research Roundtable focused on the UBS CBRE Global Real Assets strategy, with 10 senior practitioners deciding, after briefings, Q&A and debate, their individual rating for the strategy and whether to include it on a hypothetical APL and/or multi-manager portfolios. Afterwards, the meeting is truncated and published for on-demand viewing by all members.
Portfolio Construction Forum | 1.00 CE on demand | More

Finology 
Research Review: Helping clients achieve their goals
These two research papers present insights into how advisers can better assess and guide how clients think about and structure goals - including savings goals.
Rob Hamshar, Portfolio Construction Forum | 1.00 CE | 2 comments | More

Philosophy | Strategies | Editor's Pick!
A 60/40 "balanced" split will fail superannuants of the 2020s
Somehow the optimal growth/defensive asset split from the 1980s is still considered "balanced" today - never mind that for the first time since the 1930s, the cost of capital is stubbornly static at a negative real return.
Robert Prugue, Callidum Investment Research | 0.25 CE | 1 comment | More

Markets
Are financial markets none the wiser?
In April, I argued equity markets might continue to rally despite the collapse of the world economy. And so they have. But in my 40 years of observing and participating in financial markets, I've learned that August is always a month to watch.
Jim O’Neill, Chatham House | More

Markets 
Right for the right reasons
In the last two weeks, very important data on the US economy and corporate earnings have been released. These depressing data are as we had predicted. It remains true that the S&P 500 should drop by 35% from its 1 January level.
Woody Brock, SED | More

Markets | Investing
The state of play
One of the most important tasks for any decision-maker is to continuously stress-test assumptions and mark-to-market their hypotheses as to how the future will unfold. Let's "nowcast" a little.
Christopher Joye, Coolabah Capital | More

Philosophy
All things considered... We don't know what we don't know
Our first All Things Considered zoominar was foundational. Our panel of expert portfolio construction practitioners and academics made the case for questioning our investing activities, and identified some “sacred cows” that are most consequential to investment outcomes AND in greatest need of revision.
Joe Fernandes, Maroš Servátka & Robert Prugue | 1.00 CE | More

Philosophy | Investing | Editor's Pick!
Is active investing doomed as a negative sum game?
Sharpe proposed that active investing must be a losing pursuit in aggregate. This paper takes a critical look at that proposition, and whether it is worthwhile considering using active fund managers.
Geoff Warren, Australian National University | 1.00 CE | More

PLUS MORE ON-DEMAND CE...

Forum CE Library - over 540 CE/CPD hours
Complimentary for all Forum members, the Forum's online on-demand CE Library offers over 540 CE/CPD hours of accredited learning resources, to help members meet the CE/CPD requirements of 16 governing bodies (regulators, associations, and institutes) - including ASIC, APRA, FASEA, FMA, AFA, FPA and CIMA^® CE/CPD requirements, to name a few.
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Forum CIMA CE Library - over 75 CE hours
This subset of the full Forum CE Library features just those learning resources that are accredited for CIMA CE hours, so CIMA certificants can more easily find learning resources to meet their recertification obligation (at the same time as meeting the CE/CPD requirements of other governing bodies e.g. ASIC, APRA, FASEA, FMA, etc). 
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