Forum Fodder

Forum Fodder | Friday 10 November 2023

“The 1990s, that people thought of as the end of history and an era of permanent calm, it was the eye of the storm. It looks to me like the eye is passing over and we’re about to get hit with the backside of it.” - Walter Russell Mead, distinguished fellow at Hudson Institute and columnist at The Wall Street Journal (1 November 2023)

All the best for another week’s continuing education!
Graham

Investing

Research Symposium 2023 “Exploring contemporary investment research issues”
AEDT 8.30am-5.15pm Thursday 23 November 2023 | In-person (Sydney CBD) | 6+ CE
Essential for all senior practitioners, Research Symposium will challenge your portfolio construction thinking by debating issues around researching, selecting and implementing investment solutions to help build better quality investor portfolios.
Presented in November each year (but on hold in 2020-2021 and virtual only in 2022 due to Covid), and supported by CIMA Society, we’re delighted to resume the Research Symposium as an “in-person” only program (delegates cannot attend via live stream as there is a strong emphasis on roundtable peer discussion and debate). This year’s program features behavioural finance specialist Herman Brodie on how to overcome the heuristics that have us make poor investment “sell” decisions, along with behavioural finance and ethics expert, Dr Katherine Hunt on the ethics of risk profiling, and Andrew Formica, FIIA, Executive Chairman of Magellan Asset Management speaking “unplugged” about Magellan and it’s future - plus three other hot topic sessions that challenge current practice on researching, selecting and/or implementing investment solutions for inclusion in APLs, models and multi-manager portfolios.
A$0 for Practitioners | Contact us for more details and to register.

Markets

The stunning resilience of emerging markets
As finance ministers and central bankers convened in Marrakesh for the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in mid October, what surprised veteran analysts the most was the expected calamity that hasn’t happened - an emerging-market debt crisis.
Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University | Read

Strategies | Markets | Finology | Philosophy

Thinking Differently: Rethinking risk management
When just about every asset price trends upwards, and episodic falls in market prices are quickly reversed, risk management is unrewarded. But the world has changed and portfolio risk management is now critical.
Wayne Fitzgibbon, CAS Market Insights | Read

Markets

Private credit opportunity set is growing
As risks related to over-indebted governments, the Russia-Ukraine war and Brexit fuel instability in Europe, the opportunity set for private credit investors is growing.
Fabian Chrobog, NorthWall Capital | Listen, Watch

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

Valuation driven investors can’t ignore EM equities any more
Today, many of the leading companies servicing emerging market economies have superior earnings growth to developed market peers, with many trading even cheaper than at the height of the Covid market turmoil.
Ross Cameron, Northcape Capital | 0.50 CE | Listen, Watch

Strategies| Investing | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

Passive will beat active in private markets too!
Private Equity pooled returns have been attractive while also less volatile than investing in a single fund or fund-of-funds. Enabling investors to “buy the private market” would complement portfolios just like in public markets.
Edward Talmor-Gera, NewVest | 0.25 CE | Listen, Watch

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

If you do anything, include private debt in portfolios
The unique characteristics of private debt make it ideal for any portfolio, fitting in either the defensive or growth component of a portfolio – or even both at the same time.
Andrew-Lockhart, Metrics Credit Partners | 0.50 CE | Listen, Watch

Finology | Philosophy

Behavioural Finance: Investment decision-making short course
Led by behavioural finance expert, Herman Brodie, the Behavioural Finance - Investment Decision-Making course will help you identify, analyse and evaluate the principal human preferences that influence decision-making in situations of uncertainty, so you can recognise and identify these preferences in others, to improve investment decision-making.
Herman Brodie | 8.00 CE | Enrol

Markets

The five main drivers of global economic uncertainty
Even in the highly unlikely event that the current geopolitical situation improves rapidly, a deep sense of uncertainty will remain, driven by five economic and financial factors.
Mohamed El-Erian | Read

Markets

Thinking Differently: Beyond the razzle dazzle
Those calling for the cash rate to be raised to a more appropriate “real” level or to match the Fed Funds rate to avoid “imported inflation” should be duly ignored.
Wayne Fitzgibbon, CAS Market Insights | Read

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

In 2023, every business is an AI business
We are living in the middle of a major societal shift towards not just the use of, but the reliance, dependence and advancement of our lives being built on technology that seeks to emulate us, mimic us and envelope us.
Grant McCarthy, Tidal Ventures & Shane Baldacchino, Microsoft | 0.25 CE | Listen, Watch

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

If you do anything, invest in companies that embrace AI
AI has been described as important a lever for detaching economic growth from population growth as the steam engine. Companies that don’t use AI to remake their business simply don’t have a place in today’s portfolios.
Alex Pollak, Loftus Peak | 0.25 CE | Listen, Watch

Strategies | Investing | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

Investing Roundtable - You can do anything, just not everything
The Investing Roundtable explored key challenges and opportunities that practitioners should be thinking about when building quality multi-asset, multi-manager portfolios - allocations to global small cap equities, returns-based fund style analysis, and optimised portfolio design.
Bronwen Moncrieff, John Laver, Michael Furey, Naomi Finnigan | 0.75 CE | Listen, Watch

Markets | Investing

Research Review: Wallstreet bets - then and now
The WallStreetBets phenomenon - and the sensational short squeeze of Gamestop in 2021 in particular - demonstrated the potentially dramatic influence of collective retail behaviour on financial markets.
Rob Hamshar, Portfolio Construction Forum | 2.00 CE | Read

Markets

The Bank of Japan’s seductive widow-maker trade
Could Japan become the world’s next great growth story? Warren Buffett seems to think so and the IMF expects the Japanese economy to grow by 1.4% in 2023. But the Japanese economy could also be a ticking time bomb.
Kenneth Rogoff | Harvard University | Read

Strategies | Markets

Thinking Differently: Don’t ignore the future that has already happened
Focussing on what we know about the world we live in and figuring out what it might mean for investing is much less glamourous and newsworthy than the prediction game, but it’s potentially more rewarding.
Wayne Fitzgibbon, CAS Market Insights | Read

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

Don’t sit on the sidelines, invest in Global Corporate Bonds
Investment-grade corporate bonds can improve portfolio risk-adjusted returns. A focus on the highest quality global corporate bonds will provide opportunities for investors to capture future income, as well as add a defensive anchor within portfolios.
Jeremy Cunningham, Capital Group | 0.50 CE | Listen, Watch

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

If you could predict one thing, make it equity earnings surprise
Brokers hire a great many analysts to write and publish detailed analysis on corporate earnings forecasts. It’s right to focus on earnings, but the level of delivered growth is less important than the surprise in growth (positive or negative).
Ram Rasaratnam, AXA Investment Managers | 0.50 CE | Listen, Watch

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Conference 2023

If you do one thing, rebalance equities with cash generators
As markets become narrow and expensive, core, growth and quality portfolios are converging. This presents risks for many portfolios but a great opportunity for valuation-focused investors.
Warryn Robertson, Lazard Asset Management | 0.50 CE | Listen, Watch

Forum CE Library - over 700 CE/CPD hours
Complimentary for all Forum members, the Forum’s online on-demand CE Library offers over 700 CE/CPD hours of accredited learning resources, to help members meet the CE/CPD requirements of 20+ governing bodies (regulators, associations, and institutes) including ASIC, APRA, Legislated (AU), FAAA, FMA and CIMA^® CE/CPD requirements, to name just a few.
Earn CE/CPD hours

Forum CIMA CE Library - over 150 CE hours
This subset of our full 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, Legislated (AU), FAAA, FMA etc).
Earn CIMA CE hours

Connect with us on LinkedIn
We let my LinkedIn network know as soon as we release new articles on portfolioconstructionforum.edu.au and when registration opens for our face-to-face CE programs. And of course, I’d welcome having an offline direct conversation with you any time.