Forum Fodder

Forum Fodder | Saturday 08 November 2025

“Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross suggested that there are five stages of grief… [Investors] have leapt instead from stage one, denial – ‘there is no AI bubble’ - to stage five, acceptance - ‘AI is a bubble and bubbles are great’.” - Tim Harford, economist and senior columnist at the Financial Times (06 November 2025)

All the best for another week’s continuing education!
Graham
P.S. Registration opens next week! Portfolio Construction Forum Markets Summit 2026 (25 Feb 2026). For our full 2026 calendar click here.

Markets

What is the gold price telling us?
With the price of gold hitting new records and pulling back sharply, is it a bubble or a sign of some profound, broader change in the global financial landscape? History does offer some clues.
Jim O’Neill | Read

Strategies | Finology | Philosophy

The Fiduciary Gap
True fiduciary duty is the continual exercise of independent judgement in the client’s best interest. Structural bias is the greatest threat to the future of quality investment advice and outcomes. I call this The Fiduciary Gap.
Graham Rich, Portfolio Construction Forum | Read

Finology | Philosophy | Ethics

The Inquisitor: We need ethics muscle memory - Mary Gentile
Rather than treating ethical decision-making as a cognitive issue, investment professionals should develop “ethics muscle memory”, increasing the chances of successfully navigating moral predicaments in the moment.
Robert Huebscher, Portfolio Construction Forum | 0.75 CE (Ethics) | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Strategies Summit 2025

It’s time to make a move - Peer Exchange Group
Our diverse panel of portfolio construction practitioners discusses which of the high conviction propositions they heard during Strategies Summit 2025 it is time to make a move on, to design resilient portfolios in practice.
Angela Ashton, Chris Ogilvie, David Wright, Mirko Cugura, Pete Norris | 1.00 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Strategies Summit 2025

Asset Class Outlook Roundtable 2025/26
Our diverse panel of asset class experts discusses and clarifies the implications of four global economic and markets outlook scenarios for the medium-term (three-year) outlook for key asset classes.
Jonathan Ramsay, Adam Bowe, Qiao Ma, Wayne Fitzgibbon | 0.75 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets

Thinking Differently About Markets
Embracing complexity economics to better understand how markets really work
The Thinking Differently About Markets subscription service enables a deeper and more realistic understanding of economic and financial dynamics, empowering greater clarity and agility in portfolio construction.
Subscribe and join a Community of Practice that recognises that the traditional tools and theories of economic orthodoxy are not sufficient, and embraces complexity economics - in which the economy is more akin to an ecosystem, the brain, or the internet than to the mechanistic models of traditional theory.
Thinking Differently About Markets will help you create robust portfolios by deepening your understanding of how economies and markets really work. Find out more!

Strategies

Portfolio Compass
An efficient, effective tool to better connect portfolios to client objectives
Portfolio Compass enables you to easily and confidently identify robust asset allocations that can deliver on required investment objectives. Developed in association with Evergreen Consultants, you can rapidly analyse the risk and return characteristics of a portfolio’s existing asset allocation and analyse options to adjust it, create and monitor customised asset allocations for individual clients, and set practice-wide asset allocations based on your firm’s investment philosophy and client risk profiles. The highly visual interface enhances transparency and clarity of communication with clients about their portfolios.
Portfolio Compass will deepen your understanding and control of the most important part of the investment process – the asset allocation of a portfolio. Find out more!

Strategies | Markets | Investing | Philosophy

Short Course: Mastering private debt investing
Examining the unique characteristics that make private debt a compelling investment.
Private debt has grown in popularity as an alternative source of debt financing, with the asset class tripling in size since 2008. Curated and produced by Portfolio Construction Forum, and led by private debt investing subject matter expert, Andrew Lockhart, this self-paced, two-hour online short course equips you with the expertise to navigate private debt investment confidently across diverse market conditions.
Metrics & Portfolio Construction Forum | 2.00 CE | Enrol

Finology | Philosophy | * Premium *

Behavioural Finance: Investment decision-making short course
Led by behavioural finance expert, Herman Brodie, this online, on-demand course completed at your own pace 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 (incl 1.00 ethics) | Enrol

Markets

Profiles in weakness at the Trump-Xi meeting
While most people regard the Sino-American rivalry as a new cold war, the truth is that both countries are tightly constrained. Today’s cold warriors are being pushed toward some sort of truce.
Harold James, Princeton University | Read

Markets | Investing

Now is the time to revisit listed global real estate
There’s been a slow-moving dynamic playing out within global real estate which is setting up the sector for multi-period outperformance. This dynamic is widespread but acute in some sectors.
Justin Blaess, Quay Global Investors | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing

Private credit is expanding from lending to asset-based solutions
Private credit is entering a new phase of maturity, expanding beyond direct lending into a broader spectrum of asset-based finance. For portfolio constructors seeking stability and yield - it’s time to make a move.
Nicole Drapkin, Blue Owl Capital | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Strategies Summit 2025

Asset class opportunities 2025/26
Our panel explores three asset class issues that it’s time to make a move on - including private markets, Australian private credit and global listed infrastructure.
Brendan McCurdy, Andrew Lockhart, Warryn Robertson, Sean Henaghan | 1.00 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Strategies Summit 2025

Portfolio design opportunities
Our panel explores three portfolio deign issues that it’s time to make a move on - building bespoke portfolios, taking a Total Portfolio Approach (TPA) to alternatives, and including emerging markets in portfolios again.
Peter Gunning, Deanne Baker, Piers Bolger, Mirko Cugura | 0.75 CE | Watch, Listen

Markets

Crockpot: American exceptionalism means we don’t have to worry
There is something special about the American entrepreneurial spirit that makes the American economy and companies exceptional. But the notion that this means we don’t have to worry about valuations? It’s nuts.
Tim Farrelly, Delta Portfolios | Read

Strategies | Investing | Finology | Philosophy

Rich Pickings: James McAlevey
Rich Pickings explores the investment beliefs and philosophies of prominent professional investors. In this episode, I’m in conversation with London-based, absolute return fixed income investor, James McAlevey, BNP Paribas Asset Management…
Graham Rich, Portfolio Construction Forum | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Strategies Summit 2025

You don’t have to take additional risk to achieve higher returns
With parts of the private credit market under pressure from rising impairments and liquidity constraints, investment-grade credit provides a way to access equity-like returns without taking on additional risk or sacrificing liquidity.
Roy Keenan, Yarra Capital Management | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Strategies Summit 2025

Make a move to absolute return strategies in global equities
An absolute return, long-short approach to global equities investing offers the freedom to invest in the best long-term opportunities whatever they are, turning time and disruption into a competitive advantage.
Lev Margolin, System Capital | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | As seen at Strategies Summit 2025

It’s time to move from Outsource to In-source
The traditional model of outsourcing investment management to an OCIO is reaching its practical limits. The OCIO relationship with the investment adviser needs to evolve to a deeply integrated partnership.
Jamie Lewin, UBS Asset Management | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

Forum CE Library - over 1,000 CE/CPD hours
Complimentary for all Forum members, the Forum’s online on-demand CE Library offers over 800 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 170 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.ac.nz 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.