Forum Fodder

Forum Fodder | Friday 13 March 2026

“If anything, the multipolar threat environment augurs further upside to industrials, materials, energy sectors, as well as commodities. The rotation out of tech will not be arrested by the conflict in the Middle East. It will be accelerated.” - Marko Papic, chief strategist at BCA Research (02 March 2026)

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

Markets

Kevin Warsh is in for a rude awakening
Fortunately, the Fed chair is not an absolute monarch. Warsh will have only one vote out of 12 on the FOMC. That is good news for markets, given how misguided some of his stated positions are.
Nouriel Roubini, Roubini Macro Associates | Read

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Markets Summit 2026

Investors must adapt to a more tribal less rational world
For decades, investors relied on a stable, predictable world. Today, that world is being mugged by reality. Portfolios must focus on places where the rule of law still matters and identify the strategic bottlenecks that now pick the winners and losers.
Oliver Hartwich, The New Zealand Initiative | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing | As seen at Markets Summit 2026

It’s a whole new world
2025 was likely the beginning of the end of US exceptionalism in markets. It’s a whole new world (again)! – but many portfolios are positioned for the past based on an incomplete assessment of risk and reward.
Ronald Temple, Lazard | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

Markets | As seen at Markets Summit 2026

Get Real – we must wake up to the whole new world
Real assets, including direct lending, core real estate, and infrastructure, can help improve overall portfolio efficiency by offering positive returns during periods of economic contraction and high inflation.
Michael Meehan, Nuveen | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets

Market Signals:  Energy Shock and Stagflation Risk
Markets spent the week attempting to price a geopolitical shock whose macro consequences remain highly uncertain. The challenge is not predicting how the conflict evolves. It is recognising how shocks like this propagate through portfolios.
Nick Schoenmaker, Portfolio Construction Forum | 0.25 CE | Read

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

Trump wants a “Hot Hot Hot” economy
Despite the US economy’s strong performance in 2025 which is likely to continue in 2026, it is hard to escape the conclusion that, over the medium term, Trump’s decisions over the past year will expose the US to massive risks.
Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University | Read

Strategies | Markets

Geopolitics must be part and parcel of investing
Investors will look back on 2025 as the beginning of the end of US exceptionalism. Practitioners must now consider geopolitics in their fundamental analysis, alongside macroeconomic and company factors.
Ronald Temple, Lazard | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | Investing

From Strategies Summit 2025 to Markets Summit 2026
Strategies Summit 2025 last August delivered practitioners a clear call to action - it was “Time to Make a Move” away from stretched US valuations toward international and emerging markets in portfolios. We look at how that’s panned out, and start to prep for Markets Summit 2026 “It’s a whole new world (again)!”.
Jonathan Ramsay, InvestSense | Watch, Listen, 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

Mind the gap(s) between market perception and investing reality
“What I found most valuable in this piece is the discipline it reinforces around separating perception risk from portfolio risk…”
Nick Schoenmaker | Watch, Listen

Markets

The world order after 2025
The future that emerges after 2025 depends crucially on the worldview we choose. Lamenting the polycrisis reinforces paralysis; embracing the polytunity encourages change.
Yuen Yuen Ang, Johns Hopkins University | Read

Markets

Global developments to watch over the next five years to 2031
2025 will likely go down in history as one of the most eventful, action-packed years of the 21st century. Here are 20 possibilities that should help you navigate uncertainty between now and 2031.
Vikram Mansharamani | Read

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

It’s time for a 50% allocation to private markets
A new approach to asset allocation is needed to create long-term wealth for clients, focusing on risk-adjusted returns with up to 50% of portfolios allocated to private markets asset classes.
Brendan McCurdy, Ares Management Corporation | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Finology | Philosophy

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

Finology | Philosophy

Research Review: Attributing ethical responsibility
Together, these two articles shed light on important micro and macro challenges facing the growth of ethical responsibility in investment and wealth management.
Rob Hamshar, Portfolio Construction Forum | 2.00 CE (Ethics) | Read

Strategies | Finology | Philosophy

The Fiduciary Gap
Thanks Graham, a good article… I agree that “True fiduciary duty is not just compliance. It is the continual exercise of independent judgement in the client’s best interest.”
Mark Hayden, Hayden Bourne Financial Services | Read

Markets

Crockpot: American exceptionalism means we don’t have to worry
Brilliant article, Tim. Sadly, all those American stay-at-home punters don’t realise that their social media feeds are simply reinforcing their ignorance…
Wayne Fitzgibbon, Thinking Differently | Read

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