Forum Fodder

Forum Fodder | Friday 09 October 2026

Firmus’ stumbles shouldn’t be regarded as the popping of the massive AI bubble. The investment into AI infrastructure globally is still surging… This is indeed a Firmus-specific issue. - Eric Johnston, Associate Editor, The Australian (09 Oct 2026)

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

Markets

Why is the global economy so resilient?
Despite the rising risks, uncertainties, and large negative supply shocks of the last two years, stock markets and the overall global economy have held up quite well. What explains the global economy’s apparent resilience?
Nouriel Roubini, Macro Associates | Read

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

Eyes on the prize! Implementation matters!
This session first considered how practitioners can apply multi-lens analysis via AI to decide their key takeouts and next steps from Strategies Summit 2026. Then, our Practitioner Panel discussed which high conviction thesis they heard at Strategies Summit they would investigate further, why, and how.
Anthea Roberts & Practitioner Panel | 2.00 CE | Watch, Listen

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

TPA wins the prize in a world of structural change!
Powerful structural forces are reshaping the world as we know it. Capturing the opportunities resulting from structural trends, and managing the risks emerging from them can only be achieved through a Total Portfolio Approach.
Nick White, Mercer | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

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

Life cycle balanced portfolios thrive in changing markets
The forces of innovation and disruption, and changes in investors’ discount rates, drive significant rotations in markets. A corporate life cycle approach provides a balanced global equity core portfolio that can perform through changing markets.
Chris Parr, Life Cycle Investment Partners | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets

Bonds cannot do every defensive job
The current regime is defined by a wide distribution of macro outcomes - and the risk that the next drawdown impairs government bonds, the asset expected to cushion portfolios. The solution is not to abandon government bonds, it is to broaden sources of defence and return.
Nick Schoenmaker, Portfolio Construction Forum | 0.50 CE | Read

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

After the AI bubble bursts
Just as debt markets fuelled the global financial near meltdown that followed from that crisis, their exposure to AI will drive developments now. The problem is that we possess only very limited public information about those markets.
Barry Eichengreen, University of California | Read

Investing | Finology | Philosophy | As seen at Strategies Summit 2026

There’s both an art and science to being good at being wrong
By understanding the investment behaviours of stock market “maestros”, practitioners can identify highly skilled fund managers and improve their own portfolio construction decisions, better equipping them to deliver the ultimate “prize” for clients - financial wellbeing.
Clare Flynn Levy, Essentia Analytics | 0.75 CE | Watch, Listen, Read

Strategies | Markets | Investing As seen at Strategies Summit 2026

Sports, media and entertainment is too compelling to ignore?
Supported by durable long-term growth trends and a history of low correlation to traditional markets, the full SME opportunity is too compelling for investors to ignore.
Jeevan Sagoo, Ares Management | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Investing | As seen at Strategies Summit 2026

Equal-weighting your best ideas wins the compounding prize
Every active portfolio holds two bets: selection, which is measured, and sizing, which is merely asserted. Decades of evidence show naive equal weighting is remarkably hard to beat.
Brian Arcese, Foord Asset Management | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets

Market Signals: The hurdle rate is moving higher
The market has entered an unusual phase. Growth is still relatively strong. Earnings remain supportive. AI investment remains powerful. The hurdle rate for almost every investment is rising. This is not yet a conventional risk-off environment. It is a repricing of what capital is worth.
Nick Schoenmaker, Portfolio Construction Forum | 0.25 CE | Read

Markets

Don’t mess with markets
Intervening in financial markets is a fool’s game - yet many seem incapable of internalising that lesson. So it is with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as he seeks to manipulate currency and bond markets.
Stephen Roach, Yale University | Read

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Summit 2026

Volatility strategies win the prize in this uncertain world
While often overlooked by investors, volatility as an asset class is driven by a genuine risk-transfer premium and is therefore intuitive, attractive and – importantly - sustainable despite these macro changes. To make portfolios more resilient while still meeting return targets and delivering investors peace-of-mind (Eyes on the Prize!), volatility is worth exploring.
Mattias Soderberg, SouthPeak Investment Management | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets | As seen at Strategies Summit 2026

Forget 60/40 and instead arbitrage for real alpha
The shift from low inflation and negative stock-bond correlations is structural and has rendered conventional multi-asset diversification inadequate. Practitioners must look beyond public markets and directional risk. Non-directional digital asset derivatives takes the prize, providing resilience essential for multi-asset portfolios.
Clint Maddock, Digital Asset Funds Management | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Investing

Research Review: The problem of past performance
When making decisions, we all look at past outcomes as one input. This paper questions the appropriateness of the common methods of measuring investment manager performance and suggests we should focus on measures that are of more relevance to actual investor outcomes.
Ron Bird, Australian National University | 1.00 CE | Read

Strategies | Markets

Market Signals: The bottleneck has moved to capacity
The AI revolution may ultimately create abundance. The current investment regime is being defined by the scarcity encountered while building it. The next phase of the cycle will be determined by which assets own productive capacity and which assets can finance it.
Nick Schoenmaker, Portfolio Construction Forum | 0.50 CE | Read

Forum CE Library - over 1,000 CE/CPD hours
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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

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