Forum Fodder

Forum Fodder | Friday 23 October 2026

“I’m good at figuring out when there are problems in systems. I don’t see a systemic problem [in the AI boom]… This isn’t Pets.com.” - Scott Bessent, US Treasury secretary (21 October 2026)

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

Markets

19th Annual Markets Summit 2027
AEDT Wednesday 24 February 2027 | 7+ CE/CPD hrs | A$295+GST (Practitioner Early Bird)
Join us in our Live Studio, Live Site, or via Live Stream | Mark Your Diary!
Markets Summit 2027 will help you better understand the key drivers of and outlook for the markets and help you build better quality investor portfolios. More info

Markets

From AI boom to economic bust
By concentrating wealth and economic opportunities in a few cities while destroying the low-cost jobs that have historically fueled global development, AI could end up making much of the world poorer and more divided.
Ian Goldin, University of Oxford | Read

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

ABF fills the gaps in traditional fixed income
As investors navigate a new market regime, maintaining eyes on the prize means preserving investment objectives. Asset Based Finance is a powerful portfolio diversifier and a differentiated source of income, complimenting traditional direct lending.
Nicole Drapkin, Blue Owl Capital | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

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

Alternative Risk Premia is the only way forward for portfolios
Many of the traditional sources of diversification – including bonds, private markets and hedge funds – have become increasingly caught up in the same market forces. This makes alternative risk premia crucial in portfolios.
Hugh Selby-Smith, Talaria | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

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

The stories we tell ourselves are often wrong
Every era convinces itself it is living through something unprecedented. Noise and cognitive bias can distort our reading of the world – but a fresh lens reveals just how resilient the global economy really is.
Ric Deverell, Macquarie Group | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets

Market Signals: The earnings test is getting harder
The early earnings season confirms that the American economy retains considerable resilience. Yet financial markets are becoming considerably more selective about what constitutes a good result.
Nick Schoenmaker, Portfolio Construction Forum | 0.25 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

America’s looming debt reckoning
America’s fiscal position is increasingly looking like a train hurtling along a twisting mountain track. The start of a public-debt crisis is usually pretty straightforward. The end is much harder to predict.
Kenneth Rogoff, Harvard University | Read

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

The portfolio core is no longer the prize
Portfolio construction is moving beyond asset-class labels and deliberately selecting the exposures that matter most. Many of the most important portfolio decisions are no longer being made in traditional core allocations, but in the targeted exposures investors choose to build around them.
Arelis Agosto, Global X | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

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

Capturing the macro is the portfolio prize
Traditional strategic allocation frameworks may be too static for a macro backdrop that continues to evolve. Connecting macro signals to portfolio construction helps manage changing risks and opportunities and build portfolios with greater confidence and consistency.
Brian Griggs, Nuveen | 0.50 CE | Watch, Listen

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

Structural change demands a different role for active equities
Fundamental active equity allocations should be shorter term, tactical, alpha seeking allocations and/or focused on alpha generating strategies that help to reduce overall portfolio risk.
Tom King, Nanuk Asset Management | 0.25 CE | Watch, Listen

Strategies | Markets

Market Signals: Capital is no longer cheap
The most consequential development in financial markets is becoming the competition for capital. Governments are borrowing heavily, technology companies are raising extraordinary sums. … all while long-term government bond yields are approaching levels not seen in more than two decades.
Nick Schoenmaker, Portfolio Construction Forum | 0.25 CE | Read

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

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