Behavioural analysis enables a deeper insight into fund performance and the identification of highly skilled managers capable of generating consistent investment alpha.

A market can absorb volatility for a long time. It can absorb headlines, short-term oil spikes, and contradictory policy signals. What is harder to absorb is a shift from price disruption to actual constraint.

AI has emerged as one of the most transformative technologies of the 21st century, offering remarkable capabilities in data processing, pattern recognition, and automation. This paper provides a useful discussion of the use of AI by investment funds.

The shift this week is subtle, but important. Markets are beginning to transition from a world where policy drives outcomes, to a world where physical constraints and geopolitical realities drive outcomes. The distinction matters.

Historically a feature of the medical and legal professions, oaths have become increasingly popular in promoting ethical practice in other occupations. The effectiveness in the financial advice context is the focus of this research paper.

The disruption in the Strait of Hormuz has forced markets to confront how dependent the global economy remains on physical infrastructure - shipping lanes, energy flows, and industrial supply chains. Yet equity indices have remained relatively resilient, suggesting investors still assume the disruption will prove temporary.

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.

Markets are not panicking. They are re-learning what uncertainty costs. The key signal is not that “something happened". It is that diversification is becoming more conditional. Those constructing portfolios need to be explicit about what they own, why they own it, and what they expect it to do when escalation risk becomes live.

ASIC's report on regulatory developments and issues affecting financial advice covers all areas of financial advice regulation relevant to Australian financial services (AFS) licensees.

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.

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.

This session explored two perspectives on the drivers of and outlook for Australian and global fixed income - The RBA's lower speed limit means lower interest rates, not higher; and, Unconscious and concentrated, it's no time to be passive.

As the RBA hikes rates to curb inflation due to a lower speed limit, should investors ultimately be expecting lower or higher bond yields?

We're witnessing a profound and transformation shift in markets and economies, marked by an end to globalisation and a focus on national priorities, intertwined with the drive for AI supremacy. This is not time to be inactive!

The dominance of passive investing and mega-cap concentration has created a widening structural opportunity in small-cap equities - the widest inefficiency in public equity markets and a compelling return outlook.

AI, geopolitical realignment, energy transition, and aging demographics are reshaping the world, creating opportunities for diversification and downside protection versus passive core portfolios overweight the 'old world'.

The valuation disconnect between REITs and broader equities is at levels only seen during the GFC, yet the underlying real estate fundamentals tell a very different story. It's time to ‘buy-the-dip’ in high quality global real estate.

A changing equity market structure is emerging, driven by changing investor behaviour and advances in AI - and global small-cap equities sit at the centre of this shift, as one of the last frontiers of inefficiency in public markets.

Powerful cyclical, secular and structural changes are reshaping the outlook for asset classes. This panel debated the outlook for real assets, global absolute return debt, and Australian and international private credit.

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.