We asked Keith to look ahead 10 to 20 years, and explain to delegates at the recent 3rd Annual PortfolioConstruction Conference what big political, social and economic trends will impact on markets, and how they should position long-term portfolios now, for best results in the future…
We saved the best for last at the recent 3rd annual PortfolioConstruction Conference. Graham Rich, publisher of PortfolioConstruction Forum, led a panel of four investment 'gurus', as they debated and offered up their best best for 2005...
Financial advisers should be doing more to be actively involved in placement of investments into property, according to specialist property investment research house Property Investment Research. In a recently released Market Review, PIR argues the case for property allocations to be as high as 40% in a portfolio...
Active management is proportionately more important now than it ever has been, and new and viable types of active return are emerging, argued David Brown, QIC's senior fund manager strategy at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. Here are images of David's presentation slides, with full notes...
Active Australian equity fund managers can and do outperform, but international managers struggle to do so, contended John Elfverson, ASX manager quantitative analysis market information at at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. Here are images of John's presentation slides, with full notes...
A key focus of each Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable program is the question & answer time where our Inquisitors grill the presenters - in this case, QIC's David Brown and ASX's John Elfverson - on the topic - in this case, active vs passive management of international equities...
I'm not sure we got an answer to the question "Should international equities be actively or passively managed?" - at the last Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable meeting of 2003...
2004 will be a battle between rising interest rates and a highly leveraged US economy, predicted Tim Ridley, manager diversified funds for Alliance Capital at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. On balance, Ridley supported an underweight allocation to international equities for 2004. Here are full notes plus images of his slides (the actual Powerpoint file is also available)...
Presenters at a Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable program aren't able to "hit and run"! A key focus of each program is question & answer time for each topic addressed. Firstly, our Inquisitors grill the presenters of the topic - in this case BT's Callum Burns and Alliance Capital's Tim Ridley - then, after some discussion amongst themselves, the researcher attendees take over the questioning...
US company profits are growing and in a way that is relatively sustainable, contended Callum Burns, head of global asset allocation at BT Funds Management, at December's Portfolio Construction Forum Researchers' Roundtable. For this and other reasons, Burns supported an overweight allocation to international equities for 2004. Here are images of Callum's presentation slides, with full notes...
When will the Australian Taxation office issue product rulings, and under what circumstances does it withdraw them? These were two of the issues canvassed by Gary Hammersley, national business manager with the ATO when speaking at the recent Lonsec Agribusiness Conference. Hammersley contends the ATO tries to look at issues from the taxpayers perspective...
The bigger the better, right? Fund size, that is. The sentiment is understandable, but those adhering to it might be disappointed. Conventional wisdom in the funds industry suggests that the larger the fund, the harder it is to achieve excess returns, and a recent paper from Lazard suggests this is more true for growth managers, than value managers...
Delegate feedback from our second annual conference - THE Investment Conference 2003 on 18/19 August 2003 in Sydney - was very, very positive. And with 50 investment experts presenting during 30 sessions over the two days, it was in the words on one delegate "no junket". Critical Issues Forum presentations can be accessed via this article...
As our opening keynote at THE Investment Conference 2003 (18/19 August 2003), we asked Don Stammer, independent chairman of the PC Forum Asset Allocation Board, to provide a context for our two day program, by looking ahead to 2010 and hypothesising as to what the global economic landscape will look like, identifying the big political, social and economic trends ahead, and describing what they mean in terms of positioning portfolios today for the future...
This was the standout, most popular session of THE Investment Conference 2003 presented by PC Forum on 18/19 August 2003, earning a stunning 4.7 out of 5.0 average rating across all delegates. As our day 2 opening keynote, independent strategist Jonathan Pain looked at investment theory, its history, its relevance and what current valuation models imply for future returns. He argued we need to radically alter the way we construct portfolios, if we are to build portfolios that are in our client's best interests - and then walked us through what this means for the conventional asset management model...
Most asset allocation processes require you to decide asset class returns and volatility. In a (increasingly heated!) debate at THE Investment Conference 2003 (18/19 August 2003), carefully selected investment experts "dropped their trousers" and showed us their income, growth, and total returns expectations over the next year, and the risks to them...
Most managers shy away from forecasting currencies - but for a session at THE Investment Conference 2003 (18/19 August 2003), we uncovered a few brave souls who were willing to put their necks on the block, addressing issues like "can the A$ keep going up, and if so, how much?", "Is the US$ losing its supremacy, and what effect would this have on world markets?" and "Which currencies may emerge in its place?"...
Most of us hear "property" and think "listed". At THE Investment Conference 2003 (18/19 August 2003), we devoted a session to challenging this assumption. Is listed property really an asset class? What diversification does it provide in a portfolio? And if it's so great, why don't researchers and fund managers allocate more to it? Fund managers have begun going offshore for property - what benefits does that bring to a portfolio?...
What should your asset allocation models look like going forward? Is strategic and tactical asset allocation past its "use by" date? Proponents of different asset allocation approaches argued their merits and weaknesses at THE Investment Conference 2003 (18/19 August 2003)...
