Traditional long-only active management is failing investors. Decades of evidence show that the average active manager underperforms the market after fees. The challenge is intensifying as data proliferates, compute becomes cheaper, and markets become increasingly concentrated. A new approach is required. Systematic investing harnesses vast datasets and quantitative models to identify and exploit market inefficiencies at scale. Its disciplined, rules-based process dramatically expands research bandwidth while reducing behavioural bias. Active extension goes further, investing more in the most attractive opportunities while generating returns from the least attractive through short positions. Empirical evidence shows that systematic active-extension strategies have historically outperformed traditional long-only active managers by significant margins, both in Australia and globally. That is the prize!

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.

Markets returned to record highs during the past week, but the most important development was not in equities. It was in the bond market. For much of the post-financial-crisis period, central banks were the dominant influence on the cost of capital. Increasingly, the bond market is reclaiming that role.

Food for thought and CE from Portfolio Construction Forum

Markets experienced one of the most violent reversals of the artificial-intelligence cycle during the past week, but the most important development was not the fall itself. It was what happened next.

The purpose of investing is not simply to accumulate wealth. The real "prize" is financial wellbeing. As Yogi Berra famously observed: "If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else." Eyes on the prize! Strategies Summit 2026 (Wed 19 Aug) will challenge and refresh your portfolio construction thinking through robust debate of contemporary and emerging strategies to help you build better quality portfolios.

Markets have absorbed an extraordinary amount of bad news without suffering an equally extraordinary decline. That resilience has been supported by strong economic and corporate fundamentals. The problem is that resilience is now widely expected.

CIMA Society Asia Pacific is the community of practice for investment and wealth professionals in the Asia Pacific. We advance knowledge and collaboration among those involved in any aspect of constructing and/or giving advice on multi-asset, multi-manager investment portfolios. We welcome new Associate Members.

For much of the AI boom, markets rewarded scale. The debate is shifting from investment to productivity, from infrastructure to monetisation and from technological capability to economic return.

Food for thought and CE from Portfolio Construction Forum

The next phase of the cycle may not be determined by who spends the most capital. It may be determined by who earns the highest return on that capital. That is a more demanding environment. It is also a healthier one.

For the past two years, investors have focused almost exclusively on scarcity. That scarcity mindset created extraordinary winners. This week the conversation evolved from scarcity to scrutiny.

The market still believes in the AI supercycle. But it is beginning to ask harder questions about price, funding, margins, energy, inflation and return on invested capital.

What's new with our live and on-demand continuing education, accreditation and certification programs.

This week was a test of how markets process conflicting signals. Markets again showed how quickly they are willing to move past geopolitical risk when the AI capital cycle remains intact.

The market remains willing to fund transformational growth. SpaceX proved that. But SpaceX is not merely an IPO. It is a market structure event.

One of the most remarkable features of the current market cycle is that capital is no longer simply chasing growth. Increasingly, growth is chasing capital. The next phase of the cycle may be determined not by the capabilities of artificial intelligence, but by the capacity of financial markets to fund it.

Food for thought and CE from Portfolio Construction Forum

Markets continue pricing artificial intelligence as a productivity revolution. Increasingly, it is also becoming a capital cycle, influencing how capital is allocated throughout the global economy.

What's new with our live and on-demand continuing education, accreditation and certification programs.