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.

Jonathan Pain, Author and Publisher of The Pain Report, is a regular key note presenter at Portfolio Construction Forum's continuing education programs. Over the years, he has debuted new investment theses and challenged delegates about how to build better quality investor portfolios...

What began as a disruption to energy flows is now transmitting through inflation expectations, bond markets, liquidity conditions, and cross-asset relationships. Importantly, the adjustment is not occurring in a linear way.

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

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.

There is a space in financial services that is often overshadowed by the noise of markets, products, and performance. It is the space where investing meets investors — the point where technical decisions collide with human consequences. This space is not defined by models or forecasts. It is defined by judgement, responsibility, and the way fiduciaries choose to show up for the people who rely on them. It is here, in this intersection, that the true work of a prudent adviser or consultant takes place.

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.

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

Following US President Trump ordering a strategic Bitcoin reserve be established, private companies, investment banks, and scholars have begun urging major central banks to do the same. The idea is not quite as far-fetched as it may seem.

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.

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

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.

Fortunately, the Fed chair is not an absolute monarch. Warsh will have only one vote out of 12 on the FOMC. That is good news for markets, given how misguided some of his stated positions are.

Established in 2009, Portfolio Construction Forum Markets Summit is THE investment markets scene setter of the year. It will help you better understand the key drivers of and outlook for the markets, and the opportunities and risks ahead on a three- to five-year view, to aid your search for return and to help them build better quality investor 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.

Markets Summit 2026 (Wed 25 Feb) helped delegates understand the key drivers of and outlook for the markets and help you build better quality investor portfolios. AI has kickstarted a fourth industrial revolution that will fundamentally change the way we work and live once more. Simultaneously, US President Trump is weaponising national economic policy and the US-China race for supremacy in AI and control of rare earths is adding further fuel to their titanic geopolitical struggle, reshaping the global geopolitical, economic and trade order. In short, immense societal and economic upheaval is upending the outlook for investment markets. It's a whole new world (again)!

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.

Powerful cyclical, secular and structural changes are reshaping the outlook for asset classes and opportunities abound for those able to reorientate investment portfolios accordingly. This panel debated the outlook for global equities and liquid alternatives.