This Backgrounder defines the terms "cyclical", "structural"" and "secular" and provides examples, in order to increase the clarity of debate about what's really driving markets.

PortfolioConstruction Forum Academy Summer Seminar 2015 featured four sessions. This Resources Kit contains the materials for preparing for the Seminar, as well as the presentation slides.

Who would have thought that six years after the GFC, most advanced economies would still be swimming in an alphabet soup?

New this week - BCA on geopolitics and investing (1.25cpd), Edessess on benchmarking, Priest on share buy backs, Gay on wage inflation, Griffen on Japan

New this week - BCA on geopolitics and investing (1.25cpd), Edessess on benchmarking, Priest on share buy backs, Gay on wage inflation, Griffen on Japan

Share repurchases have recently been receiving a lot of press, much of it critical. We see dividends and share repurchases as equal ways of returning excess free cash flow to business owners.

The consensus of FOMC participants expects core inflation to revert toward the 2% target over the next two years. I think they will be wrong.

The real distinction in retirement income philosophies is not about which are "safe" and which are not. It is whether risk is transferred or retained (and if retained, managed).

In an era when central bankers are supposed to be more open, collaborative, and communicative, why did the SNB decide to turn on a dime and shock the markets?

As long as policymakers can stay on course and avoid the policy mistakes of the late 1990s, the oil price collapse could prove more therapeutic than destructive.

The latest food for thought on the markets, strategies & investing...

The latest food for thought on the markets, strategies & investing...

Looking back over the last 40 years, it is clear that, in the next 20 years, successful asset owners and managers are going to listen to Einstein and stop making things too simple.

The latest food for thought on the markets, strategies & investing...

The latest food for thought on the markets, strategies & investing...

Statistics rarely tell the story clearly. With trial and error, I found that looking at three dimensions of performance assisted my interpretation.

Japan is not going to stop QE next year or the year after or the year after that. This is not Zimbabwe printing money. Japan is important to the global economy - what they do affects everything.

By calling an election now, Abe is betting that a further big fall in the yen - and a consequent further rise in the Nikkei - is no certainty. He may well be right.

The latest food for thought on the markets, strategies & investing...

The latest food for thought on the markets, strategies & investing...