Strategies Conference 2018 (22/23 August 2018) has been assessed and accredited by Portfolio Construction Forum for Forum CE hours. Delegates must confirm their attendance in order to receive CE acceditation.

This week in Forum Fodder: Professor Joseph Stiglitz - The myth of secular stagnation: Tim Farrelly - Find me some uncorrelated assets!; Woody Brock - Today's flattening yield curve, what does it imply?; Nick Griffin - Future proofed portfolios need growth equities...

The Conexus Absolute Returns Conference 2018 (19-20 September 2018) has been assessed and accredited by Portfolio Construction Forum for Forum CE hours. Delegates must confirm their attendance in order to receive CE acceditation.

Now in its 12th year, the annual IMR Conference presents investment management research. It brings together the full spectrum of investment management analysts - academic faculty from leading university business schools, public sector members, central bankers, professional investors, consultants and experienced practitioners and advocates.

There are many lessons to be learned as we reflect on the 2008 crisis, but the most important is that the challenge was – and remains – political, not economic. Secular stagnation was just an excuse for flawed economic policies.

This week in Forum Fodder: Nouriel Roubini - The makings of a 2020 financial crisis; Tassos Stassopoulos - Culture not companies dictate investment trends; Graham Rich - the Forum’s submission to FASEA on CPD; Ron Bird - Small portfolios are beautiful; Gopi Karunakaran - Bonds no longer a reliable risk diversifier.

In the 1950s, Markowitz showed that low or negative correlation is the secret sauce that makes diversification work. While his maths stacks up, the way it is often abused, does not.

As we mark the decennial of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, there are still ongoing debates about the causes and consequences of the GFC. By 2020, conditions will be ripe for a new financial crisis.

The KangaNews Corporate Debt Summit 2018 (12 Sep 2018) has been assessed and accredited by Portfolio Construction Forum for Continuing Education (CE/CPD) hours. Delegates must confirm their attendance in order to receive CE accreditation.

Portfolio Construction Forum's 23-page submission to FASEA in response to its proposed guidance on future CPD explains why the proposal is fundamentally flawed, and falls well short of any reasonable community expectation of FASEA and what drove its formation.

Markowitz informed us of the risk-reduction advantages of diversification. But just how diversified does an investor have to be to realise almost all of the benefits of diversification?

The Conexus Equities Summit 2018 (11 September 2018) has been assessed and accredited by Portfolio Construction Forum for Forum CE hours. Delegates must confirm their attendance in order to receive CE acceditation.

The Conexus Group Insurance Summit (28 August 2018) has been assessed and accredited by Portfolio Construction Forum for Forum CE hours. Delegates must confirm their attendance in order to receive CE acceditation.

This week in Forum Fodder: Graham Rich - FASEA fails on CPD; Amin Rajan - Crystal balls; Rudi Minbatiwala - Future-proof portfolios achievable; Tony Crescenzi - Guard against pessimism; Stephen Anness - Electric cars not game changing.

The fallacy that an inverted yield curve "predicts" the onset of recessions is alive and well. Many investors believe the curve will invert in 2019, precipitating a recession. But a flattening of the yield curve need not imply a recession.

In the cyber world today, we are somewhere around World War I. There are more than 30 nations with effective cyber forces. Practitioners need to understand the threat cyber weapons pose to markets and investments.

The People's Republic of China (PRC) invests heavily in high technology research. While the world will certainly benefit from the PRC's technological ambition, it also has challenging implications.

Machine learning algorithms are no match for the human brain when it comes to deciding how investment portfolios should be constructed.

Investors like to have their cake and eat it - i.e., they like investment returns (the higher the better) but dislike volatility (particularly negative returns). It is possible to engineer investment returns that meet those requirements.

A disciplined, scenarios-based approach to determining your views on the outlook for markets and the asset allocation implications can help future-proof portfolios. This hypothetical Investment Committee meeting considers the asset allocation implications of three scenarios.