The 2011 Portfolio Construction Forum Conference helped delegates better understand the key macro AND micro issues and what they mean for investor portfolios, to help them successfully navigate through the woods AND the trees. In this final Critical Issues Forum session, selected PortfolioConstruction Forum Academy members, Longview's Chris Watling and Tim Farrelly, principal of farrelly's Investment Strategy, give their key takeouts from the two-day program...

In this Critical Issues Forum session at the 2011 PortfolioConstruction Forum Conference, Amanda Gillespie, of fund research house Lonsec, provides a practical guide to integrating EM exposures in portfolios, including whether an active or passive approach is best, and what type of exposure is appropriate for different investors...

In this Critical Issues Forum session at the 2011 PortfolioConstruction Forum Conference, Dr Michael Hasenstab looks at how monetary policy and geopolitical events are impacting the challenges and opportunities facing global bond investors. Chris Watling then argues we're in a long-term, secular equities bear cycle, and what that means for equities investing...

Why China's leaders will struggle to maintain economic growth (the main source of Communist Party legitimacy) while managing the growing expectations of its population...

In this Critical Issues Forum session at the 2011 PortfolioConstruction Forum Conference, Peter Elston looks at to the appropriate use of active share to measure how active an active fund manager REALLY is, before Scott Bennett re-visits the case for active management and the characteristics that can help discern skill from luck...

In this Critical Issues Forum session at the 2011 PortfolioConstruction Forum Conference, Del Stafford highlights highlights the current and emerging applications of ETFs in portfolios. Scott Burns discusses the intricacies of ETFs as they move farther away from the ETFs that typify the Australian ETF landscape...

Dr Woody Brock, Alan Brown (Schroders), Gregor Andrade (AQR Capital), Hamish Douglass (Magellan), Chris Selth (Five Oceans) and Chris Watling (Longview), discuss the key macro and micro issues we cannot of afford to lose sight of when constructing portfolios...

The debt side of portfolios used to be the easy part of portfolio construction - but not these days! This Sector Insight summarises key themes and ratings from the recent Australian fixed interest sector review by Standard & Poor's Fund Services...

There are three key reasons why it is prudent to reduce commodities allocations and redistribute some of that allocation into equities - and in particular, western equities...

We asked: What, in your firm's view, is one of the big challenges facing the Australian funds research industry at present?

Australian residential property does not behave like other investment classes. Why? And what does that mean for forecasting returns?

The Academy Winter Seminar 2011 debates the following three topics in a Socratic learning environment: How to build a framework for assessment of niche exposures in a portfolio; How to incorporate value strategies in equity portfolios; and, How to analyse investment scenarios and their implications for portfolios...

Post 1 July, New Zealand's financial advisers will be held to far greater account for the portfolios they build for clients - and this comes at a time when global investment markets are more volatile than at any other time in the past 20 years, and likely to remain so for years. Investment Symposium 2011 will help you better understand the pillars for building better quality investor portfolios...

We asked the research houses: What asset classes / product types does your firm include under the 'alternatives' label? Why? How many strategies/funds do you rate in each?

Is this the time to be buying or selling international equities?

Fueling fears of a China bubble is the rapid rise in prices of its residential property market in many of its key cities. Structurally, however, while residential house prices may be vulnerable near term, over the long term, the uptrend would appear to be underpinned...

The Academy Autumn Seminar 2011 will debate the following three topics in a Socratic learning environment: How to judge whether a manager will or has added value; Is investing post-retirement different?; and, How to spot global trends and draw investment inferences from them...

The question of whether China is a bubble is critical for strategic asset allocation, for the outlook for emerging markets, for the future strength of global economic growth, and in determining how much longer the commodity super cycle is likely to continue...

Concern about investment bubbles is at unprecedented levels. Markets Summit 2011 helped delegates decide what is and what is not, a bubble - and what that means for constructing investor portfolios...

We asked the research houses: Of the 15,000 managed funds on offer in the Australian market, how do you determine which ones you will rate?