When just about every asset price trends upwards, and episodic falls in market prices are quickly reversed, risk management is unrewarded. But the world has changed and portfolio risk management is now critical.

Established in 2002, Strategies Conference is THE portfolio construction strategies conference of the year. Presented each August, the program features 50+ carefully selected leading investment thinkers who will challenge and refresh your portfolio construction thinking by debating contemporary and emerging portfolio construction strategies, for you to consider applying in practice to build better quality portfolios.

Focussing on what we know about the world we live in and figuring out what it might mean for investing is much less glamourous and newsworthy than the prediction game, but it's potentially more rewarding.

The three biggest crashes in US stock markets occurred in October and there have been other significant October falls over the past 100 years. While common sense suggests the "October Effect" is nothing more than market folklore, should it be ignored?

Owning or not owning 4% of the global equity market is not going to make or break any portfolio. As for being too big to ignore? It's nuts and you can clearly see it's nuts.

We are living in the middle of a major societal shift towards not just the use of, but the reliance, dependence and advancement of our lives being built on technology that seeks to emulate us, mimic us and envelope us.

AI has been described as important a lever for detaching economic growth from population growth as the steam engine. Companies that don't use AI to remake their business simply don't have a place in today's portfolios.

Three gigantic, global, interconnected risks have the potential to upend the world as we know it. Investors who understand these will be better positioned to successfully navigate the uncertainty plaguing our world.

At a time when "you can do anything", there are meaningful implications and opportunities for portfolio rebalancing and investors still structurally underweight bonds need to put aside recency bias and "do something" - now.

Yield premium over comparable liquid markets, control, upfront economics and low historical volatility and default rates make private credit an asset class to consider for a core allocation in investors' portfolios.

As markets become narrow and expensive, core, growth and quality portfolios are converging. This presents risks for many portfolios but a great opportunity for valuation-focused investors.

Every day, every one of us is touched by infrastructure and, the longer we live, the more billions of us there are, and the more we need infrastructure. Demand for essential infrastructure offers opportunities for investors.

Global small caps may be rewarded by the markets going forward supported by faster expected earnings growth and compelling valuations relative to large cap equities.

Opinions about private markets are often not rooted in facts, due in part to the fact that data on private markets has been scarce. But data is available and it debunks some of the common misconceptions about private markets.

The unique characteristics of private debt make it ideal for any portfolio, fitting in either the defensive or growth component of a portfolio – or even both at the same time.

Brokers hire a great many analysts to write and publish detailed analysis on corporate earnings forecasts. It's right to focus on earnings, but the level of delivered growth is less important than the surprise in growth (positive or negative).

The transition a net zero emission economy offers risks and opportunities for investors. Infrastructure is a simple way to benefit from the transition to a net zero emission economy and represents a multi-decade growth opportunity.

Today, many of the leading companies servicing emerging market economies have superior earnings growth to developed market peers, with many trading even cheaper than at the height of the Covid market turmoil.

Investment-grade corporate bonds can improve portfolio risk-adjusted returns. A focus on the highest quality global corporate bonds will provide opportunities for investors to capture future income, as well as add a defensive anchor within portfolios.

The primary criticism directed at those who think about the future is that it's an act of futility. But thinking about how the future may unfold has proven to be a useful way to make decisions amidst radical uncertainty.

Private Equity pooled returns have been attractive while also less volatile than investing in a single fund or fund-of-funds. Enabling investors to "buy the private market" would complement portfolios just like in public markets.

As professionals we need to stand with our clients and share our voice to ensure risk-aware approaches part of our investment landscape.

The Investing Roundtable explored key challenges and opportunities that practitioners should be thinking about when building quality multi-asset, multi-manager portfolios.

Markets have undergone a regime shift - to prosper, we need to understand the factors that will be crucial to building multi-asset portfolios capable of delivering financial wellbeing in the years ahead.

Strategies Conference 2023 "You can do anything, just not everything!" will challenge and refresh your portfolio construction thinking by debating contemporary and emerging portfolio construction strategies, to help you build better quality portfolios. Join us Wed-Thu 23-24 August 2023 at the live studio, a live site or via live stream.

Achieving equity like returns with much lower risk and equivalent liquidity is the holy grail that is now on offer from high yield.

For the first two decades of their life, hedged funds produced outstanding returns on average. For the past 20 years, it's not been so good. In this Spotlight, we review the reasons why, and whether there are any hedge funds worthy of inclusion in portfolios.

As economies slow, fixed income will once again provide portfolio diversification, allowing practitioners to focus on capturing long-term trends such as climate change and artificial intelligence.

As we move into an era which is both more inflationary and more volatile, asset allocators will need to adapt in order to deliver returns. A dynamic and unconstrained approach to asset allocation will become essential.

Until the early 1950s, investing was an art. Then, along came the publication of work undertaken by Harry Markowitz (1952). Over a 20-year period, this played the primary role in moving investing from an art to a science.

Gold has fascinated investors and analysts for decades. But it is a poor hedge against inflation over meaningful time horizons, and it is close to its highest real price in 800 years.

farrelly's Investment Strategy provides subscription and consulting tools and services to enable a dynamic, forward-looking approach to asset allocation, a key driver of quality portfolio construction and quality results for investors...

The arguments for and against active and passive management are much more nuanced than is often suggested by proponents on either side. In this Spotlight, we review the hard facts as represented by the S&P Index Versus Active (SPIVA) data, which farrelly’s views as the definitive database on active management.

Active management has consistently delivered outperformance in small companies as the opportunity set allows managers to demonstrate both stock selection and portfolio construction skill.

Only buy High Yield Debt when it is super cheap? It's nuts and you can clearly see it's nuts.

CRE Debt provides dependable returns, backed by real property first mortgages. On a risk-adjusted return basis, every balanced portfolio should include an allocation to CRE debt.

The energy transition represents the greatest economic opportunity since the industrial revolution. Reliably capturing the potential and delivering tangible environmental impact requires three core beliefs.

Unlisted assets provide access to a bigger opportunity set that reflects active management in its truest form, giving opportunity for investment managers to further diversify multi asset portfolios with rich investments across diverse industries.

A partial allocation of retirement savings to a contemporary lifetime income stream can help increase the certainty of delivering what the income that retiree clients want. And such an allocation can help clients preserve assets.

Retirement strategies must adapt in line with markets and demographics trends and the additional risks that are relevant for investors in decumulation.

A critical part of any retirement plan is a spending plan (which is not the same as a budget). Ultimately, a good spending plan helps keep clients' investments on track.

Investors need to leverage the experience of past decades while also humbly contemplating an uncertain outlook. Compared to any post-WWII period, this time really is different!

Inclusion of private equity as an alternative asset in portfolios is an out-of-date approach that does not consider secular trends in companies staying private and the unfolding democratisation of PE.

Our diverse panel of experts debated which of the high conviction propositions they heard during Markets Summit 2023 they most strongly agreed with and why, including identifying "silver linings" (investment opportunities not yet fully priced into the market) and which they disagreed with most and why - and the portfolio construction implications of both.

There was plenty of food for thought and grist for the investment portfolio mill, coming out of the recent Markets Summit 2023 "Every VUCA cloud has a silver lining!".

Established in 2009, Markets Summit is THE investment markets scene setter of the year. For the first time in decades, an inflationary gale is rattling financial markets. Many post-GFC tailwinds have gone into reverse. This once-in-a-career regime shift poses many challenges for portfolio construction practitioners. The high VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) market environment continues! Yet, opportunities abound for who reorientate portfolios accordingly. Every VUCA cloud has a silver lining! Markets Summit 2023 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 you build better quality investor portfolios.

This lecture argues that a diversified portfolio of core fixed income securities is an essential component of an optimal multi-asset portfolio. What's your philosophy?

Value investing has proven successful over time but it requires discipline and a long-run horizon - and disagreement remains over whether the value premium will persist. What's your philosophy?

This Spotlight finds that High Yield Debt can be a very useful addition to most investors' portfolios, producing returns that are close to those of Equities, but with lower risk. Read the full report.

This Spotlight highlights that High Yield Debt can be a very useful addition to most investors' portfolios, producing returns that are close to those of Equities, but with lower risk. Read the abridged report.