Investment returns usually correspond to the risk level, but the holy grail for investors has always been assets with an easy passive income stream while taking low risks. Rarely the market provides a free lunch and generally follows the trend that high risk means high returns. Many structural products are engineered and designed to look like low risk […]
ASX Growth Shares – Try to Keep up with the momentum
As growth becomes scarce in the low-interest environment, investors have been piling into a select group of shares, pushing them up relative to the rest of the market. Growth shares are shares of companies growing revenues and earnings faster than the rest of the market as investors realize growth companies as a group have out […]
Australia Fixed Income Market
Australia Corporate Loan Market The Australia lending market is traditionally dominated by the big 4 Australian banks. Pre-GFC foreign banks and the securitization market took market share however the capital market options were eliminated during the subsequent credit crunch. Recently following APRA’s tightening of bank capital requirements, non-bank lenders came back to the market, particularly […]
ASX Debt Funds
There has been a rush for investors pilling in to debt funds in the current low interest environment. Before the market falls, major global credit investors such as Partners Group and KKR were raising credit funds from retail investors on the ASX. Retail is chasing yield and usually it is the cheapest cost of capital […]
Variable interest on demand notes
We don’t own that much retail in our portfolio with the exception of Woolworths. Wholefoods provides an interest angle to play the natural/organic food retail segment, and it looks especially attractive given the negative sentiment the market has on the stock. When we were looking at the most recent annual report, the table below shows that […]
Market volatility best measureby by the VIX index
What is the VIX? VIX is a derived from the implied volatility of the at the money options on the S&P 500 index. In the simplest sense, there are various factors used in black scholes option pricing from the value of the underlying, strike price of the option, interest rate, dividends and volatility. VIX can be […]
Is Australia Credit Rating downgrade important?
The Australian government is currently rated with the highest credit rating, AAA by Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s and equivalent by Fitch. There have been commentary that the uncertainty from the recent Australia parliamentary election could put Australia’s credit rating at risk. However we do not consider the loss of top tier rating would pose any […]
Copper Prices per Pound, Kilo and Tonne
Copper is commonly known as”Dr Copper” because it can act as a key indicator on the health of the global economy. This is due to the pervasive use of the commodity throughout manufacturing, construction and infrastructure. The copper price peaked in 2011 driven by China’s economic stimulus and has been declining ever since. AUDUSD has a high level […]
2018 Silver and Gold Price Prediction – Follow the US Dollar
Gold has had a pretty good year so far. We have no pretense on where the value of gold per ounce at will be either by year end or next year. While analyst like to compress valuation to a single number i.e buy price targets, Investment is not an exact science. We have made a number of predictions […]
Investment Trends
Matrix below shows the absolute and relative return of various asset classes over the last 20 years. The only noticeable trend is that asset class returns goes in cycles where once it run hot for a period of time. Returns will eventually mean revert. Case example: MSCI Emerging Market had a great run from 2003 to […]
Atlassian IPO (TEAM) – What you need to know
The technology sector is one key area of focus for us. This can be surprising to some as given the name of the website. We have been keenly watching the US tech IPO markets as the new generation of disruptors become public corporations. There has been much hype but the post IPO performance have been wanting. […]
Online Share Trading – ASX and International Stocks
We have been investing for a number of years and used a number of brokers. Most online share trading services in Australia are very similar. From Comsec to E Trade, these are the typical online discount brokers which provides a no frills self service and direct access to the ASX. We have a different approach […]
ASX EX Dividend Date – 2015
ASX Corporate Bond (XTBs)
One of the weakness of the Australian capital market is the lack of fixed income options for investors. Recently, bonds have become an option for individual investors on the ASX. There are ASX ETFs that invests exclusively in bonds however these are really government funds and given the cost of managing a bond portfolio. We felt […]