Global equities had the worst monthly fall since May 2012 when the euro sovereign debt crisis and Grexit loomed large. The sell-off was sparked by rising bond rates, some disappointing earnings results in the US (more on outlook than numbers) and weaker global economic data. Sentiment worsened in ...

After a strong August performance, September saw a pull-back in most of our portfolios amid concerns surrounding trade tensions, China’s economic growth and the outlook for interest rates, as the US Federal Reserve hiked US interest rates by 25 basis points.

June continued to see positive returns across our portfolios, our Australian fund was up 2.3%, International up 1.3% and the tactical funds up between 0.3% and 0.9%. These returns were supported by a fall in the Australian dollar, which added significantly to performance in June.

May continued to see positive returns across our portfolios, our Australian fund was up 2% and the rest were up around 1% over the month. These returns came as protectionist trade rows flared and markets belatedly realised that European growth is slowing more sharply than expected - themes that we ...

April saw markets bounce back from a poor March, and our portfolios saw healthy gains with our international portfolio up 2.6% and both our Tactical Growth and Tactical Foundation funds rising 1.6%. International shares were aided again by a falling Australian dollar - over the last 3 months the ...

Our pitch to investors has been that by investing in a mix of quality and value stocks that you can avoid the worst of the market volatility. Our portfolios didn’t chase the market higher in January, and then made up ground in February with our direct international portfolio posting a 1.6% gain and ...

Given the events of the last week, it feels like performance for January is largely irrelevant. The headline is that the US market is down 10%+ from its peak a few short weeks ago, punctuated by two ~4% down days. But, the headline doesn’t mention the rapid rise in January, or that for Australian ...

Good news: Stock selection continues to support performance with our international portfolio outperforming a falling world market. Bad news: Statistically, December was the worst month so far for our Tactical Portfolios. Perspective: A 3-day fall in global shares (priced in AUD) between Christmas ...

One of our core investment themes is that international stocks are the best asset class for Australian investors at this point in the cycle. To date, this has been the right call, with our international portfolio increasing over 13% over the last 4 months on the back of a weak Australian dollar, ...