Whilst a number of Australian investors derive the majority of income from their share portfolios from the 20 largest companies on the ASX, there can be significant benefits to diversifying away from these shares and looking at the remaining 180 companies that make up the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Indeed, recent reductions in dividends and the

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With the Australian ETF industry recently hitting a record $31B in assets, made up mostly of net new money rather than due to an increase in market value, we are now starting to see a new wave of savvy investors adopting ETFs as core building blocks in their portfolios. For these new investors, or just

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Should you hold individual bonds and “do it yourself” or a diversified bond fund/ETF? One commonly held belief in investing is that holding individual bonds entails less risk than bond funds, due to the return of principal at maturity. Is this correct? If so, does it matter? Ultimately, it depends on the role bonds play

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Exchange traded funds (ETPs) are an excellent option for those new to investing, due to a number of key advantages over other instruments: • Low cost • Liquidity • Potential for diversification • Low minimum investment amount • Wide range of investment choices available These advantages also make ETPs attractive vehicles for various trading and

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With the Australian Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) industry just shy of $30B in assets and ETFs now being more actively traded than stocks in the US*, it’s unsurprising that more and more investors are starting to adopt ETFs as core building blocks of their portfolios. One reason why this trend may be set to continue

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This is the second post in a series I am doing, in which I provide answers to the questions I most frequently get from investors and advisers on ETFs – trying to separate fact from fiction! In my first post, I provided answers to some commonly asked questions around ETF liquidity. In this post, I

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There’s no doubt exchange traded funds (ETFs) are shaking up the wealth industry across the world, including Australia, and, as such have naturally attracted their fair share of friends and detractors in the process.  As a relatively new product in Australia, it’s also understandable that many investors are still learning to sort through the many

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A claim currently receiving renewed attention in the long-contested active versus passive investment debate is that the apparent outperformance of passive investment strategies is largely cyclical, and usually only takes place in the late stages of a bull market.  This note, however, argues that while there may well be an element of cyclicality in passive

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Due to the strong growth and popularity of the ETF industry, ETFs receive a large amount of media coverage. While most of this coverage is positive and constructive, there are always a few ‘rogue’ articles (often written by active fund managers) which aim to point out the “dangers” of investing in these products. The primary

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Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are well known for their low cost and diversification benefits, however, their level of liquidity and ability to closely track the price of the underlying securities they hold are advantageous for investors but tend to be less well known and sometimes misunderstood. To understand how ETFs maintain this ability, it is

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