The last few years have certainly been fruitful for some investors in the international space, with most markets showing meaningful gains. The future, however, may hold more uncertainty, with quantitative tightening and heightened geopolitical risks anticipated as we look ahead. In years gone by the response to failing markets and economies was that of fiscal

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After nearly a decade of incredibly easy monetary policy, the global interest rate cycle is turning. The US Federal Reserve has started to increase official interest rates and unwind quantitative easing and in Australia, although official interest rates are on hold, the next move is more likely to be up rather than down. So where

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As a new mother I have experienced a world entirely new to me. Other than the continuous lack of sleep, never have I been exposed to so much advertising and marketing on all the different baby products my child “absolutely, positively” needs.  Gasp! In some ways, the marketers of these products appear to be suggesting

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In the analysis below we have studied the performance of the BetaShares Active Australian Hybrids Fund (managed fund) (ASX:HBRD) from inception in November 2017 to 31 July 2018, against a range of alternatives. These include an ASX hybrids index published by index provider Solactive (which is the benchmark for HBRD), the fixed-rate Australian bond benchmark

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Sometime between 2008 and 2009, the number of devices connected to the internet surpassed the number of humans using it.  Today, there are close to 4 billion people with access to the internet, while the number of devices connected to the internet is over 8 billion.  By 2020 there will be 30 billion devices connected

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Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) have become popular investment options in recent years for Australian investors. An ETF is an open-ended fund which is bought or sold on the sharemarket just like any share and is generally designed to track the performance of an asset class or sector. They are known for their low management fees,

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This is the second part of my discussion on some of the things investors need to consider when choosing between active and passive investment strategies in their portfolios. In my last post a few weeks ago, I provided some definitions to help you understand the ‘lay of the land’. In this second post, I discuss some

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Many people tend to look at long-term investing as something that they would want to consider or action ‘one day’, but seldom do they realise that the first step to a long-term strategy can be taken today. A new movement called the Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement is well underway, picking up momentum as

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The World Cup has come to end and we have a new World Champion in France – sadly for England football did not “come home”. Rather than writing a piece that vainly attempts to justify why we did not successfully pick the winner (Germany and Spain were the resounding choices of the BetaShares office) we

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There have been enough debates, discussions and deliberations on what drives human behaviour. Theories have evolved and schools of thought have been devoted to the study of human motivation. Still, ages after Henry Ford designed the famous moving assembly line for manufacturing cars after studying people at work, although the studies of psychology and sociology

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