Economic Overview The geopolitical risks that dominated for much of 2019 faded in Q4, supporting global share markets. Trade uncertainty faded with the US and China’s phase one trade deal announcement, while economic data remained stable. The trade deal, signed on January 15 means planned new tariffs will not be imposed, while US tariffs imposed […]
Balance, and finding balance. It evokes pictures of rocks stacked upon each other at the beach. It’s something of an ongoing search for time crunched people. How they can bring balance to various aspects of their lives? There are endless self-help books and articles to read about it, but plenty are still aggrieved about their […]
Farming is a tough business. One that almost seems in perpetual crisis. While we’re well aware of the drought disaster that has plagued Australian farmers, it’s seemingly no better in the world’s largest economy. Almost a decade of economic expansion hasn’t benefited America’s small farmers. A recent article in Time magazine highlighted how poor things are for […]
It may only be over 100 years ago, but life in the 1900’s would be considered brutal by today’s standards. The bubonic plague was killing people in major Australian cities. Lights in your home might be candle or gas. Fridge, well that didn’t exist. Indoor plumbing? If you were lucky. If you examined the list […]
Alpha. In an investment sense it means how much better your returns were against a specific benchmark. If you were holding an ASX small cap fund and it returned 12% while the ASX small cap index returned 10%, your alpha is 2%. This can also work in reverse. Your fund returns 8% while the index […]