Analysis

APRA’s orthodoxy on scale and its importance to funds has been disputed by all comers, with “massive and passive” a common refrain. But the regulator is hoping to prove that bigger really is better. One of the more controversial moments of Helen Rowell’s career as APRA’s superannuation executive was the claim that any fund below…

Fifteen years ago, Thomas Friedman said that globalisation had finally made the world “flat” and that a golden age of prosperity was upon us. A month ago, that stopped being true. Love him or loathe him (and many lean towards the latter), Thomas Friedman occasionally hits the nail on the head. In his 2005 book…

In a world where the fundamentals of long-term market dynamics have “lost relevancy”, institutional investors are pondering a wall of worry – and having trouble figuring out how to climb it. A survey of the world’s largest institutional investors at a time like this will deliver some gloomy responses. Indeed, many investment officers seem to…

Many listed managers have been dragged back to earth in the recent spate of market volatility, but Morningstar believes some of the strongest names are oversold – and that they’ll soon mount a recovery. It’s the classic path from (somewhat) overhyped to (heavily) oversold. The share price of Magellan has fallen some 74 per cent…

It’s rare that an inquiry finds no evidence of harm from a practice and still recommends against it – but that’s the path the standing committee on economics has gone down. The standing committee on economics’ inquiry into common ownership was most notable for beingone of the few inquiries of that body that regularly ended…

Allspring Global Investments has launched an expansion into Australia and New Zealand led by new regional chief executive, Andy Sowerby. If history is a guide, the rollout of institutional funds management capabilities will be rapid. Sowerby, like Joe Sullivan, Allspring’s chairman and CEO, hails from Legg Mason, where he was the Melbourne-based regional head prior…

The “hard asset mantra” is rising to a fever pitch in an inflationary environment, but investors should be “skeptical of historical analogies.” Inflation over the coming decade is expected to be closer to the experience of the 2000s than the 2010s, ending a paradigm that has underpinned an “unusually long bull market for stocks” and…

Everybody loves a good story – investors particularly so. But sometimes a good story can lead to a crowded trade, or one that defies reality. “In finance, behaviour is driven by expectations of future returns, and expectations are often driven by stories, particularly during times of heightened uncertainty,” Charalee Hoelzl, investment manager at Ruffer, wrote…

Your Future Your Super (YFYS) is meant to improve member outcomes. But Frontier’s latest research suggests that the performance test is in dire need of tweaking if it’s to fulfil that goal. Frontier’s latest research – “The heat is on – superannuation fund performance in 2021” – aims to answer the question of whether the…

A landmark report from J.P. Morgan paints a picture of an industry racing towards a future that it doesn’t yet understand. Our big super funds look like strangers in a strange land. “What would be helpful from a regulatory perspective, or even a government perspective, is what are we actually driving towards?” says Mine Super…

Every cloud has a silver lining. In the case of literal rain clouds, it might well be positive returns. Bad weather might lead to better returns, if the findings of a recent study of institutional investor behaviours are to be believed. Lei Zhang, associate professor at the City University of Hong Kong, studied a cross-section…

From Tulip Mania to the Tech Wreck, the history of bubbles shows that they’re harder to spot than investors might think. As Ruffer investment director Lauren French notes in the latest Ruffer Review, even the smartest can fall prey to a market bubble. Isaac Newton, one of the most brilliant mathematicians in history, still lost…