Analysis

Australian institutional investors are plotting increased allocations to alternatives and rethinking geopolitical risk, according to Nuveen.

Investors holding out for a monetary policy hero will have to keep holding out. And as regulators put out spot fires in the global banking system, they’ll need to reckon with the new behemoths they’ve made.

Garry Weaven’s collected writings offer a fascinating history of both the industry fund movement and one of its key architects – and a warning not to stick with the pack.

As hot air escapes the developed markets, unloved and unglamorous emerging markets are in the box seat once more. This time, it’s about more than the growth story.

There’s too many associations around, and the proposed tie-up between the AIST and ISA could bring super closer to a single voice at a time when it needs it more than ever. The problem is what that voice might say.

It isn’t 2008 all over again, but dismissing the broader risks of SVB’s demise would be a mistake for investors, writes Ruffer CIO Henry Maxey.

Systemic risk is difficult for investors to grasp because it’s no big deal – until it is. And unless investors adopt a “vastly different” mindset about pricing, it’s going to get a lot worse.

APRA’s “utopian ambition” for organic super fund consolidation might not be realised, leaving a long tail of small funds. More drastic measures could be needed.

Private market managers aren’t entirely insulated against falls in the public markets, which have resulted in diminished fundraising activity. But private assets aren’t going to stop outperforming anytime soon.

Institutional investors using private equity for diversification are just “doubling up on their main bet”, according to Capital Fund Management, and true diversification will only come through strategies that have fallen out of favour in the last decade.

There’s fairly wide disagreement about what private market outperformance will look like in the future, and investors are sweating the amount of money pouring into the asset class. At least the question of valuation is less frenzied than six months ago.

There’s “ammunition for both sides” of the active/passive debate in research that shows just 2.39 per cent of stocks outperform Treasury Bills. But active managers will be buoyed by findings that fundamentals probably do matter.