Author Archive for: Lukasz de Pourbaix

Entries by Lukasz de Pourbaix

Who has a seat on your investment committee?

Lonsec has been working with financial advice firms for over 20 years and during this time we’ve observed a wide range of investment committee structures. The thing that stands out for us is the clear link between high-functioning investment committees and investment outcomes, with people and processes being the most essential elements financial advisers and […]

Consider this a test of your asset allocation framework

It’s a challenging time for asset allocators in the current environment, which has seen asset prices and market sentiment shift quickly on the back of a single tweet. Markets in July were generally strong across most assets, but August has seen a re-emergence of trade tensions between the US and China. More importantly we have […]

No reprieve for Europe’s long-suffering banks

The ECB’s announcement of further rate cuts was the last thing Europe’s banking sector wanted to hear. Since the depths of the eurozone crisis in 2009 and the sovereign and banking crises that followed, Europe’s banks have struggled to get back onto the right footing. Despite the introduction of new capital requirements and rules to […]

Stop writing value’s obituary

Any value manager will tell you that the past 10 years has been a challenging period. Not only have growth shares outperformed, but the dispersion in price performance between the two styles is currently the widest it’s been over this period. Looking at the performance of the MSCI value and growth indices (see chart below), […]

Will the RBA dig into its toolkit?

It’s been an eventful month for markets. The Coalition’s Federal election win, the RBA’s rate cuts and a continuation of the US-China trade tensions have all impacted markets during the month of June. Domestic markets reacted positively to the Coalition win with some of the pessimism surrounding the housing market subsiding. The RBA’s rate cut […]

Should retirees fear an RBA quantitative easing program?

The possibility of the RBA undertaking a quantitative easing program could have major ramifications for retirees, who may be forced to increase their exposure to equities if interest rates continue to spiral downwards. It’s been an eventful month for markets – the Coalition won the federal election in a surprise upset, the RBA cut rates […]

Trade fears reignited

Markets continued their upward trajectory during April which has largely continued unabated since the so called ‘Powell Put’ earlier in the year, with the US Fed chair signalling a pause to further rate hikes. However, market volatility has picked up as the US-China ‘trade war’ has been reignited and the US seeks to precent Chinese […]

Ignore the yield curve at your peril

The Fed may have put its tightening plans on ice, but the yield curve is signalling that all may not be well in financial markets. This article is intended for licensed financial advisers only and is not intended for use by retail investors. The Fed may have put its tightening plans on ice, but the […]

Market tail is still wagging

It’s been an interesting period for risk assets over the past six months. The last quarter of 2018 saw markets retract as sentiment shifted away from risk assets, driven by fears of further rate rises in the US and a pullback in global growth. Roll forward to the March quarter of 2019 and it has […]

Are pockets of value appearing in the market?

In recent years valuations across most asset classes have been sitting in the expensive range. Strong tailwinds from central banks in the form of low interest rates and liquidity support via quantitative easing have largely been responsible for these stretched valuations, while markets have been further fuelled by both strength in the cycle as well […]

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