Market Update: The month of November has been dominated by European Sovereign debt crisis. The key issues at the moment can be summarised as follows: The total debt of most EU countries is growing as governments continue to run budget deficits, Any significant measures to reduce the budget deficit are likely to slow economic growth
Market Update: After a very difficult start to the financial year, Global equity markets are up significantly in October 2011. The Australian market is up around 8% for the month. The main influence driving markets has been some positive resolutions last week by Europe’s leaders to combat the Sovereign debt crisis. Key initiatives agreed to
There has been growing interest in ETFs and Harvest has been asked a number of times recently, "what is an ETF?" The Australian securities Exchange (ASX) defines ETFs as "investment funds, traded on an exchange, that invest in a basket of securities or other assets that generally seek to track the performance of a specified
Interesting data released by Commsec [Investor Signposts, 11/9/11] about the relationship between the Australian and U.S. stockmarkets: " One thing has become abundantly clear over the past few months. When there is turmoil, the Australian sharemarket will slavishly follow the US. But in times of calm, the Aussie market will go its own way.
The volatility that we've seen in investment markets in recent months is enough to test us all. With the values of our superannuation (on paper at least) going up and down (mostly down in more recent times), we, as investors, are being sorely tested. The decisions we have made regarding our tolerance to risk [i.e. how much
Market Update: Equity markets have performed poorly for the financial year to date (i.e. 1 July 2011 to 26 September 2011). The main issue affecting markets is the risk that the current European and US sovereign debt crisis will cause a second Global economic recession. Recent economic news has reinforced that the expected rate of
LICs are investment companies that provide an investor or superannuation fund with exposure to professionally managed assets. They are like managed funds but have some key differences. Firstly, they are "closed-end" vehicles - which means they do not regularly issue new shares or cancel shares as investors join and leave the fund. Instead, investors buy and sell
It's been said that cash is the riskiest asset class. But how could this be ? Isn't cash the most liquid asset. Is it not the most stable asset ? Is it not the one asset class that most likely will not have a negative return? There's a featured article ("Risk and the 401k investor: How Plan
Interesting data recently published in the Credit Suisse Global Investment Returns 2011 Yearbook, puts the Aussie sharemarket at the top in terms of performance (in local currencies) over the long term. And by long term, we mean long term (111 years !!). Since 1900, the Australian market has delivered a real annual return of 7.4%. That's better
The first week of August 2011 saw equity markets drop sharply. Most global equity markets (including Australia’s) were down by between 5% and 10%. The Australian share market is currently trading at the same price level as it was in July 2009. However, since this time the All Ordinaries Accumulation Index is still up over
