One of the hottest topics and questions asked by investors, especially new, inexperienced investors who believe we are staring a great opportunity in the face to buy into shares at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, is, do I do it DIY or with an expert? Who are the experts? The expert could be a full-service broker, a […]

We are days, if not only hours, away from confirming signals that the market bottom has been seen. What looks to be an inverse Head and Shoulders (H&S) formation has formed in the US and Ozzie stock indices. In the US, resistance is at 1,008, followed by stronger resistance at 1,048, after which a pullback […]

How good is this rally? Well, compared to the market in 2008, this is an overdue lucky break, but for those who are out of the market and want in, is it too late? Or is there a pullback overdue? At the beginning of August, these were the big numbers that screamed investors were not […]

The famous Dr Doom — Nouriel Roubini — is in Australia for the famous Diggers and Dealers mining conference in Kalgoorlie and again he is peddling his bad news warnings. His latest is to beware a double dip recession (DDR)! He is not the only expert to say the DDR is a chance. Some weeks […]

Be wary of economists and commentators trying to justify their excessively negative calls, which look like they will end up wrong. On the other hand, don’t think that the rough economic times are totally behind us — they’re not! Only a month away But that said, considering how bad the economic outlook was after September’s […]

The big picture A few months ago, the consensus view of economists was that unemployment would lift to at least eight per cent. We have always believed that this view was way too pessimistic, believing that unemployment would top out between 6.5 to 7.0 per cent, below the 30-year average of 7.1 per cent. But […]

Homespun wisdom has always advised us to watch our p’s and q’s but cautious investors might need to watch their v’s and w’s. Of course, if you are sick of the anxiety of ‘should I get into the market now or wait for a sell off’ and you don’t care about a 10 per cent […]

Any investor who underestimates the potential of the millionaires' factory called Macquarie Group could live to regret it. Sure, all of the experts say the Macquarie model of taking fees off funds it originally set up, that in turn were taken to the market, is broken nowadays. However, my business commentary life has taught me […]

Recently in the UK, history was made when the Court of Appeal confirmed the decision of the High Court that bank charges are subject to fairness rules. UK’s banks have since appealed to the House of Lords however, the recognition by the UK’s governing bodies that rules need to be in place to keep bank […]

Below is a chart of the Telstra share price over the past five years. It is clear that we have not seen the projected growth and many struggle to see what the future holds for Telstra. Is the company an income or growth stock? In my opinion, it may be that we eventually see a […]

Don’t panic, because despite what you’re reading in newspapers, interest rates are not about to rise! In fact, I really hope no one reads the story as it might help to ensure that it actually turns out to be correct. This is the classic economics writer dilemma when it comes to the sneaky game the […]

My old academic mate Steve Keen might have predicted a 40 per cent fall in real estate prices but one of the country’s most respected property economists can’t see it on his crystal ball. Rob Mellor, who for as long as I have been a business commentator has been ‘counting houses’ for the statistics business […]