The COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 a truly singular year. With a deep global recession resulting from strict lockdown measures being implemented throughout much of the world, there has been little for investors to cheer. But with signs that the worst may be mostly behind us, an increasing number of opportunities will undoubtedly present themselves as we move into 2021.
Investors are bombarded with stories regarding how investment opportunities will pan out, but not all are good; some are bad, and a few are fairy tales. How is an investor to recognize the good ones? Much depends on the quality of the source, often the investment manager—who needs to be a professional storyteller of stories worth telling. But how to achieve this ideal in a less than ideal world?
Little is more valuable to financial-market participants than accurate predictions of future growth. With interest rates on the rise in the US, investors are anxiously looking for indications of an impending recession. But what are yield curves really telling us about future growth prospects—in the United States and also in Australia? Is dreaded recession in the cards, or is modest slowdown more likely?
Infrastructure that is up to code is vitally important to sustaining a country’s economy, but even developed countries are falling behind in their infrastructure investment. Effective infrastructure investment needs to be a combined effort of governments, multilateral development banks and private investors, but it lags behind in its appeal to private investors. What measures can be taken to draw more private-sector financing into this crucial foundation of economic growth?
The intelligent investor wants to know everything about a potential investment before sinking funds into it, and many portfolio managers today are finding a willing information partner in the big data available through today’s technology breakthroughs. Uncovering all that is needed to make a thoroughly informed investment decision in today’s age of advanced data science has never been easier, but still requires shrewd effort.
The $3 trillion hedge-fund industry is clearly losing its appeal as it delivers progressively lower returns to investors. According to data released by Preqin, a provider of information on the alternative-asset industry, hedge funds yielded average returns of 12.22 percent in 2013, 4.65 percent in 2014 and only 2.02 percent in 2015.
At the beginning of 2016, new rules implemented by the EU (European Union) to prevent taxpayers from being lumbered with the costs of rescuing ailing European banks came into effect.