SMSF Investment StrategiesSharing Simple Strategies for Self Managed Super Funds
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Increasing yield through selling options
Volatility is the only thing we can be certain of today. The crazy price action in the past 3 months is enough to make any prudent investor want to stay away from the stock market. However, if we take a closer look at the market action, we can still find some safe investment strategies using [...]
How close were we to a credit disaster last week?
I was surprised by last week’s announcement by the major central banks to pump liquidity into the global financial system so I spent a fair bit of time on the weekend researching to find out the reason behind this unexpected move. While it is common knowledge that European banks were experiencing an onset of a [...]
Why Australians should care about Dexia
You are not alone if you are asking who the heck is Dexia, let alone why should anyone care about this European bank that nobody has heard about? Well, Dexia was the reason behind the latest round of share market panic. It is a major player in the $2.9 trillion global municipal debt market. To [...]
Three can get you two
“Debt will get you in trouble” is a strange admonition when it comes a guy who helps to lend $1 trillion of it. This was the opening line used by Bill Gross, Managing Director of PIMCO the world’s largest bond fund in his Investment Outlook for June 2010. In this issue, he talks about the [...]
Rising bond yields – any cause for concern?
On Monday 5 April 2010, the 10 year US treasury bond yields crossed 4% for the first time since June 2009 (see chart of $TNX below). Bulls believe this is a good sign. Bond yields typically rise and bond prices fall when the economy improves because investors will pull money out of safe, government-backed bonds [...]
Forget Greece, Dubai will default first
While all eyes are focused on Greece, Dubai is quietly trying to work out a deal to restructure USD 22 billion of debt that is coming due soon. Dubai World rocked global markets on Nov 25, 2009 with a request to delay repaying $26 billion in debt linked to its main property units Nakheel and [...]
Australian house prices in 2010 – part 2
I don’t know if many people read or realised the significance of this low key article “Westpac tightens mortgage criteria“ in the Business Age two weeks ago. Basically what it said was that Westpac has lowered its loan-to-valuation ratios (LVR) for new full-documentation mortgage customers from 92% to 87%, including two per cent for lenders’ [...]
Is it really different this time?
Recessions are nothing new. From the chart above, there has been 5 recessions (grey areas) in the last 30 years in the US. A recession is usually a few quarters of negative GDP growth. After some help from the government and the reserve bank in the form of incentives and interest rate cuts, the recession [...]
Are we rich or do we just look rich?
Stock markets across Europe tumbled more than 3% last night on the news of debt problems at Dubai World, a government investment company in Dubai. Banks who are the major creditors for Dubai World were the worst hit, with the Royal Bank of Scotland share price falling by 8%. Yesterday, the Shanghai stock market also [...]
Australian house prices in 2010
There is a great debate going on whether property prices will continue to go up, or collapse in 2010. The recovery in property prices in 2009 has been nothing short of spectacular. In many areas, prices are now even higher than what they were in the last housing boom which peaked in December 2007. The [...]
