Just like the dark side of the Moon, “everyone is selling” is a technically flawed statement. It’s important to remember that investing is a long-term game and panic selling can do more harm than good to an investment journey.
Toilet Paper Vs Equities | Covid-19 Special Focus
The outbreak of COVID-19 has provided numerous examples of decisions that are seemingly fuelled by stress and uncertainty; from the bizarre stockpiling of toilet paper to investors moving between funds and cashing out.
Need for businesses to be resilient and prepared | Covid-19 Special Focus
Nobody knows how long the pandemic will last or what shape the recovery will take, and there are no easy answers on how to handle these unexpected changes to business as usual.
Covid-19: Remote Work Update
We want to share some important updates about how we are protecting our clients, staff and business as New Zealand’s COVID-19 alert level has moved from Level 2 to 3 (as of 23 March) and will move to Alert Level 4 in 48 hours’ time.
Navigating the current ‘Infodemic’ | Covid-19 Special Focus
With so much to decipher on a daily basis, between the stock market and the number of new COVID 19 cases confirmed, it is at times like these that our worst behavioural impulses come to pass due to the overload of information.
Market Falls & Recoveries | Covid-19 Special Focus
An important part of our role at Stewart Group is to give our clients the confidence that it is sensible and prudent to remain disciplined when stock markets are volatile. We think this video will hopefully add to that confidence.
Covid-19 impact and Stewart Group’s Business Continuity Plan
Considering recent developments related to the coronavirus in New Zealand, we would like to make you aware of the business continuity measures we are taking.
Pandemic, the markets, and your money | Covid-19 Special Focus
There is currently a lot going on: coronavirus (COVID-19) concerns, market volatility, interest rate cuts, cancelled meetings, oil supply war and the upcoming US election. In short, COVID-19 presented a new variable, one not on anyone’s radar. So what does this mean for your investments, your business and for the economy?
Pandemic fear jolts markets, emergency rate cuts | Covid-19 Special Focus
Panic is in the air. For weeks there was calm, markets have been moving upwards without a hitch and shrugged the coronavirus off with breaking little sweat, but then there is this sudden panic now. The world is watching with concern, and it is unsettling on a human level as well as from the perspective of how markets respond.
Press Coverage: Are you the lucky $25m Lotto winner?
So you're the Hawke's Bay woman who's just won a $25.1 million Powerball prize? Financial Adviser and executive director of Stewart Group, Nick Stewart, who joined the financial services industry in 1999, has warned the lucky woman away from splashing the cash on a "depreciating asset. Without a plan, millions can become thousands in no time.
Watch out for those pirate funds
A few minutes into trading on the third of February 2020 the ASX released a list of companies whose securities had been suspended from trading for an unacceptable period of time. It was removing their listings from the exchange. Why? Various reasons, but most had gone bust. Many were now shells.
Millionaire’s Dilemma
It is no secret interest rates are low. Have ten grand in the bank? If you are lucky with a ‘high-interest’ account, at the end of the year, you’ll have made $200 and that’s before the taxman and inflation come calling. We’re also told there are rough waters if you’ve got a few million.
First balance and then re-balance
Balance, and finding balance. It evokes pictures of rocks stacked upon each other at the beach. It’s something of an ongoing search for time-crunched people. How they can bring balance to various aspects of their lives?
Pandemics versus market performance | Covid-19 Special Focus
Memories of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), Avian Flu and the Ebola outbreaks are being rekindled with the spread of coronavirus and global stock markets are reacting. Let us see how two global equity markets; the S&P 500 and the UK equity market performed around these three significant outbreaks.
Countdown to the new trust law
In July last year, the long-awaited Trusts Bill received Royal Assent and will come into effect in 12 months from today on 30 January 2021. The new piece of legislation will reform the current New Zealand trust law, which is 70 years old and in desperate need of an update.
Diversification a Great Luxury
New Zealanders are not keen on diversifying. NZX makes up 0.01% of the world’s share market capitalisation, but most New Zealand investor portfolios are overly weighted to the home market. In other words, a New Zealand investor with a strong home bias would have just a 7% allocation to technology, compared to approximately 16% in the global portfolios.
Returns are Random
The chart shows the variability of asset class performance on a year-by-year basis from 2010 through 2019. The best-performing asset class for each calendar year is at the top of each column. Please remember, past performance does not guarantee future results.
What Lies Beneath?
Record low-interest rates in Australia and New Zealand are tempting yield-seeking investors into products where the risks can be obscured. New products often are marketed as solid, cash-like instruments that offer regular, predictable returns. But we’ve seen this movie before.
Don’t bother trying to pick stocks
If markets do a good job of pricing securities, you should expect managers who focus on finding pricing “mistakes” to struggle. A study by Dimensional Fund Advisors confirms this principle, showing that most fund managers underperform their benchmarks. The results suggest that investors are best served by relying on market prices.
