Our Blogs

The US Mega-caps and Equity Concentration

Nic Spicer - July 13, 2023

Over the first half of the year, global equity returns have been dominated by the returns of these seven companies: Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook), Nvidia and Tesla. These are all mega-cap growth shares in the US which, given their extreme size, together make up more than 27% of the S&P 500 (as of 30 June 2023). These...

Flying in Formation: The Dynamic Relationship between Risk and Return

The primary responsibility of a firm managing a range of risk-controlled model portfolios or funds...

Citywire Spotlights Oliver Jones: A Trailblazer Among the "30 Under 30"

PortfolioMetrix Investment Analyst Oliver Jones has been honoured by Citywire as one of the...

Strategic vs Tactical Asset Allocation

When it comes to asset allocation, it is important to focus on the long-term plan which can stand...

Double win for PortfolioMetrix at 2023 Professional Adviser Awards

We are thrilled to share the news that PortfolioMetrix won two awards at this year's Professional...

Bank Tensions and What Comes Next

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the US (along with two other smaller regional banks,...

Next Gen Spotlight for PortfolioMetrix's Chloe Tang

PortfolioMetrix Investment Analyst Chloe Tang was recently featured by Citywire as theirNext Gen...

Thinking about how to sustainably advise on sustainable investing?!

ESG, Sustainable Investing and Positive Impact investing have become buzz words of late. At...

A bad year for SA bonds, was still a good year for bond investors

Twelve months ago, investors in South African bonds had good reason to be happy. January 2022 had...

‘Greylisting’ - No Reason to Panic

South African has been greylisted. What does that mean for us?

Brandon Zietsman: ‘These things are often serendipitous’

"PMX is known for its emphasis on strategic asset allocation. If there are deviations from the...

PortfolioMetrix shortlisted x3 in Professional Adviser Awards

Equities and Bonds - What did 2022 teach us?

2022 was a difficult year for investors with equities and bonds (the two main asset classes for any...

What comes next? Clues from historical sell-offs and their recoveries

After a difficult 2022, 2023 has started very strongly. This begs the question, one we’ve been...

Are you looking beyond the familiar?

In day-to-day life, we find many people who only buy a specific brand of clothes, go to the same...

Superior Strategy - Sustainable World Equity Fund of Funds launching in South Africa

Blue Chip speaks to Brendan de Jongh, Head of Research at PortfolioMetrix, about their Sustainable...

The Changing World of Sustainable Investing: Your Questions Answered

As part of the 'Meet the ESG Investment Influencers' series hosted by Professional Adviser and...

The Fed is hiking faster and further than it ever has in modern history

It will be critical to assess how long central banks will maintain high rates.

PortfolioMetrix a big winner at Citywire’s UK Adviser Choice Awards

We took home the honours in three of the twelve categories!

Risk profiling tools can create more problems than they solve

Using a risk profiling tool should mean you have done all you can to ensure your clients are...

Sustainable investing is much more than risk management

Money Marketing recently carried an article (you can read it here) about NextWealth's report on...

Rebalancing a portfolio to manage investor composure

As anyone who has invested in equities over the long term knows, it can be a roller coaster at...

New ESG report is very data-rich…but not everyone wanted to take part

It’s great to be voted the best against such strong competition

It’s always great to win awards (and we have won quite a few in recent years) but I have to say we...

From behind the bar to raising it – how our ‘Captain Planet’ is making an impact

We were delighted to see Oliver Jones, one of our investment analysts, once again featured in...

ESG: let’s hear it for the bad guys

Last month I wrote a feature for FT Adviser about transition investing (you can read it here) and...

Let’s Talk Investments Conference - The Paradox of Choice

This month I attended the ‘Let’s Talk Investments 2022’ Conference organised by Frank Mulchay of...

The nuts and bolts of offshore investing

In the latest edition of the Blue Chip Journal, Liam Dawson, Investment Analyst at PortfolioMetrix,...

Inflation vs Expectations – The Central Banks’ Dilemma

“Highest inflation level in 30 years” headlines have made inflation the hottest topic in markets....

The importance of rebalancing a portfolio to manage investor composure

Rebalancing keeps clients’ portfolios in line with their recommended and suitable level of risk...

Why the FTSE isn’t a great benchmark for a diversified portfolio

UK retail clients often use the FTSE 100 or FTSE All Share as a benchmark for measuring how their...

The DFM market is reaching saturation point with larger advisers: PortfolioMetrix

In the first of a series of interviews with the business heads of local DFMs, Citywire speaks to...

Consumer Duty: we’re all in it together

The FCA’s first consultation for their proposed Consumer Duty regulation, due to be introduced in...

Solving the big three problems of conventional multi-asset funds

Launching what must seem like the 974th multi-asset fund (MAF) in the UK market was going to be of...

3 reasons smaller DIMs are a threat to the big brands

A recent article in Investment Week (you can read it here) reported on a NextWealth report that...

A First for South Africa

In the latest edition of the Blue Chip Journal, Oliver Jones, Investment Analyst for...

Specialists win Gold

While strategic asset allocation has the greatest impact on the performance of a portfolio,...

Equity holding diversification and how to measure it

Diversification is something we consider essential but how can it be measured?

The outsourcing debate: where do you stand?

A Professional Adviser article about outsourcing by Fiona Tait from Intelligent Pensions caught my...

Why it pays to be a specialist

Having just experienced the thrills of the Olympics, a recent article written by my colleague...

DIY investing: threat or opportunity for ambitious advisers?

At our last ‘young adviser’ networking session we discussed the growth of DIY investing among young...

China’s crackdown is not a revolt against capitalism

I recently wrote an article for FT Adviser which looked at how China’s regulatory crackdown had...

PortfolioMetrix to launch global ESG equity fund of funds

It is a fund with a strong tilt towards sustainability and impact investing.

The questions you should always ask a DFM

The questions we ask potential business associates are crucial if we are to get the full picture...

Two tribes needn’t go to war on passive/active investment styles

There was an excellent Money Marketing article by Alistair Cunningham from Wingate Financial...

Investment Hokey Cokey…actions, not words are what really matter

Last week (21 May) Professional Adviser ran a feature I wrote about the (mis)use of the term...

Competition is coming…but we’ve not seen them yet

I read an excellent blog by NextWealth’s Heather Hopkins recently. In it, she looks ahead to five...

Judgement day for DFMs should be on value, not cost

An article about suitability of investment options and commoditisation of DFMs got the...

Eggs in one basket – even free-range ones – is not a good strategy

The phrase “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” has been around since at least the 17th century...

PortfolioMetrix launches new multi-asset funds

The new unit trusts provide both Regulation 28 compliant and unconstrained options

Is this an investment revolution?

Are we witnessing a paradigm shift in the way younger people regard finance? The...

The Coaching Way of Being

This year I have listened into a number of webinars from other jurisdictions such as the US, South...

In not out: four reasons savvy advisers use an investment specialist

Choosing to use a specialist firm to manage clients’ investments is not an easy decision for many...

Should advisers come down a level?

The American publication, Visual Capitalist, recently wrote about the hierarchy of financial needs...

Platform reviews and the dangers of doing nothing

When was the last time you reviewed your platform choices? The recent market insights report, from...

Jack of all trades means master of none

The recent Lang Cat report Better, Stronger, Faster: How do we rebuild centralised investment...

Matchmakers – The value of a Centralised Investment Proposition

As written in the Harvard Business review “we’re living in the matchmaker economy. It is a bigger...

Active vs Passive Investments: Much ado about nothing or a worthy debate still?

Safe to say that, since the time of Bulls and Bears, there’s been a fair amount of debate around...

A Mixed Bag

The investment advice industry in Ireland has gravitated over the last decade or so towards the use...

SA needs to ease the corona lockdown as decisively as it imposed it

Policymakers must not give way to emotional diatribes built on pseudoscience, from both inside and...

Are advisers overcomplicating investment management?

Money Marketing’s latest annual DFM Satisfaction Survey makes for interesting reading and throws up...

Addressing the difficult questions: we have some answers

How long can governments meet their promises, are companies shedding jobs rather than furloughing...

A time of turbulence but not without hope

Last week was quite a week. As parts of the UK economy shut down (first offices, then schools,...

Life under “social-distancing” and why it matters

These last several days have been a challenge for my children as we enforced strict social...

Progressive Investment Proposition

There appears to be a lot of focus in the first half of this year on DFM’s and outsourcing parts of...

Maintaining your composure in the face of COVID-19

Maintaining composure in turbulent markets is not easy. Doing so when events take us into...

Coronavirus and the markets

1 MARKET UPDATE

Irish Commercial Property Funds in the Spotlight

Earlier this month two popular property funds in Ireland the Irish Life Irish Property Fund and...

Portfolio risk descriptions – fact or fiction?

What’s in a name? Quite a lot if it’s a risk descriptor for a portfolio of funds. Most come with...

Income alone not always best for outcome

Income investing, the practice of constructing portfolios to target a specific yield, is popular,...

Don’t look back in anger

As another year draws to a close, we’ve been reflecting on the tenacity of our adviser partners and...

PortfolioMetrix Post UK Election Outlook

No doubt your inboxes are already full of post-election commentary. There is a quick review of the...

Why you need a Centralised Investment Proposition

Financial advisers in Ireland today invest a lot of time and energy seeking an edge. You are...

Eggs, baskets and a "team of teams".

No, this isn’t another post about Woodford Investment Management. There’s been enough in the news...

Why a natural yield investment strategy can be bad for clients’ long-term wealth

When it comes to clients wanting an income from their investments, constructing portfolios that...

Woodford funds continue to keep the media busy

The news last week that the Woodford Income Focus fund was being closed to withdrawals to prevent a...

Revealed - the secret to long-term investment success

What’s the secret to successful long-term investing? I wish I could reveal some jaw-dropping...

The Risk v Return Challenge

Your clients expect you to deliver a decent return for them, but they also expect you to do so...

One thing financial advisers must do to keep wealthy clients from walking away

Most experienced advisers will have well-tested strategies for keeping clients loyal but the latest...

Liquidity and avoiding the pitfalls of the Woodford Equity Income fund

The headlines surrounding the suspension of the Woodford Equity Income fund and its eponymous...

Fear and (Dys)functionality

Who of us have not pondered acts of bravery and thought, “Would I have been able to do that?”...

In-house or out-sourced: the investment dilemma facing advisers

We recently attended the Money Marketing Interactive event where our UK MD, Mike Roberts, was on...

Will Money Marketing’s new DFM Centre cure outsourcing research headaches?

With a plethora of discretionary fund/investment managers operating in the UK, advisers looking to...

On South Africa’s energy crisis

Fire is a critical tool in veld management. Even with healthy veld, a periodic burn helps to remove...

Another award? Fingers crossed.

On Thursday Citywire’s Wealth Manager magazine will announce the winners of its Regional Stars...

Advisers under fire for poor investment knowledge

“Advisers should not run money” is a quote from a ‘no holds’ barred’ article that criticises...

Is your CIP about to crumble?

Reading Mark Polson’s latest missive in Money Marketing, it seems that many advisers are treading a...

Risks and opportunities for investors beyond Brexit

2018 ended with an awful quarter for global markets, capping off the worst year for world markets...

Concerns about the Wisdom of the Collective*

The last couple of years haven’t been a great ad for democracy. The Brexit and Trump phenomenon is...

Riding out the storms

The grey clouds of Brexit and other political storms may be directly overhead but here at...

Why IFAs should dare to outsource their Investment Management

Just recently, there’s been a spate of articles in the financial trade press highlighting the...

Composure in tough market conditions

A rough year

Lots to discuss at MMI Harrogate

Last week my colleague, Bruce Ely-Johnston, and I attended the Money Marketing Interactive event in...

Recommendations built on misaligned assumptions are a risky business

If you are using a third-party risk profiler to assess your clients’ risk appetites and an...

Quants and Quals in fund selection

We have our brains and our hearts, the former being a complex organ capable of learning, computing...

Free for all in the fund industry

How low can you go could be the new mantra among the behemoths of the passive fund world, now...

Summertime and the living is…slightly uneasy

In spite of the lovely warm, sunny weather, the political and economic storm clouds are definitely...

What would Mary Berry do…?

It’s Easter and my healthy eating intentions are being compromised by the aroma of hot cross buns....

Bond bombshell?

There’s no doubt that bonds are not looking particularly attractive at the moment. Whilst equities...

Are you sitting (too) comfortably?

As I look out on a snowy landscape, delivered courtesy of the ‘beast from the east’, I’m extremely...

Bitcoin – The One-Liners

There’s a lot of buzz around cryptocurrencies and their place in the financial landscape (the...

Special Report: The Problem with Cryptocurrencies

Society has been abuzz with a slew of new jargon such as blockchain (originally block chain),...

Avoiding the crash and burn of investing for performance

Being custodians of your clients’ money carries much responsibility and, ultimately, it is...

MiFID II reporting and the 10 per cent rule

Navigating investment markets is tricky, and this is particularly true of the eerily quiet markets...

Is the DIY investment model holding your business back?

Platforum, the research and insights company that works with UK platform providers, fund managers,...

Riding the winds of change - Central Investment Propositions and why your business needs one

Leading advisers are always looking for ways to future-proof their businesses, improve their...

Value in Europe

Developed European equities have had a pretty good run recently, with the MSCI Europe in euros up...

Eurozone Investing - Cautious Optimism

Things are looking up for the eurozone economy, no doubt aided by market-friendly election results,...

Home cooked or half baked?

A few weeks ago, an email from Platforum landed in my inbox which featured a list of stats about...

The Pitfalls of Commercial Property Funds

Commercial property has been marketed as an asset class with an attractive yield, low volatility...

Trump as an antidote for Trumpism

People who choose not to follow the news, domestically and globally, are missing out on the finest...

D2C and the model portfolio dilemma

Vanguard’s recent launch of an online investment platform for UK mass-market investors at a lower...

Income alone not always best for outcome

Income investing, the practice of constructing portfolios to target a specific yield, is popular,...

Problem Number One and End-game Optionality

Political developments over the last several days have us riveted and this will be true of your...

Stick to the road…

Last week PortfolioMetrix announced the launch of the Select range of model portfolios. Why is this...

And the winner is...

It’s the start of a new week but the team at PortfolioMetrix UK is still basking in the glow of...

Economic fallout of “Trumpism” and portfolio positioning

We don’t really know what’ Trumpism’ means in any practical sense. The utterances of this...

PortfolioMetrix Special Report - Trump, Brexit and the Demise of Openness

The Trump victory has left educated people around the world dumbfounded and markets have swooned....

Seeing red for all the wrong reasons

The past couple of weeks have found me knee deep in paint cans at home and it’s left me slightly...

Death of the DFM

“The DFM sector is over-crowded and the old style ‘bespoke’ DFM model is looking decidedly...

Don't expect your GP to perform heart surgery

Full steam ahead on platforms

The latest news from PortfolioMetrix is that Aegon has added us to their platform, joining...

Of Quants and Quals

We have our brains and our hearts, the former being a complex organ capable of learning, computing...

Conviction - Blessing or Curse (or both)?

I found myself pondering why “high-conviction” appears so prominently as a virtue in the marketing...

Getting Lucky*

Fancy performance statistics should carry a health warning when it comes to picking a fund manager....

EU Referendum

In March I wrote a piece about Brexit for Ftadviser.com (Brexit: a leap in the dark, 10 March 2016)...

Bad Timing

Recent Investment Association fund flow data make for interesting reading. According to the IA, net...

A dose of your own medicine

Following on from my blog last week [Kick the tyres of the tyre kickers] which referenced the fact...

The Balanced Funds that short-change Investors

Here at PortfolioMetrix our investment philosophy is fundamentally risk-based because we believe...

I didn't order spaghetti!

Barely a day goes by without an article appearing in the UK financial adviser trade press flagging...

I'm interested in

The US Mega-caps and Equity Concentration

Flying in Formation: The Dynamic Relationship between Risk and Return

Citywire Spotlights Oliver Jones: A Trailblazer Among the "30 Under 30"

Strategic vs Tactical Asset Allocation

Double win for PortfolioMetrix at 2023 Professional Adviser Awards

Bank Tensions and What Comes Next

Next Gen Spotlight for PortfolioMetrix's Chloe Tang

Thinking about how to sustainably advise on sustainable investing?!

A bad year for SA bonds, was still a good year for bond investors

‘Greylisting’ - No Reason to Panic

Brandon Zietsman: ‘These things are often serendipitous’

PortfolioMetrix shortlisted x3 in Professional Adviser Awards

Equities and Bonds - What did 2022 teach us?

What comes next? Clues from historical sell-offs and their recoveries

Are you looking beyond the familiar?

Superior Strategy - Sustainable World Equity Fund of Funds launching in South Africa

The Changing World of Sustainable Investing: Your Questions Answered

The Fed is hiking faster and further than it ever has in modern history

PortfolioMetrix a big winner at Citywire’s UK Adviser Choice Awards

Risk profiling tools can create more problems than they solve

Sustainable investing is much more than risk management

Rebalancing a portfolio to manage investor composure

New ESG report is very data-rich…but not everyone wanted to take part

It’s great to be voted the best against such strong competition

From behind the bar to raising it – how our ‘Captain Planet’ is making an impact

ESG: let’s hear it for the bad guys

Let’s Talk Investments Conference - The Paradox of Choice

The nuts and bolts of offshore investing

Inflation vs Expectations – The Central Banks’ Dilemma

The importance of rebalancing a portfolio to manage investor composure

Why the FTSE isn’t a great benchmark for a diversified portfolio

The DFM market is reaching saturation point with larger advisers: PortfolioMetrix

Consumer Duty: we’re all in it together

Solving the big three problems of conventional multi-asset funds

3 reasons smaller DIMs are a threat to the big brands

A First for South Africa

Specialists win Gold

Equity holding diversification and how to measure it

The outsourcing debate: where do you stand?

Why it pays to be a specialist

DIY investing: threat or opportunity for ambitious advisers?

More reasons to question solely relying on a purely active or passive investment strategy

China’s crackdown is not a revolt against capitalism

PortfolioMetrix to launch global ESG equity fund of funds

The questions you should always ask a DFM

Two tribes needn’t go to war on passive/active investment styles

Investment Hokey Cokey…actions, not words are what really matter

Competition is coming…but we’ve not seen them yet

Judgement day for DFMs should be on value, not cost

Eggs in one basket – even free-range ones – is not a good strategy

PortfolioMetrix launches new multi-asset funds

Is this an investment revolution?

The Coaching Way of Being

In not out: four reasons savvy advisers use an investment specialist

Should advisers come down a level?

Platform reviews and the dangers of doing nothing

Jack of all trades means master of none

Matchmakers – The value of a Centralised Investment Proposition

Active vs Passive Investments: Much ado about nothing or a worthy debate still?

A Mixed Bag

SA needs to ease the corona lockdown as decisively as it imposed it

Are advisers overcomplicating investment management?

Addressing the difficult questions: we have some answers

A time of turbulence but not without hope

Life under “social-distancing” and why it matters

Progressive Investment Proposition

Maintaining your composure in the face of COVID-19

Coronavirus and the markets

Irish Commercial Property Funds in the Spotlight

Portfolio risk descriptions – fact or fiction?

Income alone not always best for outcome

Don’t look back in anger

PortfolioMetrix Post UK Election Outlook

Why you need a Centralised Investment Proposition

Eggs, baskets and a "team of teams".

Why a natural yield investment strategy can be bad for clients’ long-term wealth

Woodford funds continue to keep the media busy

Revealed - the secret to long-term investment success