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Monthly Archive: December 2009
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Dec 24
US New Home Sales Drop…a long way from a strong economy
I think it was last week that the market rose because sales of existing homes significantly increased so there were thoughts around an economy looking better. Unfortunately, overnight the latest report regarding new home sales was that of a fall. Guess what? New homes is a far stronger indicator of the strength of an economy …
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Dec 23
The last 12 months….Australian Government Bond Yields
Certainly an interesting 12 months has transpired in financial markets. The above chart shows the movement in the AUstralian Government Bond yield curve and this time last year the sever downward slope indicated the market was expecting the Reserve Bank to drop interest rates to below 3% during 2009. Clearly that didn’t happen but there …
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Dec 20
Pension Portfolio Construction
A couple of weeks ago I presented to a large group of financial planners a Case Study on constructing a portfolio for a pension drawdown situation. The case study required an annual drawdown of around 10% of the portfolio balance which given dividend yields, current interest rates, and low expected return potential meant the portfolio …
Dec 16
Consumer Alert – be wary of Omega Watches
I hope I don’t use this forum for my consumer complaints too often, but I have to vent my frustration regarding my Omega Seamaster watch. Despite being a fairly expensive piece of equipment, it was losing around 5 minutes per month so after missing one too many trains I decided to return it to the shop where …
Dec 07
Fees in Perspective
From 1 November 1980 to 31 October 2009, a total of 29 years, an investment in bank bills would have yielded a total return of 1,257% which is an annual return of 9.41%…many banks provide this type of return for their customers and as we have found out in the last year or so, the …
Dec 03
A Simple 2009 Review and Outlook piece for clients
The year 2009 has turned out to be a significant turnaround year for the global economy and sharemarkets. At the start of the year, the word depression was mentioned often as many economists, investment professionals and politicians thought entering the world’s second great depression was a potential reality. Thankfully, around March 2009, “green shoots” of …