News & Insights
Twenty companies, two-thirds of the index
Twenty companies are 64% of the ASX 200 — and only three of them trade below their own five-year median multiple, against 99 of the 162 outside the top twenty. The gap survives every cut we tried.
Upside and downside capture: read them together
A low downside capture number can be bought with cash, and it costs upside in the same motion. Why the spread between the two is the figure that matters, and how to check a fund.
Aurizon: what we asked the board for, and what happened
We wrote to Aurizon's directors three days after a $2.35bn acquisition, and kept writing for four years. The chairman answered, then disputed our account of him — and our own Advisory Board talked us out of the third letter.
Judo Bank: how a position gets built
How a 40% one-day fall in a bank we had looked at for a year became a position in our portfolio: the research, the pause at half weight for our Advisory Board, and why liquidity rather than conviction set the final size.
The investor's blind spots: five biases your clients will recognise
Seventeen biases, one field guide. Kirit Hira on the five that come up most in client conversations, from selling winners too early to anchoring on the price paid, and the one question that cuts through all of them.
What's left when the machines take the easy trade?
Super funds are telling stock pickers to adapt or die. Joey Mui argues the opposite: systematic money has taken the easy trade, and what it leaves behind is the more rewarding one for patient investors.
Tracking error is not risk
Tracking error and volatility are often read as the same thing. They are not, and confusing them can mean paying active fees for index risk. A short lesson on telling them apart, what the fees are buying, and how to check a fund.
From one spreadsheet to a working system: the early days of AI at Merlon
In July, one of our portfolio managers asked how to get our attribution out of Excel. Two months later, AI supports our research, reporting and company engagement. It is early days, but here is what we have learned, and why we think it matters.
Merlon steps out front and centre post-Fidante buyout
Fresh off a company rebrand and exiting Fidante ownership, Merlon chief executive Neil Margolis says the firm’s independence has put the management in control of its own destiny.
How a $1b fund turned a three-page letter into an investment edge
If you’re running a large listed Australian company and a letter from Merlon Capital Partners arrives in the mail, chances are you’re not in a great place.
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