What does the Election mean for Local Markets?

As the provisional election results came rolling across our screens on Saturday night it quickly became apparent that a clear and decisive outcome was unlikely. This wasn’t unexpected but the reality of the process under Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting is that we now enter a period of uncertainty and this is a backdrop that financial markets rarely appreciate.

A Year in Review

At Devon our focus on generating attractive risk-adjusted returns for our clients is absolute. Unfortunately recent performance hasn’t been up to the standards that we set ourselves so we thought it would be useful this month to elaborate on what has been the cause of our underperformance and, most importantly, how we are positioned to address it. We are conscious of the dangers in focussing on short-term returns but we are very aware of the valuable lessons that be taken from every investment decision we make, good and bad.

*This article was written MFS Chief Investment Strategist, James Swanson. The article was first published and distributed by MFS and has been used with permission.

Active vs. Passive Investing

In recent years one of the most commonly discussed investment topics is whether or not investors are better served by Passive or Active investment strategies. A couple of weeks ago Slade Robertson, from Devon, presented his views at a conference on this issue. Slade was asked to represent the Active side of the debate and we thought our clients would find it useful this month to read some of his views from that conference.

The United States political environment is rarely without interest but the sheer volume of surprising news in recent times has been staggering. In contrast economic news has been generally pedestrian and market movements have been so limited that the VIX index (which measures the expected volatility of the S&P500 over the next 30 days) recently touched its lowest level since 1993!

Paul Glass spoke to Nick Grant at National Business Review about what he believes should be prioritised in the 2017 budget (11 May 2017).

Click here to view the discussion.

Paul Glass speaks to the New Zealand Herald in the latest Economy Hub video series regarding the OCR (11 May 2017).

Devon market update, provided by Nick Dravitzki, 20 April 2017.

In managing our clients’ NZ and Australian investments it is critical to have a clear view on what is happening in China. China is not only the worlds’ second largest economy, Australia’s largest and NZ’s second largest trading partner, its economic performance is also very important to investor sentiment around the NZ and Australian share markets. We send a member of our investment team to China annually, as there is no substitute for being on the ground to gain a detailed understanding of what is actually happening.