Back in the 2008/2009 when home prices in parts of Europe and the United States were tumbling there were plenty of “experts” saying Australian house prices would also come crashing down. But alas the residential property market remained fairly robust during the global financial crisis and the experts who predicted a crash in property prices were wrong.
Entries Categorised as 'Investing'
Shareswatch Australia Blog: hits & misses of 2009
January 8th, 2010 · 2 Comments
It is time once again to put my ramblings, rants and ruminations for the previous 12 months under the spotlight. Did I correctly spot any stock market or economic trends or should I be standing in the corner with the dunce cap on for most of 2010?
Stock market & investment trends for 2010 and beyond.
January 3rd, 2010 · 2 Comments
Another year, another decade and time once again to look at our shares portfolio and perhaps review our positions. Although the global financial crisis has been tough for investors the fact is that the Australian stock market did bounce back in 2009 and if history is any guide then we are likely to see it finish higher in 2010.
Understanding stock market cycles & investing.
September 21st, 2009 · 2 Comments
Sometimes it can seem like the stock market operates in a world of it’s own, totally disconnected from the real economy and the realities of world trade. However the stock market moves in cycles just like the wider economy and by understanding these cycles, investors can be better prepared for what the market will throw at them.
The importance of being earnest, greed and investing.
September 2nd, 2009 · 14 Comments
Whenever there is trouble in the financial markets or stocks tumble, those who occupy the high moral ground for a living start to lecture the rest of us about greed and the dangers that the pursuit of wealth can lead to. The irony is that many of the people who bombard us with such lectures are in fact themselves quite wealthy, yet they curiously appear to believe that they have not been greedy while they amassed their fortunes.
Shares, gold, real estate, cash: strengths and weaknesses.
July 10th, 2009 · No Comments
Investing can often stir people’s emotions and nothing seems to get people fired up more than when the topic of which asset class or investment will provide the best returns is discussed. So rather than try and pick “the” best asset class, perhaps it is useful to just discuss some of their various strengths and weaknesses without trying to predict future prices or capital gains etc.
Global market news – what is it telling us?
June 7th, 2009 · 1 Comment
Depending on your point of view the world’s stock markets are either having a temporary rally before they continue their downward slide or we are witnessing the start of a slow global economic recovery. But rather than make any assumptions or speculate on the future let’s look at what the news from markets around the world might be telling us.
The stock market crash of 1987 – a time to reflect.
May 13th, 2009 · 5 Comments
The stock market crash of 1987 is often overlooked these days when the current economic crisis is debated. The major reason for this I suspect is that the crash of that year was driven by factors much different to those driving the current stock market falls. However it is still very interesting to reflect on the events of 1987 and consider how much and how little the operations of the financial markets have changed over the last 20 years.
Bull markets, bear markets and stock market rallies.
May 12th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Over the last year or so I have noticed that many investors get very emotional when talking about bull markets, bear markets and stock market rallies simply because they misunderstand what the terms mean. Often this emotion stems from the fact they have made losses or their investment plan has not performed quite the way they would have liked, and sometimes the reason for this is they did not fully appreciate what bull and bear markets actually are.
The world’s biggest companies: what does this tell investors?
April 17th, 2009 · 4 Comments
Sometimes as stock market investors it is useful for us to step away from the daily noise created by market analysts, company CEO’s and news headlines and try to look at the big picture. One way to do this is to just get back to the basics and look at hard data to see if this helps us spot any trends regarding in the global economy. So it seems reasonable that a good place to start would be by looking at the top companies across the world to see who is making money and why.
Are we in a gold bubble? Could gold prices fall?
April 4th, 2009 · 26 Comments
During an economic crisis many investors head for the safety of gold and there is no doubt that since the global economic crisis began that gold was one of the best places to have your money. But is gold still the place to have your money and is it as safe as some commentators seem to imply? Perhaps gold is now trading at bubble like prices and like many commodities last year, we will see its price correct downwards.
The Australian home prices debate Part 2: Why prices may not collapse.
March 21st, 2009 · 172 Comments
In Part 1 of the Australian home prices debate I looked at some of the factors that could drive home prices down in Australia. Now in Part 2, I shall outline the other side of the debate and consider the arguments that support the view that the Australian residential property market will generally withstand the fallout from the global financial crisis and not follow prices down in a similar way to the U.S. and U.K.
The Australian home prices debate Part 1: Why prices may fall.
March 19th, 2009 · 334 Comments
One of the most discussed economic topics at the moment in Australia is regarding whether real estate prices are about to plunge across the nation or if Australian residential property will generally be spared from the savage price falls seen in the U.S. and the U.K. Rather than take sides in this debate, I will merely outline some of the arguments being tossed around in newspapers, online forums and blogs etc. and see how well they hold up to scrutiny.
Investing for the long term.
December 3rd, 2008 · No Comments
Currently markets around the world are attempting to recover from some pretty dramatic losses and as always when there is a market correction, a seemingly endless array of “experts” pop up and share with us their great wisdom.
The G-20, bad news and further stock market falls.
November 20th, 2008 · No Comments
Well the market has continued to fall during the past few weeks and now I am starting to wonder if we will even see the bear market reach a bottom this year. You might recall I was counting on the market to rally by now so clearly events have not worked out as I expected. But there are reasons why we have not seen a major sustained rally and I think it is useful to look at some of these reasons in detail.
