Explore the Category

Europe: Back to business

03 August 2015

After a contentious period of negotiations, the odds of a so-called “Grexit,” or Greek exit from the euro, were drastically reduced as Greece begrudgingly accepted an austerity program and Germany gave the European Stability Mechanism the green light to negotiate a third bailout. While Greece’s troubles are far from over, Philippe Brugere-Trelat, executive vice president and portfolio manager for Franklin Mutual Series, says it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that in much of Europe, the story is one of economic recovery—not collapse. He’s back to the business of finding values for his portfolios there.

Avoiding the overwhelming bias for action

03 August 2015

In life, we have a natural bias for action. From a young age, we are told stories about heroes who overcame great odds and many setbacks to do something great. Sportspeople, entrepreneurs and leaders are all lauded for their actions. ‘Watching and waiting’ are rarely considered valuable. However, there are times when the most valuable thing you can do is to wait for the right opportunity. In the face of the relentless pressure to do something, waiting patiently is often extremely difficult to do. This same scenario holds true in the world of investments.

Balance your costs with the rewards you want

01 August 2015

The debate between active and passive investments is a debate that has been inherently part of the industry for a long time. The main reason why people oppose an active strategy is that fees are high and that there is no guarantee that the fund manager will beat the industry benchmark by promised guidelines.

Searching for Natural Hedges against Interest-Rate Risk

30 July 2015

In the United States, the fixed income story today is a cautionary tale of rising interest rates lurking around the corner. Most investors probably have heard this story for a while now, surmising that the end of the bond bull market will mean it is game over for their fixed income portfolios. Franklin Templeton’s Eric Takaha doesn’t see that as a foregone conclusion, but also believes plotting a fixed income strategy to meet tomorrow’s challenges requires a willingness to think about investing in the sector a little differently, perhaps looking beyond traditional borders, benchmarks and duration models, and seeking out strategies that have the potential to provide what could be considered a natural hedge against interest-rate risk.

quick poll

Question

Do you think short-term insurance broking will survive the AI plus humanoid robotics age?

Answer

Human first always Not a chance Possibly maybe Yes, but reimagined

View the Results