Equity Mates Investing Podcast

Before we take a break for Christmas and the New Year period, we take some time to tie a few things off and have a final quick discussion on the state of the market. But don't panic! We will still be releasing episodes over summer. Each week we're going to deep dive into one random company from the Australian Stock Exchange to see if we can find anything interesting. We'll discuss how we researched the companies, look at the balance sheets and highlight any pros or cons to look out for. A massive thanks to all of you, our listeners, for what has been an awesome year for Equity Mates Investing Podcast! To those that have been with us since day one, a massive thanks, and to those that have joined us along the way, a massive thank you as well. We have some huge news for 2019, so stay tuned, and have a safe holiday period. Bryce and Alec

We are so excited to bring you another episode in our Expert Investor series. Our guest this week is someone who we have been following for a couple of years now, and have longed to have on the show. His name is Jesse Felder. Jesse is an ex-Wall Street trader, starting his career at Bear Stearns (without even studying Business or Finance) - the largest investment bank on Wall Street at the time. He then went on co-found a multi-billion dollar hedge fund, before moving into financial media, and running 'The Felder Report'. Jesse's views resonate with us, and if you've listened to our episode 'The Buy-And-Hold Cult' then you will have heard Jesse speak before.  In this episode you will learn: Jesse's number one thing that beginners should understand better about markets What Jesse's first investment was, and what lead him to that decision The worst piece of advice he's ever received Why all investors should be wary of recency bias  Jesse's current approach to investing, given equity valuations are at historic highs Why Equity Mates might be wrong about the logic of index investing  Why Gold still has potential, and why it should be part of every investor's portfolio Stocks and resources discussed: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Lefèvre The Felder Report Superinvestors And The Art Of Worldly Wisdom  Wall Street Journal

First episode of the month means the next instalment of the Equity Mates Book Club. We're pretty excited to talk about this book - an investing classic - The Little Book That (Still) Beats The Market by Joel Greenblatt. Greenblatt has serious bona fides as an investor. Running his fund Gotham Capital between 1985 and 2006, he returned an average of 40% per year! That would've turned his initial $7 million into $8.2 billion in just 21 years.  Greenblatt wrote this book for his kids, to teach them the basics of investing. The great news is you don't need to be the kid of a once-in-a-generation investor to understand the concepts. The concepts he discusses are straight forward, and when backtested consistently beat the market.  To get more information on this book, and to join us and read along with our book club head to: https://equitymates.com/bookclub/

End of the month can only mean one thing - Equity Mates ask us anything. Once again we've collected some of our favourite questions from our website, social media and email and will answer them together on the show.  In this episode we answers questions on: Individual stock picking or ETFs Cyber Monday The actual mechanics of how shares are bought once you select 'buy' Differences between major indexes The key things to keep in mind when thinking about superannuation  Why Woodside (ASX: WPL) has seen price declines despite stronger gas prices As always you can ask questions for us to answer next month. Just hit us up on social media or go to the ask us anything section of our website. 

Since we began this podcast in January 2017, global markets have been on an incredible run. 2017 was an uninterrupted climb higher and higher, and aside from one hiccup in February, the first half of 2018 looked much the same. Word on the street was that our podcast was a good luck charm: as long as Bryce was talking, markets would keep rising. Alas, it appears this is not the case. Recently markets have started to fall pretty hard. Most of the time we try and avoid talking about the day-to-day movements of the market (because we’re trying to think long-term). However, as this drop continues into a downturn across the world, we figured we were well overdue to discuss it.   In this episode you will learn: What has happened to the major market indices in Australia, USA, China, London and Germany. How some of the biggest name companies including Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet (Google) and GE, have performed recently. How other assets have performed - cryptocurrency, gold, oil, credit and property The role the end of Quantitative Easing has played in this market downturn Some of the different recommendations you can find online on how to invest in a market downturn... and what Bryce and Alec think of them How Bryce and Alec are positioning their personal investments   Stocks and Resources Discussed: Stocks Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) General Electric (NYSE: GE) Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) 3 Articles on 'How to Play Downturn' The Street Investopedia CNBC Inverse ETF's Please ensure you do your own research and get your own advice before following Bryce into these trades Proshares UltraPro Short NASDAQ (NASDAQ: SQQQ) Proshares UltraPro Short S&P 500 (NYSE: SPXU) US Equities Strong Bear Fund (ASX: BBUS) Australian Equities Bear Fund (ASX: BEAR)

Knowing what to do with your cash while you're perhaps saving to invest it in stocks or compiling it to buy the next dip, is sometimes hard. You might also have an emergency fund, or you're saving for a house. In such a low-interest rate environment, putting your cash in the bank doesn't really give you the greatest of returns. This episode we explore an alternative to putting your cash into the bank. We look at peer-to-peer lending, with CEO of RateSetter Australia, Daniel Foggo. Peer-to-peer lending is lagging in popularity compared with Europe and the US, but people are starting to catch on. Peer-to-peer lending is simply that - you lend you money to someone who wants to borrow some money, and they agree to pay it back, with interest over a period of time. This process is managed by RateSetter. If we focus on the investor, the advantage is that you can put your cash to work, over 1 month, 3 or 5 year periods, at rates up to 9+% (at time of writing). There is criticism around the concept of peer-to-peer lending and the industry, and it is certainly not without any risk, but is an alternative to the banks. In this episode you will learn: what peer-to-peer lending is the mechanisms of RateSetter and why they can provide rates better than the banks what drove Dan to start RateSetter and some of the challenges faced setting up the business the major advantages of peer-to-peer lending the major risks of peer-to-peer lending Stocks and resources discussed: RateSetter Website

Cricket is back on the TV (well sort of, we hear its on Foxtel) and Coles and Woolies have brought out their Christmas lines. That means Christmas is right around the corner. Over summer we’ll be taking a break from our normal Equity Mates schedule and instead will be presenting our ‘Summer Series’. In each episode we’ll be doing a deep dive into one randomly selected company. Listen to this episode to find out what companies we’ll be looking at (and how we struggled to select them).   However, Christmas isn’t the only exciting milestone just around the corner. 2019 promises two massive Initial Public Offerings - Uber and Lyft. The ride-sharing rivals will be going head-to-head in a completely different arena - the public markets. In this episode we break down what’s happening, what the companies are being valued at, and most importantly - which would we rather invest in.

85 episodes in, who would have thought?! We've learnt a lot over the past 18 months, and the Equity Mates community has grown significantly, along the way. Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone for joining the journey, as we all learn to invest. We wouldn't be where we are today without you all. Secondly, with many joining the show in the last few months, Christmas and the 100th episode just around the corner, we thought it would be a great opportunity to revisit some of our Basic 101 episodes we've done, and wrap them up into a 'what you need to know to get started' episode. In this episode you will learn: What your investment options are when your start Why we think stocks are king The 3 main ways you can invest in stocks Why the share market is the greatest wealth-creating machine known to man The importance of keeping track of fees Stocks and resources discussed: Basics 101 episodes - Essential Learnings 4. How To Buy Shares 17. From balance sheets to supercomputers: The 5 Styles of Investing 45. $1000 to $4.3 million | Fees 50. WTF Is An ETF? | ETF 101 BetaShares 66. The first decision every investor makes | Investing Platforms

 If you haven't already heard of the 'buy and hold' strategy, then this is the episode for you. If you have, then this is certainly the episode for you. For a while now, we've discussed the advantages, and disadvantages, of buying stocks with a very long-term focus, as generally speaking, the market does well over time. If you had bought the index right before the Global Financial Crisis, for example, and held through the crash, then you would be well up on your initial investment. The buy-and-hold strategy. From around 2008, we've seen a rise in the popularity of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), across the globe, as many people move there money from active management, into ETFs, which are a more passive investing approach. In some cases, they've done this thinking that, over time, no matter what happens, the market will always go up, and you will make money. Not all cases, but some. And this is what we discuss today. One of our favourite investors, and finance commentators, is Jesse Felder. An ex-investment banker, and billion-dollar hedge fund manager, Jesse is well respected and has many strong opinions on the direction of the marker. In one of his recent interviews, he discusses what he as coined as 'the buy and hold cult'. We give our two-cents on his comments. In this episode you will learn: What Jesse means by the term 'buy-and-hold cult' If you are part of the cult! About Japan's stock market recovery Our opinions on passive investing Stocks and resources discussed: The Felder Report

Welcome to the inaugural Equity Mates Book Club! As we speak to more and more expert investors, we keep hearing the same thing - the importance of reading. So we've started our own Equity Mates Book Club so you can join us in reading and discussing some of the best investing books around. Hopefully it makes the task of learning about investing just that little more enjoyable.  First up, we have Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis. Lewis is the best-selling author of Moneyball and The Big Short. This is his first book, about his time at Salomon Brothers - a bond trading firm in the 1980's. Salomon was a high-flying firm that lived up to a lot of stereotypes of Wall Street in the 1980's until it all came crashing down.  To keep up with the Book Club, see past and future month's reads and to buy any of the books we discuss - check out our Book Club link below.  https://equitymates.com/bookclub

It's that time again. The last episode of every month we answer your questions. This time we've selected 6 questions that range from what we studied, to managing your emergency fund, to how an ETF is priced.  As always if you want to submit a question, hit us up on social media or email, reply to the Thought Starters email or comment on our website. We'll get back to you or we'll save your question and answer it on the final episode of every month. 

We're now getting towards the pointy-end of the ASX Sharemarket game, so it's time we check-in to see how our portfolios are going. After a couple of rough weeks on the markets, and with a number of stocks that we have exposure too, heavily punished, things aren't looking great for us to be in profit.  We also spend some time talking about Afterpay, just like everyone else. We started looking at Afterpay over 12 months ago, and have watched it run crazy. However over the last couple of months haven't been so great for it, so we look at why, and what it means going forward. In this episode you will learn: Who is winning the ASX competition between Bryce and Alec, and who is in profit, and who is making a loss Which stocks have been star performers in the game portfolios Which stocks have been star losers in the game portfolios What the major lessons have been over the last couple of months Why Afterpay is looking at a bumpy few months to come If Alec's opinion on Afterpay has changed Stocks and resources discussed: Costa Group Holdings (ASX: CGC) Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) CSL Limited (ASX: CSL) Some housekeeping: Follow us on Instagram - It’s not just memes, we’re actually using it as a platform to provide you with some inspiration and new concepts - each week we do a Pardon the Jargon (key terms you need to know as an investor), Company in the Spotlight (an introduction to a new Australian company), News and Thought Starters Essential Learnings - we've collated all of our Basics 101 episodes into a series, so you can refer back to them, or use them as a starting point. They're all essential episodes to learn to invest. Ask Us Anything - if you want to ask us a question, head over to our forum, and ask us! If we can't answer, we'll get one of our Experts to.

How often do you come across someone who graduated from university and was given the job of managing the money of UBS (one of the biggest investment banks in the world), then went on to become Vice President at Morgan Stanely, Managing Director of Derivatives at The Galleon Group and then president of the $400 million hedge fund, Cramer Berkowitz? Oh, and if that wasn't enough, our guest then started Minyanville Media, an Emmy Award winning financial media company and now is founding partner and Chief Investment Officer of CB1 Capital - an investment manager that specialises in the supply chain of cannabinoid-based wellness solutions and products. He's the King of Pot on Wall St. It's not often you meet someone with a resume so impressive, so it was with great excitement that we sat down to speak with Todd Harrison. Todd has appeared on FOX, CNBC, CNN and he is published in the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Fortune. In this episode you will learn: Why Todd thinks Australia is the service station to the Southern Hemisphere when it comes to this industry What will happen when big pharmaceuticals become buyers Which market Todd thinks is really about to take root What place biotech has in the marijuana industry Some of the stocks on Todd's watchlist That large institutions can't buy pot stocks Stocks and resources discussed: Elixinol Global Ltd (AXX: EXL) Charlottes Web Holdings Inc (CWEB:CN Canadian) Canopy Growth Corporation (CGC) Tilray Inc (TLRY) Cronos Group Inc (CRON) Man Search For Meaning - Viktor E Frankl The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work, and Team with Positive Energy - Jon Gordon 

"The best advice is boring.." - this is episode is anything but boring, AND is full of great advice. Today we’re excited to bring you an interview with Chris Brykci. Chris is the CEO of StockSpot - Australia’s first ever digital investment adviser. Chris has over 21 years of investment experience and spent most of his career as a Portfolio Manager at UBS. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting/Finance Co-op Scholarship) from the UNSW and is a member of the ASIC Digital Advisory Committee. Chris is a pioneer in the investment advice and personal finance space. He started Stockspot when he was 28 when he realised consumers were being taken advantage of by unfair fees and biased advice when they invest. He saw the opportunity to use technology to help more Australians access honest advice and low fee investing. He now sits on two ASIC financial advice and technology committees. He’s also famous for winning the ASX high school share trading game three times as a teenager.In this episode we discuss a variety of investment topics, from investing 101 and creating a great portfolio to why it might not be the best idea for Bryce to be sitting in cash! We learnt a lot from Chris, so we hope you do as well. In this episode you will learn: How Chris chose his first stock, at 10 years old Why losing money is the best way to learn to invest The strategies used to win 3 ASX School Sharemarket Games The concept of 'buying straw hats in winter' and how you can apply it today That 'the best advice is boring' What separates StockSpot from every other robo-adviser The defensive strategies StockSpot use to protect investors money Stocks and resources discussed: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator - Edwin Lefèvre  Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness - Richard Thaler Thinking, Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman Some housekeeping: Follow us on Instagram - It’s not just memes, we’re actually using it as a platform to provide you with some inspiration and new concepts - each week we do a Pardon the Jargon (key terms you need to know as an investor), Company in the Spotlight (an introduction to a new Australian company), News and Thought Starters Essential Learnings - we've collated all of our Basics 101 episodes into a series, so you can refer back to them, or use them as a starting point. They're all essential episodes to learn to invest. Ask Us Anything - if you want to ask us a quesrtion, head over to our forum, and ask us! If we can't answer, we'll get one of our Experts to.

Kerr Neilson is one of Australia’s greatest investors. He is someone a lot of our listeners won’t be familiar with, but hopefully after this episode you will be. In a new series - Meet the Investor - we have picked out some clips from Kerr’s interviews that we’ll play and discuss. The purpose of this episode, and episodes like it, is to introduce some of Australia’s greatest investors to our listeners. For while everyone knows Warren Buffett, other great investors aren’t too well known, especially those from outside America. We think that is a shame - as there is a lot of knowledge and experience we can all learn from if we know where to look. So we hope you enjoy the first of our Meet the Investor series. Please let us know if there is a particular investor you want us to profile in the future.