Something a little bit different this week as we have asked one of our investment specialists to share some thoughts on the how he and his team are thinking about this crisis and how they are managing their way out.
The attached link takes you to a website that allows us to share a slide show and you will hear from Michael O’Dea (Head of Multi Asset for Perpetual Funds Management) and the Perpetual view on the globe.
Michael is still seeing a lot of unknowns and uncertainty which provides both risk and opportunity.
We use the Perpetual Diversified Real Return Fund as the ‘shock absorber’ in our AAN Core fund (It’s strategic allocation is 20%) which many of our clients use in their investments. It uses strategies that provide some market exposure but a lot of downside protection and it has performed even better than we had expected in the Feb/Mar sell off.
https://app.fishbole.io/p/EmWSon82I
Quick office update.
The team is pretty much back on board and looking forward to all of their children returning to school. Yes we love our children but think they need more time with their friends!
Our Queensland Government is not winning a lot of friends in here on the issue of opening borders. Unfortunately the ‘cabinet’ seems to be fragmenting with medical advice deemed to be in the eye of the beholder. Federal medical advice is borders should be open but State advice is they should remain closed.
The one comment that does resonate is that the lockdowns were never about eradication as until we have a vaccine, this bug will still find its way through our community. This was always about management of hospital resources and flattening the curve and protecting our most vulnerable.
With 3 new cases overnight (21 May 2020) in NSW and 12 in Victoria but Zero in all the other states it could be argued this is well and truly achieved. The NSW cases were actually Australians returning from overseas who were routinely tested and quarantined.
We know we have dodged a bullet here and can see from other countries experiences how quickly control can be lost. Opening international borders would still seem a long way off but unfortunately Queensland (and the GC) really needs domestic travel so hopefully we will see some easing on the current stance.
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