This Christmas, why not give shares?

Ah Christmas, a glorious time of year if ever there was one. The smell of pine needles in your living room, office Kris Kringle’s, one too many champagne’s at the Christmas party, and weekends spent meandering around a large shopping centre wondering what to get people for Christmas. Christmas is also the time of buying, and inevitably receiving, well intentioned, but... Read More

Will we finish where we started?

Will the ASX200 and All Ords finish up where they started? Well, here’s hoping. Below is a chart that indicates where the markets started on January 4, 2010, the first trading day, up until this morning. With less than 20 trading days to go, the question many market participants are asking is will we end with a whimper, or a bang. The sideways market may look like there’s... Read More

This Is How You Beat The Market

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArena Most people look at the share market and they see a public forum where share prices go up and down. There’s in itself nothing wrong with this observation as that is exactly what happens: share prices go up and down every time the share market opens and closes. Where most people go wrong is in assuming that in order to make money... Read More

Director activity snapshot

Director activity can be a leading indicator into the confidence and potential upswing a company may be about to experience. Here are the highlights of recent director activity: Updated from 3rd December 2010 Buying by two directors of Asciano Group (AIO) Buying by two ANZ Bank (ANZ) directors $1.5M worth of stock recently purchased by a Billabong International (BBG) director ... Read More

The fifth pillar

By David Llewellyn-Smith. Australia’s best business journalist, Adele Ferguson, has a scoop today on what the government’s new competition measures will look like. From the SMH: Wayne Swan is poised to unveil controversial measures to create a fifth pillar of the banking system using the muscle of the $73 billion credit union and building society industry. It is... Read More