Practical methods and real findings from Australian markets. We share what actually works when analyzing investment opportunities and managing portfolio risk.
We spent eighteen months tracking how different rebalancing approaches performed across volatile periods. The conventional wisdom about quarterly rebalancing didn't match what happened with mid-cap Australian stocks during the 2024 market shifts.
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Traditional technical indicators work fine until they don't. Last year, three separate clients asked why their usual screening methods kept missing opportunities. Turns out sector rotation patterns shifted in ways the standard models couldn't catch.
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Started analyzing Australian equities back in 2011, right when the mining boom was shifting. Spent the first few years making every mistake you could imagine with momentum trading before realizing that sustainable research requires patience nobody talks about.
Now I focus on testing investment approaches that institutional research often overlooks. The stuff that works for investors managing their own portfolios, not just theory that sounds good in academic papers.
Most of my current work examines how retail investors can apply quantitative screening without needing expensive Bloomberg terminals. Because honestly, the best research tools shouldn't cost more than most people's entire investment accounts.
Every researcher develops their own process. Here's what works for us after years of testing different methods.
Before suggesting any screening method, we backtest it across multiple market cycles. Not just the good years. We specifically look for periods where the approach would have failed, then figure out why.
Academic research ignores transaction costs and tax implications. We don't. Every strategy gets evaluated based on what an actual investor in Australia would face, including brokerage fees and CGT considerations.
Australian markets have unique characteristics. Mining stocks behave differently than financial services. We never apply generic frameworks without considering how local sector dynamics change the picture.
Some strategies work better over three years than three months. We're upfront about expected timeframes and what kind of patience different approaches require. No point pretending swing trading and value investing have the same rhythm.
Every method has failure modes. We document when approaches stopped working historically and what conditions triggered the breakdowns. Knowing when to abandon a strategy matters as much as knowing when to apply it.
Markets change. Methods that worked in 2020 might not work in 2025. We regularly revisit older research to see what still holds up and what needs updating based on current conditions.
A colleague approached us in late 2024 with a value screening system that worked beautifully from 2018 to 2022, then suddenly started producing terrible results. The problem wasn't the metrics themselves but how sector composition had shifted.
We rebuilt the screen from scratch, adjusting for the increased weight of technology companies in the small cap index and the declining influence of traditional retail. The revised approach factors in sector-specific valuation norms rather than applying universal P/E cutoffs.
You see it constantly in online forums. Someone posts their aggressive portfolio allocation, gets praised for their conviction, then disappears the moment markets drop fifteen percent.
Risk tolerance questionnaires don't work because they ask hypothetical questions. Real risk tolerance only shows up when your portfolio is down and every financial news headline is predicting worse to come. That's when you discover whether you can actually stick to your strategy or if you'll panic sell at the bottom.
After tracking dozens of investors through the 2022 downturn, I noticed something interesting. The people who maintained their allocations weren't necessarily more risk-tolerant. They had simply structured their portfolios around boring companies they understood deeply. When prices dropped, they could evaluate whether the underlying business had changed or just the market sentiment.
Maybe risk tolerance isn't about how much volatility you can stomach. Maybe it's about how well you understand what you own and whether that understanding gives you conviction when prices move against you.
