Moomin Valley

Most Australians seem to hate Canberra and think it is terribly cold. They'd probably be surprised to learn that the average temperature...

Challenger Infrastructure Fund (CIF.AX) announced today that it has closed its foreign currency hedges yielding a profit. As it is now unhed...

I just heard today that the fellowship program I was planning to apply to may not actually run again. If it doesn't I wouldn't be t...

We accidentally bumped into a former colleague who is now a professor in another department at my university while shopping. Actually, this ...

This month is shaping up as another good one with three trading days to go. Several of the funds we invested in in Snork Maiden's Coloni...

When I wrote in yesterday's post that I'd need to have enough cash to buy a house to be happy to do so if my income was very uncerta...

Asked Snork Maiden today (at our current standard of living). If we don't make any big expenditures like buying couches or travelling ...

I've been thinking whether anything needs to be done with Moominmama's portfolio and benchmarked the broad asset allocation against ...

I haven't posted much on investments recently. We're in recovery mode from the GFC and will likely be for a couple of years before m...

Wikinvest have a new finance data platform. It looks pretty nice in terms of graphics etc. though they exaggerate how much this improves thi...

The Australian government http://www.deloitte.com/dtt/alert/0,1001,sid%253D2935%2526cid%253D268500,00.html">hopes to have new foreig...

Final hedge fund returns are now in for the month and they largely confirm the earlier HFRX results . In other words, performance was flat o...

As I commented on the last post, I didn't get the job I interviewed for on Monday in a major Australian city. The chairman already phone...

I'm sitting in the airport terminal on my way back from my interview here today. The process was very traditional on the British model o...

I just got an e-mail inviting me to interview on Monday for the job I applied for last week . This is one of the top departments in the coun...

The HFRX Global Hedge Fund Index was flat for June, returning 0.04%. Macro and 'Systematic Diversified" did poorly losing more than...

So I phoned Unisuper and told them I'd sent the form in twice to switch to defined contribution (or "accumulation" as they...

The following is based on the available data as a couple of funds as usual won't report till near the end of the month and as 30th June ...

Last year I wrote about a company called Carbon Planet that was raising funds. I didn't like the look of the information provided and d...

They still haven't switched me to defined contribution despite me requesting this on my initial application and then sending the switch...

Moominmama had a 1.06% gain in June while the MSCI all country stock index fell 0.52% (beta to this stock index is estimated at 0.47). US st...

Am applying for another academic position here in Australia. I only saw it advertised this morning and the deadline is Friday! The rank is A...

Barrons' has updated the portfolio allocations for Yale, Princeton, and the average US educational endowment: Compare these to a previo...

The table is from a paper by Richard Disney presented at a conference on taxation held as part of the Australian tax policy inquiry. It sho...

Today, after much searching, we finally bought a couple of couches - a two and a three seater. Yes, they are leather but not the ones in the...

I haven't heard back from the headhunter so I guess I wasn't shortlisted for an on-campus interview. The department I interviewed a...

My opinion of him and Stratfor sank even lower .

An interesting article about changes in the ways people are signalling status - a switch from conspicuous consumption of material goods to ...

The TFS Market Neutral Fund which I've often blogged about and am invested in, is closing to new investors. The fund's assets stand...

HFRI came in with a 5.58% return for May - one and a half percentage points more than Credit Suisse's estimate - and positive returns f...

So I went out to the airport today to meet the partner of the recruitment firm at the Qantas Club (=Lounge). I think the interview went well...

Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund indices have now reported for May. They are reporting a 4.06% gain for the month, which they say is the bes...

I bought a suit for my interview today . Only the second suit I've ever bought. We went to Myer because there are sales on. But the suit...

A couple of nights ago it hit -6C here in Canberra which is near the coldest I've seen here (-7C). The record low for Canberra is -10C. ...

The phone interview with the headhunter went well. It started with me asking questions about what the job really is. He said that they basic...

I've been preparing for my phone interview with the headhunter tomorrow morning. I'm not sure what to expect as I've always been...

I heard yesterday about a position in a government department here doing more or less on the public policy side what I do in academic resear...

I finally worked out the fault in my accounts: a minus sign instead of a plus sign in front of the gain for Platinum Capital for the month! ...

We also visited the area of the planned Tianjin Eco-City on our trip to China last year . We saw even less of the site than these guys did....

I just bought 5000 shares in AOD.AX at $A1.10 a share. This used about half my available margin. The fund is not marginable with CommSec. I...

The news is coming thick and fast this morning. Croesus Mining is to be renamed Sirius Resources and become a base metal explorer rather th...

IPE , a private equity fund of funds listed on the Australian Stock Exchange placed around 6 million new shares with a fund manager for 19 c...

Commonwealth Securities are offering up to $A500 of free buy trades on a CommSec margin loan if you make the purchases before 30th June. Th...

So I spoke with the "senior associate" from the headhunting firm that contacted me yesterday. She tried to downplay the rather amb...

HFRX - Hedge Fund Research's daily hedge fund indices based on a small sample of funds - was up 3.15% for May. By comparison, MSCI World...

I got a call from a "headhunter" today. That's a first for me, I think. The position is a full professor at an Australian Univ...

I wrote a very short review of "The Black Swan" a little while ago. Here is a good but very long review of Nicholas Nassim Taleb ...

Another two weeks on and Unisuper still haven't transferred me to the defined contribution scheme. Will I need to send in the form agai...

Business Week has a list of the most expensive U.S. suburbs in each state . What's stunning from an Australian perspective is that in ma...

Glitzer asked me a little while ago to simulate a China oriented portfolio diversified with the Man-AHL managed futures fund. She specifie...

Moominmama gained 9.21% for the month. The MSCI World Index was up 10.08%. Both gains were in large part due to the fall in the US Dollar ov...

Now all the unlisted fund returns are in for April I can present the final performance numbers. Australian Large Cap stocks, mainly via the ...

This article from the Wall Street Journal seems pretty solid. Let me know if you can see any flaws. The bottom line is that you shouldn...

If you've been around the investment blogosphere for a while, you've probably come across the writings of George Friedman, CEO of St...

The Snorkparents finally left on Friday morning. We had to wake up at 4am to take them to the airport. Since then we have been reorganizing ...

From 1st June, Commonwealth Securities will introduce margin lending rules that allow more borrowing against securities for more diversifie...

There is already more information available on the web (e.g. http://www.exfin.com/australian-budget-2009">here and here ) about the...

The recent Australian federal budget announced changes to arrangements for health insurance and superannuation. The former surprised me beca...

HFRI returned 3.74% for April while Credit Suisse/Tremont estimate that hedge funds only gained 1.68% which is very close to the HFRX estima...

Apparently, the Australian federal budget announced on Tuesday repeals the Foreign Investment Fund (FIF) rules which apply to investments i...

My membership certificate and other info finally arrived from my new superannuation fund, Unisuper . They completely ignored all the choices...

Got back last night from our trip to Port Douglas in Northern Queensland with the Snorkparents. Yes, we did see two cassowaries just like ...

The HFRX is reporting a gain of 1.61% for April. Equity market neutral and macro strategies lost money while convertible arbitrage did well....

Our currency allocation is getting really out of whack as the Australian Dollar rises and Australian shares perform well and we spend USD. W...

This month saw one of the largest gains in net worth in dollar terms USD 31,220 (second biggest after April 2008) and was the biggest percen...

I'm just checking all our bank accounts, credit cards, and loans at the end of the month to record the data in my monthly accounting exe...

Moominmama gained 3.91% for the month. Pretty nice, though not much compared to the MSCI World stock index . Brazilian stocks did very well,...

In USD terms. Currently I have us up 12.65% in USD terms and 6.62% in AUD terms - likely that the final numbers could be slightly higher - S...

Checking our bank accounts in preparation for the monthly report I noticed a discrepancy in the numbers and realised that our $A900 stimulus...

Finally. It's two months worth of pay. I paid off the credit card bill which was around $A3,800. Now we have $A6,000 worth of borrowing ...

As promised this post looks at the performance of our target portfolio from the perspective of an Australian investor. As I did in a post i...

Now all the unlisted fund returns are in for March I can present the final performance numbers. Australian Large Cap stocks, mainly via the ...

This post follows up with the performance in the last 4 month of the asset classes I discussed in the context of endowment style portfolios ...