BENNELONG LONG SHORT EQUITY FUND

Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund.

• The Fund is a research driven, market and sector neutral, "pairs" trading strategy investing primarily in large large-caps from the ASX/S&P100 Index, with over fourteen-year track record and annualised returns of 16.38% p.a.

• The consistent returns across the investment history indicate the Fund's ability to provide positive returns in volatile and negative markets and significantly outperform the broader market. The Fund's Sharpe Ratio and Sortino Ratio are 0.99 and 1.63 respectively.

For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Australian Fund Monitors

ATTACHED FILESAFM Fund Review - November 2017 (pdf format)

Some say that Australian's shut up shop in January and go to the beach, thereby making it an 11 working month year. From Hedge Clipping's experience that's a gross understatement. Many in the financial services sector, particularly when in Melbourne, advise that if you don't get deals in place by Cup Day on the second Tuesday in November, then getting any serious traction and attention becomes increasingly difficult. And even if that's a Melbourne issue, by the beginning of December many Australians go in to "count down mode" leading up to Christmas.

Without wishing to admit to being a member of the 10 working month a year fraternity, there's certainly truth in the facts. From December 1 onwards driving on city roads becomes progressively easier, politicians head for overseas taxpayer funded "research trips", and those left at the coal face endeavour to clear up all the outstanding administrivia we have been putting off for the past few months.

Not that it apparently affects the stock market, which according to an article  written by Wilson Asset Management's Chris Stott, argues that as the new year approaches, the market tends to perform particularly well as the Santa Claus effect, first documented in 1972, takes hold. Stott's research shows that since 1950, December has been the best performing month for the market, with the All Ordinaries index rising 74 per cent of the time. Over the period, the index has delivered average gains of 2.1 per cent over the month.

Bell Potter's Richard "Coppo" Coppleson describes the market hitting a "sweet spot" from mid-December through to early January. His research shows that during this period, Australian shares have posted gains in 31 out of the past 37 years to deliver an average return of 3 per cent. In the 31 "up" years since 1980, the market has increased an average of 4.2 per cent. Further, a remarkable 25 per cent of the time the market has surged by 6 per cent or more.

Since 1995, the All Ordinaries has fallen just twice during this trading period - once in 2007-08 (down 6.3 per cent) and again in 2010-11 (down 0.7 per cent). Analysis by Andrew McCauley of Veritas Securities finds that the market delivers inordinately high returns in the eight trading days before New Year's Eve, with the All Ordinaries rising a remarkable 83 per cent of the time from 1980 to 2015.

All this is great news for investors, but "why is it so"? Wilson Asset Management's Chris Stott goes on the explain it might be bank dividends:

"As investors make adjustments to their holdings and position their portfolios for the new calendar year they tend to be net buyers of shares as December 31 edges closer. Not to be overlooked is the fact that three of the four big banks all pay dividends in December.

This year, ANZ Banking Group, Westpac Banking Corp and National Australia Bank will pay out a combined $8.2 billion in dividends to shareholders between December 13 and 22. Assuming about 15 per cent of dividends are reinvested through dividend reinvestment plans, collectively investors will still receive almost $7 billion in cash to potentially invest in the sharemarket.

In spite of the additional buying occurring during this period, the absence of many market participants at their desks during the holidays has seen the volume of shares traded on the ASX fall markedly. For example, in recent months the sharemarket has had average daily volumes of about $5.7 billion. In comparison, over the last two weeks of December 2016 and the first week of January this year, average daily volumes dropped by 21 per cent to $4.5 billion.

In Wilson's view, the combined effect of investors' net buying and the market's constricted liquidity helps push share prices higher, creating a Santa rally at the end of the calendar year.

With the festive season upon us, investors may wonder if this year the sharemarket will bring them some cheer. With the outlook for interest rates to be lower for longer, many investors could be more inclined to reinvest their cash dividends into the sharemarket, rather than put them into term deposits with record low returns. Past experience would seem to give reason for optimism with the market outperforming on average over the holiday period."

That's enough from Hedge Clippings for now - there's a (long) Christmas lunch I'm due to go to....

Financial Services Royal Commission - double backflip with a twist.

Finally facing the inevitable, both the banking sector and the Prime Minister came to the conclusion that having at least some semblance of control over the outcome was better than none. Certainly better than seeing a couple of government MPs crossing the floor with a proposal for a banking inquiry which would have been far more extensive than both the industry and the government would have liked. You could argue, as Andrew Main did on Peter Switzer's website earlier this week, that there was little point in having a Royal Commission when most people already know what the problem is. However, the political reality was that the problem was not going away, and the banks in particular would much prefer the process now under the current government, than in the future under a potential Labour government .

Hence the reference to the "least worst option" - facing the reality that fighting the inevitable was not working, and was certainly not improving the general perception of a government on the back foot. Backflips - even double ones with a twist - are preferable to outright defeat.

Royal Commissions are dangerous, so understandably the government has announced one with a limited number (13) of terms of reference, and only allowed 12 months and $75 million for the as yet unnamed members of the commission to return their findings. In reality given that it is now December, and the Christmas break is coming up, that probably means only 10 months, or a change in holiday arrangements for those involved.

However the government has scored at least a partial win (the twist) by broadly including any "financial services entity" and by capturing the superannuation industry specifically - and we would guess the industry superannuation sector in particular, which to a degree still restricts members' entitlement to freedom of choice, and has persistently refused to accept independent directors or trustees in line with the governance requirements that apply to listed corporations. Given the importance of the superannuation system to the future financial well-being of so many Australians, this surely is long overdue.

From "Hedge Clippings" point of view it will also be interesting to see if the vertical distribution structure of financial products (managed funds) through bank owned product issuers, platforms and financial advisors, also comes under the Commission's microscope.

Of course announcing an inquiry, or a Royal Commission for that matter, does not necessarily lead to an outcome. It's worth thinking back to the Rudd/Gillard Government's "Henry Review of Australia's Future Tax System" which was not only hobbled by not allowing it to consider either the GST, imposing tax and superannuation payments to retirees over 60 years of age, or already announced personal income tax changes. Ken Henry's report made 138 specific recommendations, many of which we suspect have either been quietly buried, or remain "under consideration".

INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND

Attached is our most recently updated Fund Review on the Insync Global Titans Fund.

We would like to highlight the following:

• The Global Titans Fund invests in a concentrated portfolio of 15-30 stocks, targeting exceptional, large cap global companies with a strong focus on dividend growth and downside protection.

• Portfolio selection is driven by a core strategy of investing in companies with sustainable growth in dividends, high returns on capital, positive free cash flows and strong balance sheets.

• Emphasis on limiting downside risk is through extensive company research, the ability to hold cash and long protective index put options.

For further details on the Fund, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Australian Fund Monitors

ATTACHED FILESAFM Fund Review - October 2017 (pdf format)