Mark Beyer

AUSTRALIA currently has more than 230,000 do-it-yourself superannuation funds and the number is growing by about 18,000 each year.What is the attraction of this rapidly growing sector and how appropriate is DIY super for most investors?

AN American stockbroker once told me: “If people really knew what we get up to on Wall Street, we would all be in a lot of trouble”.

INVESTORS in resource stocks have generally enjoyed strong returns over the past three years.

MACQUARIE Bank is offering retail investors an opportunity to buy in to a new private equity fund, the Macquarie Private Equity Trust II.

THE olive industry has grown rapidly over recent years and nearly a dozen olive projects are currently being marketed to investors.

THE Australian Tax Office has had a dramatic impact on the tax-effective investment sector over the past two years.However, participants in new projects can feel confident that a favourable tax regime will apply to their investments.

THE current regulatory structure for agricultural investment schemes is inadequate and could lead to a re-run of the unscrupulous practices of the mid-1990s, research group van Eyk Capital has warned.

Much maligned in recent times, tax-effective schemes in the agriculture sector appear set to make a comeback, although in a streamlined form, as Mark Beyer reports on pages 6, 7 & 8.

A handful of stockbrokers are lead managers for the vast bulk of capital raisings for WA Companies.

TOP Perth corporate adviser Charles Fear is setting up his own business under the name Argonaut Capital.Argonaut will be one of the few corporate advisory groups that does not target the mining and technology sectors.

WHEN mining giant WMC decided last year to offload its gold business, it created new growth opportunities for other mining companies.

GRESHAM Advisory Partners appears to have a privileged position in the corporate advisory market.

EQUITY capital raisings (initial public offerings, placements and rights issues) represent one of the key segments in the corporate finance market.

THE introduction of a new system for calculating ASX indices will have major implications for some of Australia's biggest companies.

ONE of the perennial discussion points among investors and advisers is trying to decide the best way to invest in the stock market. Should you buy shares directly through a stockbroker or invest in managed funds?

ONE of the reasons many investors put their money with major fund management groups is to benefit from their depth of knowledge and expertise.

Superannuation remains a dark mystery for many Australians, even though 8% of our salaries (9% from July 1) are paid into super funds each and every year.

Virtually all wage and salary earners in Australia receive compulsory superannuation contributions every year, equivalent to 8% of their salary.

The local stockbring industry has undergone a dramatic change in the past 18 month with the withdrawal of most of the big US firms from Perth. And that's created enormous opportunities for those brokers who have stayed a traditional course.

IT'S hard to walk down a city street or read a magazine these days without seeing a Colonial First State advertisement.

ONLINE investment services are becoming an increasingly popular way of buying and selling managed investments.About 65,000 people have used the Internet to invest inmanaged funds, according to ACNielsen.consult senior analyst Mark Johnston.

THE Australian warrants market continues to attract interest from investors and traders, with highly leveraged instalment warrants ‘coming of age' last year.

ONE of the interesting trading strategies involving instalment warrants is known as cash extraction.It is designed for investors who currently hold shares and want to free up some cash.

SALARY packaging is a practice normally associated with high-income earners with executive cars and the latest laptop computers.

AUSTRALIA'S fledgling exchange traded fund (ETF) market has continued its steady growth with the launch of the first property-based product.

LIFE insurance is a bit like retirement planning. It doesn't seem relevant when you are young, but at some point you realise that it needs to be sorted out.

MANY Australians have a very narrow approach to personal investment. In most cases, it simply involves gearing into rental properties and buying one or two blue chip shares via a privatisation (Telstra or Commonwealth Bank) or demutualisation (AMP).

THE timing and strength of the US economic recovery is shaping up as the key driver of Australian interest rates over the coming 12 months.

A REBOUND in ASX-listed IT companies has been forecast by Commonwealth Research, after two years of big losses.

WITH the dust having settled on 2001, some salient lessons have emerged for investors.For most people, 2001 will be remembered as a time of political and commercial up-heaval.

SELF-MANAGED superannuation funds have recently received a timely reminder about the hoops they must jump through to satisfy the regulators.

GEARING is widely accepted as a sound strategy for investors who want to increase their market exposure.In simple terms, it means borrowing money in order to buy income-producing assets, typically shares or property.