News & Insights

An abstract line that falls sharply and settles, beside a position built in two steps with a pause between them

Judo Bank: how a position gets built

How a 40% one-day fall in a bank we had looked at for a year became a position in our portfolio: the research, the pause at half weight for our Advisory Board, and why liquidity rather than conviction set the final size.

An engraving of a smiling man holding a sign reading 'There must be grass down there' as a line of sheep walks towards a cliff edge

The investor's blind spots: five biases your clients will recognise

Seventeen biases, one field guide. Kirit Hira on the five that come up most in client conversations, from selling winners too early to anchoring on the price paid, and the one question that cuts through all of them.

A crowded stream of dots running up and to the right, with a few alone in the space it leaves behind

What's left when the machines take the easy trade?

Super funds are telling stock pickers to adapt or die. Joey Mui argues the opposite: systematic money has taken the easy trade, and what it leaves behind is the more rewarding one for patient investors.

Abstract grid in Merlon colours

Tracking error is not risk

Tracking error and volatility are often read as the same thing. They are not, and confusing them can mean paying active fees for index risk. A short lesson on telling them apart, what the fees are buying, and how to check a fund.

A spreadsheet flowing into a connected system, in Merlon colours

From one spreadsheet to a working system: the early days of AI at Merlon

In July, one of our portfolio managers asked how to get our attribution out of Excel. Two months later, AI supports our research, reporting and company engagement. It is early days, but here is what we have learned, and why we think it matters.

Merlon steps out front and centre post-Fidante buyout

Fresh off a company rebrand and exiting Fidante ownership, Merlon chief executive Neil Margolis says the firm’s independence has put the management in control of its own destiny.

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