This week's Clippings is going to attempt to multi-task, (not your scribe's strongest point) or at least cover a number of different topics. Feedback (positive or negative) is welcome.

Firstly AFM's Research Manager, Sean Webster has taken a look below the surface of yesterday's poor employment numbers (6.4% against the market expectation of 6.1%) which helped trigger a fall of almost 1c in the Aussie dollar, and led to further expectations of the RBA easing official rates by Christmas. RBA Governor Glen Stevens came out today and tried to pour cold water on that view, but it would certainly seem that any rate rise might be further off than previously expected.

Sean's piece, 'Lies, damn lies and statistics' is not suggesting there was any fiddling of the books, just that the ABS has made some significant changes to its data collection and survey methodology, and yesterday's numbers are the first example of the resultant numbers. For those wondering why the numbers were such a surprise it makes excellent reading.

What might also have impacted the unemployment rate was the never ending budget saga, which three months after budget night is still being debated in the media at least, as debate in parliament has been interrupted by Federal MP's winter overseas holidays (apologies, "fact finding tours"). Business hates uncertainty, almost as much as a bad budget. With the final budget outcome yet to be determined by negotiation with the minor parties in the Senate, including the uncertain Clive Palmer, business confidence and patience might be running as low as Treasurer Joe Hockey's.

Elsewhere Sean also unearthed this excellent article entitled The Great Fee Debate - Resetting Manager and Investor Expectations. If there's one subject guaranteed to generate ill feelings, let alone a debate, it is the quantum and structure of fund manager's fees. We have raised this issue before, and it was front and centre in David Murray's interim FSI report a few weeks ago, but Jonathan Rochford of Narrow Road Capital has some excellent points to make - most of all his number one factor when choosing a manager: Integrity. At AFM we often ask ourselves a rhetorical question when speaking with managers: Do they see managing other people's money as an opportunity, or a responsibility? Only after that can one analyse the value for money the Manager is providing.

Finally ASIC has today released its clarification on how it will apply the wholesale investor test to self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF's).  As ASIC says: "This has long been an area of ongoing legal uncertainty" (and therefore probably quite a lucrative area of advice for the legal fraternity) where SMSF's were not necessarily judged to be wholesale investors even though their trustees were.

ASIC's revised approach can be viewed here, and as the previous approach (QFS 150) was issued ten years ago, and the SMSF sector has since grown dramatically to number over 500,000 funds, representing over one third of Australia's retirement pool by value, the clarity will be welcomed. As we read it, ASIC's new approach means that it is the Trustee's status as a wholesale investor which determines the wholesale status of their super fund. Maybe we should get a legal opinion on that. Or two just to be sure.

Specific results received this week include the following PERFORMANCE UPDATES:

Microequities Deep Value Microcap Fund recorded a return of 5.94% during July and 34.46% for the previous twelve months.

Returning a performance result of 3.20% in July, the Monash Absolute Investment Fund is now at 20.24% over the prior year with a volatility of 8.62% in line with the Index.

AFM are now accredited by the Financial Planning Association of Australia to issue CPD points for FUND REVIEWS.
This week's new reviews include:

Optimal Australia Absolute Trust, Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund and also Insync Global Titans Fund

Read the most recent Fund Review for any of our research clients, and then answer 5 straightforward questions, these are presented in multiple choice format. An 80% or more success score will provide 0.5 CPD points, with a certificate provided as proof of completion. There is no charge for this service.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Tuesday 12th August 2014, from 12pm to 4.30pm - ARRIA is hosting a round table discussion in Sydney, providing a valuable opportunity to meet with like-minded advisers. No cost to participants. Also in Melbourne on Tuesday 26 August and Brisbane on Tuesday 9 September.

Wednesday 13 August 2014 - Perth and Thursday 14 August - Melbourne: Financial System Inquiry - Public Forums to raise issues and discuss the inquiry. Brisbane and Sydney next week. Click here to see dates in your capital city and register.

Thursday 14th August in Sydney: AIMA Australia Education Forum. The forum will discuss regulatory, tax and other issues, as well as current observations and insights associated with a range of hedge fund investment products, including Australian unit trusts, Cayman funds, UCITS and listed investment companies. It is a "must attend" event for hedge fund managers reviewing their current products or considering development of new products.

14-15 August in Sydney: Alternative Investments Conference - Investigating the rise and rise of non-traditional high yield and low risk investment products, strategies and allocation in an era of prolonged volatility and low returns.

Wednesday 27 - Friday 29 August Money Management's Platforms and Wraps conference in the beautiful Hunter Valley, NSW. Covers the latest industry trends and innovation, while also exploring technology iniatives, client segmentation, data ownership, analytics, marketing and distribution, regulatory reform and consolidation. Pre-conference golf and wine tour of Hope Estate included. Special rate for fundmonitors.com members.

If you would like your Event listed in our calendar, please contact us.

This week's Now For Something Completely Different should either put to rest the argument that children are not influenced by what they see on TV, or that cats are more intelligent than dogs. Enjoy, and wishing you a safe and happy week-end.

Best wishes,

Chris
CEO, AUSTRALIAN FUND MONITORS

Connect with me on LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Australian Fund Monitors are helping to raise awareness to support research into prevention and cure for cerebral palsy.  For more information visit www.cpresearch.org.au or contact me by email.

INSYNC GLOBAL TITANS FUND

ATTACHED FILESInsync Global Titans Fund June 2014 (pdf format)

• The Aurora Fortitude Absolute Return Fund  (AFARF) has a 8 year track record investing in ASX listed equities. A Market Neutral overlay is used across a multi strategy approach which allows for flexible asset allocation to maximise returns and minimise risk under a variety of market conditions and cycles.CIO John Corr has over 20 years financial market experience with a strong focus on risk.
• Significant use of low risk "long" derivatives and option overlays has provided positive returns with low volatility during periods of market dislocation. Risk statistics are impressive and shows the Funds risk philosophy; over 88% of monthly performances have been positive with no losing months in 2008, the Fund's largest drawdown is -2.09% and the Sharpe ratio 1.16.
• ASX listed Aurora Funds Limited was established on the merger of three existing fund management businesses, managing approx. $230m on behalf  of more than 2,500 retail and wholesale investors.

ATTACHED FILESARARF Fund Review June 2014 (pdf format)

AFM have released the most recently updated Fund Review on the Optimal Australia Absolute Trust.

CPD Points are now available for all AFM Fund Reviews. Read the review and answer 5 questions to earn half a point toward your continuing professional development.

We would like to highlight the following:

• Optimal Australia is a specialist Australian equity investment manager and the Fund has a long/short equity strategy typically with a low but variable net market exposure comprising 40 to 65 stocks broadly selected from within the ASX200.
• The Fund returned 0.63% in June with an annual return of 5.66%.
• The Fund's low risk profile is shown by 84% of monthly performances to date being positive with the largest drawdown of -1.38%.
• The Fund's Sharpe Ratio is 1.79 and Sortino ratio of 5.25 compared to the ASX200 Accumulation Index.
• The investment team comprising George Colman, Peter Whiting supported by Stephen Nicholls and Justin Hay have over 100 years combined experience in equity markets.

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

Sean Webster

Research and Database Manager
Australian Fund Monitors

ATTACHED FILESOptimal Australia Absolute Trust - June 2014 (pdf format)

• The Microequities Deep Value Fund has a 5 year track record investing in ASX listed equities.  The Fund is a fundamental, research-driven Fund investing in equities with a market cap below $250m. The Fund uses a value philosophy based on the view that microcaps are often under-researched and under-valued.CIO Carlos Gil has over 15 years financial market experience across a broad range of equities.
• The Fund has delivered very strong performance since inception with a 29.63% annualised return compared to the ASX 200 Index
  Accum return of 14.32%. Volatility has been somewhat higher than the Index at 14.97% (ASX 200 Accum 12.59%) however the
  Sharpe ratio at 1.58 (0.84) reflects the high incremental returns for taking on the extra volatility/risk.
• The Fund does not short, use derivatives or borrow i.e., it is long  only and is concentrated; usually with 15 to 20 companies across
  industrial sectors. Resource stocks are avoided.

Australian Fund Monitors

ATTACHED FILESMicroequities Deep Value Microcap Fund AFM Fund Review June 2014 (pdf format)

Recently the news has been dominated by horrors and disasters in the Ukraine and Gaza, and an emerging global health threat from the Ebola virus in West Africa, none of which are necessarily relevant to Financial Markets or "Hedge Clippings", except we have been surprised at the lack of market volatility resulting from them. Maybe the markets have become hardened or become immune to the daily dose of visual horror we are presented with, or maybe they just won't affect the bottom line enough to matter.

Earnings are a different matter, particularly when the majority of experts have been talking of an over-priced market for some months, with investors also seemingly immune from the warnings. At first call that would seem to have changed overnight with the start of reporting season, as we suspected it might, with significant falls all round, with the exception of Abu Dhabi (+0.99%) and Dubai (+1.99%).

As a the time of writing the Australian market, although generally judged to not be as overvalued as the US, is down around 1.5%, having just completed its second best month for the past year. Timing is everything, and most fund managers will have closed July's books thankful to have booked a positive return, and at least happy they have another 30 days of the month to manage August's performance.

You will note we're not falling into the trap of predicting if this is an overdue correction, and therefore a buying opportunity, or the start of a more serious sell off as Tapering finishes tapering, and rates begin to rise. Ask me in a month or two's time and I should be able to give you a better idea!

On other fronts it's been thankfully quiet in Canberra, while David Murray's Financial System Inquiry has announced a series of upcoming public forums in four capital cities (not quite sure why Adelaide and Hobart missed out, Canberra I do understand) open for anyone to attend, to hear about the Inquiry, ask questions of the Committee, and raise issues for examination by the Inquiry. Those interested can register online or download two summaries of the FSI Interim Report from our library, one from Deloitte, and one from Ernst & Young.

Final round submissions to the Inquiry close on 26^th August.

Prism Select and OLIVIA123

Closer to home, this week Australian Fund Monitors released two exiting new products, Prism Select and OLIVIA123.

Prism Select is an information only site which provides details on a small group of funds from our database, with significantly greater depth of information than available on AFM. However, using OLIVIA the significant factor is that investors have the ability to apply for each fund online, which makes completing lengthy and confusing paper based forms a thing of the past.

OLIVIA stand for "On Line Investor Verification & Interactive Applications". That's a mouthful, so OLIVIA seemed much easier.  In fact we believe OLIVIA makes applying for a managed fund as easy as One, Two, Three.

There's no cost to investors, but they'll save time and effort, and OLIVIA includes an online AML and KYC module to confirm their identity in real time. We can't be sure, but we believe OLIVIA is not only a first of its kind in Australia, but also the world.

Should you have any questions please visit the site, or contact us for further details.

Specific results received this week include the following PERFORMANCE and NEWS UPDATES:

The Cor Capital Fund returned 7.82% for the 12 months to 30 June 2014 with a volatility of 5.85% and the one month return is 0.76%.

Laminar Credit Opportunities Fund returned 1.09% during June and 12.20% over the previous 12 months as compared to the RBA cash rate over that time of 2.54%.

Performance for the KIS Asia Long Short Fund was 0.95% during June and 11.89% for the previous 12 months with a low volatility of 2.69%.

The Forager Australian Shares Fund returned -0.15% during June and 17.72% over the year-ended June 2014 with a volatility of 11.48%..

Pengana Absolute Return Asia Pacific Australian Fund returned 1.04% during June and 7.93% for the  prior 12 months with a low volatility of 2.86%.

FUND REVIEWS released this week include:

Morphic Global Opportunities Fund and also Microequities Deep Value Microcap Fund

FUTURE EVENTS:

Tuesday 12th August 2014, from 12pm to 4.30pm - ARRIA is hosting a round table discussion in Sydney, providing a valuable opportunity to meet with like-minded advisers.

Wednesday 13 - Wednesday 20 August: Financial System Inquiry - Public Forums to be held in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. Click here to see dates in your capital city.

Thursday 14th August in Sydney: AIMA Australia Education Forum. The forum will discuss regulatory, tax and other issues, as well as current observations and insights associated with a range of hedge fund investment products, including Australian unit trusts, Cayman funds, UCITS and listed investment companies. It is a "must attend" event for hedge fund managers reviewing their current products or considering development of new products.

14-15 August in Sydney: Alternative Investments Conference - Investigating the rise and rise of non-traditional high yield and low risk investment products, strategies and allocation in an era of prolonged volatility and low returns.

If you would like your Event listed in our calendar, please contact us.

On that note, I hope you have a safe and happy weekend.

Best wishes,

Chris
CEO, AUSTRALIAN FUND MONITORS

Connect with me on LinkedIn Twitter Facebook

Australian Fund Monitors are helping to raise awareness to support research into prevention and cure for cerebral palsy.  For more information visit www.cpresearch.org.au or contact me by email.