With so much choice on the ASX for building an ETF portfolio, the challenge is in construction. How do you combine ETFs in a way that makes sense for where you are in your investing journey? And how should that mix evolve as your knowledge, confidence and capital grows?

In this episode, Tom Stelzer is joined by Daniel Kelly of Viola Private Wealth and Adam Dawes of Shaw and Partners to build three ETF portfolios from the ground up: one for beginners, one for intermediate investors and one for those ready to step into more advanced territory.

Starting with low-cost, broad-market exposure ETF options, our panel explores how investors can begin layering in more targeted sector and thematic exposures as their portfolios mature, before heading into sophisticated territory, unpacking geared strategies and listed alternatives, where risk, correlation and portfolio construction become even more critical. 

This episode was filmed Wednesday 11th February 2026.

ETFs have become the building blocks of modern portfolios, offering instant diversification, liquidity and low-cost access to everything from global blue chips to niche thematics. But with a veritable supermarket of options now available on the ASX, choosing the right ETF is no easy task.

In this episode, Livewire’s Tom Stelzer is joined by Daniel Kelly of Viola Private Wealth and Adam Dawes of Shaw and Partners to give us their verdicts on some of the ETFs most tipped by Livewire readers for 2026.

We cover ETFs from global quality and cybersecurity, to Australian high yield, copper miners and the world’s largest listed companies.

As always, each guest also brings one ETF idea of their own for the year ahead offering two very different ways to position for 2026 - one taking advantage of the beaten-down ASX tech sector and another set to benefit from a geopolitically charged environment.   

This episode was filmed Wednesday 11th Febraury 2026

If you’ve ever watched a race, there’s usually someone trailing well behind the pack. The limelight belongs to the winners, of course, but there’s always a mix of second-hand embarrassment and sympathy for the poor sod trying and failing to catch up.

Growth investing can feel much the same. Miss the starting gun, and you may have already missed the early and most powerful part of the rally. 

In this episode, Anna Milne from Wilson Asset Management and Blake Henricks from Firetrail Investments explain how they identify early-stage growth opportunities and more importantly, how they distinguish early-stage businesses with long growth runways from those that are simply cheap. 

A key insight they agree on is that successful early growth investing starts with a deep understanding of the business itself, built through direct engagement with the company, not just financial metrics. 

They each share two under-the-radar growth stocks they rate as buys, along with the investment thesis behind them. This is an all-buys episode, so keep your watchlist handy.

Please note this episode was filmed Wednesday 28th January, 2026.

To paraphrase Gordon Gecko, growth is good.

But not all growth opportunities are created equal (just ask ASX tech investors right now), and after a year in which some growth stocks soared while others stalled, what's the outlook for growth this year, and how do you take advantage?

To answer those questions and more, we welcomed Anna Milne from Wilson Asset Management and Blake Henricks of Firetrail Investments to cover off all things growth stocks.

They reveal how they're handling the current market rotation, what they actually look for in growth-oriented companies and the thinking that goes into deciding when to sell.

They also each share their top pick for an ASX growth stock in 2026.

Please note this episode was filmed Wednesday 28th January, 2026.

Welcome back to a new year of Buy Hold Sell.

At the end of last year, we asked you, our Livewire readers, to tell us what your most-tipped growth stock will be for 2026. It was our 10th year running the survey, with nearly 5,000 responses, and we crunched the numbers to see which names emerged as clear favourites.

So for our first episode of the year, we asked our guests, Anna Milne from Wilson Asset Management and Blake Henricks of Firetrail Investments, to run the ruler over five of your most popular stocks from the results.

We also asked our guests to bring the stocks they think should have made the list and you should most certainly add to your watchlist.

Despite the noise, 2025 has quietly thrown up plenty of opportunities for investors.

Anyone switched on enough to play the Resources rebound, the generational gold trade, the small cap surge or even the CBA rally (before things cooled off) has probably done pretty well for themselves this year. 

While many investors sat on their hands over AI and bubble fears, or licked their wounds following the Liberation Day correction, others took the chance to act and reaped the benefits. 

Fortune favours the bold, or at least those willing to think outside the box. So as we prepare for the clocks to tick over to 2026, what are the big opportunities out there for investors looking to outperform over the next 12 months? 

As part of our 2026 Outlook Series, we asked nine leading fund managers to share the biggest investment opportunity they've identified for next year. 

Markets love a good story. And for most of 2025, it’s been the same story everywhere.

A handful of mega-cap stocks have driven the majority of equity market returns in the US, and a similar pattern has been evident here in Australia, where blue-chip heavyweights have dominated the spotlight.  

In both jurisdictions, hundreds of profitable companies have been ignored, and that’s how overlooked stocks are born. These are not broken businesses, just forgotten ones.

Later in the year, investors started to move down the market-cap spectrum - particularly in Australia, where small-caps have caught a bid. 

As leadership continues to broaden and fundamentals regain the spotlight, those ignored names can re-rate fast.

With 2026 now underway, we asked 10 leading fund managers to look beyond the obvious and share the overlooked stock they believe could surprise on the upside.

These interviews were filmed on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.

Every year, markets have a habit of humbling consensus. Industries written off as “uninvestable” can quickly turn into the best-performing trades on the board, while last year’s darlings quietly fall out of favour. And 2025 was a textbook example.

Few investors began the year expecting gold, defence, critical minerals or uranium to deliver such standout returns – yet all surged as shifting geopolitics, energy security and supply-chain realities reshaped capital flows. Even more surprising was hydrogen’s sudden resurgence, catapulting the long-maligned sector onto the global leaderboard after years in the wilderness. At the same time, traditionally reliable areas like ASX technology and healthcare struggled to gain traction, reminding investors just how quickly market narratives can flip.

With 2026 now firmly in sight, the obvious question is: where will the next breakout come from?

To find out, we asked 10 experts to look ahead and identify the sector or industry they believe is poised for a breakout year in 2026 – and, crucially, the stocks they think best capture that opportunity.

These interviews were filmed on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.

For most investors, the biggest determinant of long-term outcomes isn’t finding the next multi-bagger – it’s avoiding the handful of stocks that permanently destroy capital. 

The data is unambiguous. In his landmark study Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?, Professor Hendrik Bessembinder found that just 4% of listed US stocks accounted for all net wealth creation above Treasury bills since 1926, while the majority failed to outperform cash at all. 

For investors, that means the damage done by owning the wrong stocks can outweigh the benefit of trying to pick the next big winner. In other words, losses are concentrated, and so are mistakes.

That asymmetry matters even more for sophisticated portfolios, where capital preservation and compounding matter as much as upside capture. Avoiding the wrong stocks can quietly do more for returns than chasing the right ones.

With that in mind, we asked ten of Australia’s sharpest investment minds, spanning ASX and global equities, to nominate their stocks to avoid for 2026 and beyond.

These interviews were filmed on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.

In a year as frantic and fluid as 2025, it can be hard to know what is a valuable learning experience and what is just noise.

But it goes without saying that eventful times in markets will always throw up the opportunity for some new lessons and some old lessons best relearned. 

As part of our 2026 Outlook Series, we asked 10 leading fund managers to share the key lesson they learnt in 2025 and how that's informing their approach going into 2026.

From trimming winners too early to working out how to play the big market shifts, these lessons from 2025 should help you become a better investor in the year ahead.

These interviews were filmed on 9 December 2025.