This week a special ‘On the Couch’ with Chris Hall the CIO of Ellerston Low Volatility Income Strategy fund or ELVIS.  The ELVIS Fund has been a consistent outperformer and is made up of between 30-40 mid to large cap stocks with a focus on delivering low volatility consistent income returns. For any member looking at ways to maximise income On the Couch this week should be compulsory listening as Chris lets us in on some interesting ideas on where to find income and equity growth.

Chris spent over ten years as Senior Investment Officer at Argo Investments Limited, managing the Australian equities team and its A$5 billion in assets. Before Argo, he was Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Blackrock Asset Management in Hong Kong, as well as being a member of the Management Committee overseeing the Asian Fundamental Equities Team with $35bn in assets.

This VIDEO might interest some of you as Chris talks about rewriting the rules on income. 

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This week 'On the Couch' Henry chats to Greg McKenna the CEO of the multi award winning  Police Bank, a bank that serves those in Blue. Greg McKenna is a familiar face to Sky Business viewers with his expert take on the economy and the macro picture. Back in 2018 Greg swapped his economist's hat to work on the board of the Police Bank and was named as the CEO of the Police Bank in March this year. 

Greg had been working in Banking and finance since 1986 and had played a long role in the Bank and the Police Community, having served on the Board of Police Bank as a Director between July 2012 and July 2018 and then as Chair where he was key to refreshing the Bank’s strategy.

As a CEO of a financial institution, Greg has a unique insight on what is happening in the ‘real’ world and how customers are coping with the pandemic. As always, Greg brings his wealth of experience and knowledge and talks Neobanks, Fintech and how he sees Modern Monetary Theory playing out in the money printing world of central banks.

Enjoy!

On the Couch this week sees us head over the ditch to talk to two Kiwi fund managers, Mark Devcich and Chris Bainbridge from Pie Funds. Mark and Chris run a $130m Emerging growth fund focusing on companies below a $150m market cap and concentrated mainly on the ASX. The Emerging Fund is now close ended with a 24.64% annualised performance since inception.

 In the podcast, we talk two stocks that the team are recommending, the ones that got away and how to value small caps and the all-important four Ps.

Mark is the CIO and Portfolio Manager with over 10 years at Pie having worked previously for PWC and is a shareholder of Pie Funds. Chris is responsible for Australian Equities and a Portfolio Manager. Chris is a CFA and a shareholder of Pie Funds. 

In ‘On the Couch’ this week, Henry talks to serial technology entrepreneur and clean energy advocate, Eytan Lenko from Beyond Zero Emissions. Eytan talks us through his ‘million jobs’ plan for Australia, his thoughts on hydrogen and alternative clean energy sources and what sectors should do well as the global economy de-carbonises.

Eytan Lenko is a founder of Outware, one of Australia’s most awarded and fastest growing technology companies.  He has extensive technical, commercial and leadership expertise having grown Outware from 3 co-founders to a team of over 250 based in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. Outware was successfully acquired by Melbourne IT in 2017.

Eytan has an engineering background and has deep knowledge around the current state of our energy transition. He is passionate about the exceptional opportunities that we have to transform our economy in response to climate change.  Eytan's Twitter feed here

On the Couch with Henry this week are Ellerston Capital Australian Micro Cap Fund Managers David Keelan and Alexandra Clarke. The Fund has returned 24.10% pa since inception on May 1st 2017 - Click Here for the latest performance report.

The Fund is an actively managed portfolio of Australian listed smaller company securities. The fund is made up of a portfolio of between 30 – 60 Micro Cap stocks.  The Fund invests across a number of sectors, and offers access to higher growth companies not widely known. The investment team employ a fundamental, bottom up approach to stock selection and combine that with a focus on risk management when constructing the portfolio aiming to outperform the S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries Accumulation Index over a rolling three year investment horizon.

David Keelan has been with Ellerston since 2008 - David has 13 years experience as an Investment Analyst and prior to joining Ellerston, David worked for UISL/Old Mutual in the UK for a period of 4 years in a Senior Dealing role. David graduated from Liverpool John Moore’s University with a BSc. Hons. in Technology Management in 2004.

Alexandra Clarke joined Ellerston Capital as a Senior Analyst in 2017 and has 11 years of financial market experience.  Prior to joining Ellerston, Alexandra worked as a lead analyst at Morgans. Alexandra graduated from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Business majoring in Banking & Finance in 2007. She also holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Finance from Finsia. 

This week Henry is on the virtual couch with author and founder of ‘Shareplicity’, Danielle Ecuyer. Danielle has had a long career in broking having worked for some of the big names in investment banks both here in Australia and London. She has recently written a book ‘Shareplicity’ which aims to make share investing as simple as possible. Danielle brings a no-nonsense approach to the business of investing on the stock market and offers some great advice for both beginners and experienced investors alike. We are all learning and all on a journey. It never ends. Investing truly is a work in progress. Click here to go to Danielle's website and buy her book. Meanwhile - Enjoy!

Vlado Bosanac the CEO has been kind enough to spend an hour with Henry chatting about the opportunities of this $100m ASX listed company that is starting to make waves. In fact, Vlado is proof of its impact having ‘dechunked’ during CV19 and losing 14kg with the help of the new technology. An unexpected consequence of using the technology. Vlado speaks to us from Perth. He is the CEO at Myfiziq Limited & Body Composition Technologies - Accurate body measurements from your phone. (ASX: MYQ) - Enjoy! 

You cannot keep a good man down and this weekend in a departure from the usual Financial Education we indulge Henry as he indulges you with a chat on the Couch with Rock Legend Paul Christie from Mondo Rock. I could explain why, what its about and disclaim any advice but there is none, I don't know why and I suggest you just sit back and you'll find out what its about - Enjoy!

After last week’s technology SNAFU and the end of the reporting season Henry is on the virtual couch again with stock broker Adam Dawes from Shaw and Partners talking through reporting season, the winners and losers, their top picks in the small-cap space for the next quarter and what just happened in the technology sector. 

This week On the Couch Henry is joined by not one but two guests with Bryce Leske and Alec Renehan the podcast doyens from EquityMates. Two great young guys starting out on their investment journey and sharing with the world. They have created a series of successful educational podcasts which interview industry experts on investing and all things finance. Marcus and I have both done interviews with them, but today we turn the tables. We had a great chat. Get your kids to listen as well.