April was a bit of a ride, wasn’t it? Here are some of my investing articles you may have missed amid tariff mania, starting with my two most regular features.

Bookworm

Every second Tuesday, Bookworm highlights useful insights from books and shareholder letters written by top investors or businesspeople. The insights centre around three core principles: owning quality assets, fostering a long-term mindset, and putting process over emotion.

April’s first Bookworm drew from the approach of a high-profile British fund manager. In an edition that fit snuggly under the “own quality assets” theme, I looked at a few ways that the well-known ‘quality investor’ Terry Smith filters good businesses from not-so-good ones.

The next edition was inspired by my realisation that many investors today (myself included) have not experienced a bear market of any great length. That made me curious of when the last prolonged downturn in US or Australian equity indices was, and what we might learn from Warren Buffett’s shareholder letters during that time.

Ask the analyst

Ask the analyst puts questions from Morningstar readers and myself to our team of equity analysts. If you have a question about an ASX stock or industry we cover, please send it to joseph.taylor@morningstar.com.

We had two editions of Ask the analyst this month, starting with a sector that has been heavily out of favour in recent years but may be showing signs of a recovery.

I thought that made it a good time to catch up with our REITs analyst Winky Tan on all things office, from differing supply dynamics in Sydney and Melbourne to the future of remote work and which assets could benefit. Read “Is the worst over for office REITs?” here.

Later in the month, we turned to a corner of the investment landscape that is very much having its moment: gold. See why our global mining analyst Jon Mills has a very different view to the market on gold prices (and many gold miner valuations) here.

Calm amid the chaos

My other articles during the month included my attempt to rebuff claims that investing has ‘changed forever’ due to a few policy announcements. Instead, I argued that the principles of sound long-term investing remain exactly the same as they were a month, a year and even a decade ago.

It also seemed fitting to republish an article I wrote during the August 2024 market wobble (remember that?!) on how to panic less in the next market panic. And, of course, I couldn’t resist having a look for some high-quality companies that our analysts think may have fallen too far.

The personal front

Besides work, April included conquering Australia’s highest peak and sipping the fruits of what I assume must be Australia’s highest Guinness harp shortly afterwards. Delightful.

April also saw the start of soccer season. So far, it has yielded two wins, one loss, and about twenty reminders that I should have started my pre-season fitness regime six months earlier.

If I had to pick one highlight from the month, however, it would have to be the Tigers-Sharks NRL game that we attended on the Sunday of ANZAC weekend.

The match itself was memorable. But the immaculate Last Post and perfect silence, broken only by the wind swishing through the trees lining Leichhardt Oval, will stay with me for a lot longer.

Looking forward

May looks rather promising. Not least because I have two excellent investing conferences lined up.

The Australian Shareholders’ Association’s annual investor conference starts in Sydney on Sunday May 4 and runs until the Tuesday evening. I’ll be there for at least one of the weekdays, so please stop me and say hello if you are going.

The same goes for any of you attending the in-person day of Morningstar’s Investment Conference for advisors on May 21. The line-up is jam-packed and I’m sure there’ll be some lively debate. You can find details here.

To make sure you don’t miss any of our articles going forward, please sign up below to get our daily Morning Note if you haven’t already. Thanks again for reading and see you in May!

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