Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

There's no two ways about it. If you weren't holding materials stocks over the past 12 months, you missed a trick. The sector surged more than 45%, blitzing its nearest competitor (consumer staples up ~11%) and outperforming every other positive sector... combined. The sector was powered by insatiable demand for commodities from the AI infrastructure build-out. Gold, silver, copper, platinum and p...

The energy sector has been front and centre for much of the last 12 months, as AI demand and the war in Iran have seen demand surge and prices jump around.  That's been good news for many of local names, with the ASX Energy sector up 11% this year, but is there any charge left in the battery? In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Livewire's Tom Stelzer is joined by  Dougal Maple-Brown  from Maple-Brow...

Just weeks ago, markets were pricing in the risk of a prolonged conflict in the Middle East, with oil surging as investors feared disruptions to global supply. Today, much of that geopolitical risk premium has unwound. Brent crude has retreated to around its pre-war levels following a US-Iran peace agreement, even as fresh flare-ups serve as a reminder that the situation remains far from settled....

Short sellers are often described as the smartest money in the room. They borrow shares, sell them on market, and actively bet that the price will fall.  Get it right and the returns can be substantial. Get it wrong and the losses are theoretically unlimited. Just ask the person on Reddit who shorted Korean fried chicken companies then lost it all when pictures of Jensen Huang eating fried chicken...

As equity investors, we're always aiming for better-than-average - otherwise we'd just buy a low-cost index ETF and be rid of the vagaries of individual stocks (but what fun would that be?!?!) No, playing the game of the market, we want - even need - stocks in our portfolio that deliver above-average performance, if for no other reason than to cover the laggards. With the new financial year about...

There are a few moments throughout the financial year that lend themselves to a portfolio review.  While investors should always remain diligent, January 1 provides a fresh opportunity to cast a critical eye over one's holdings, while the February and August reporting seasons offer another chance to decide which companies continue to make the cut. But perhaps EOFY trumps them all, particularly due...

What are Australia's best income stocks? To kick off Livewire's Income Series, we asked more than 2,700 investors to nominate their favourite income stocks and investments. The results included household names like BHP, Commonwealth Bank, Telstra and Washington H. Soul Pattinson, alongside a handful of small-but-mighty dividend payers that punched well above their weight. In this episode of Buy Ho...

The countdown is on to the FIFA World Cup and so what better way to join the party than by putting together our own best XI of ASX stocks.  In this special edition of Buy Hold Sell, we've asked First Sentier Investors'  Dushko Bajic  to take on the role of manager and select a starting team of 11 ASX stocks he thinks can deliver on the pitch.  It's a lineup that is looking to deliver everything yo...

The great ASX tech unwind has been brutal. After years of premium valuations, strong growth and near-bulletproof market faith, some of Australia’s best-known software and technology stocks have been dragged back to earth. The trigger? A mix of stretched multiples, slowing growth, investor fatigue and, increasingly, the disruptive threat of artificial intelligence. The five names in this episode – ...

Are you finding equity income investing harder than it used to be? Well, you're not imagining it. For years, income investors could build a portfolio of quality ASX dividend stocks and generate an attractive income stream without taking excessive risk. Today, that task has become far more challenging - but not impossible.  The ASX's yield has fallen well below historical averages, bank share price...

At any given point in the market cycle, there are certain sectors and themes where investors go hunting for growth. Sometimes it’s driven by disruption. Sometimes it’s recovery. And sometimes it’s simply because the market has become too pessimistic about quality businesses with long runways ahead of them. Right now, a few pockets of the ASX are attracting attention. Fintech and financial infrastr...

In the wake of the budget and the proposed CGT changes, there has been plenty of spirited debate about the future of growth investing in our great country. And rightly so.  But let's get real. Whatever we might think about the changes, Aussies will still create and invest in great growth businesses. It's in our blood.  No tax change is going to completely crush home-grown innovation - the very inn...

While much of the market has been nursing its wounds in 2026, the financial sector has been quietly holding up. But nothing stays comfortable forever.  With a fresh rate hike hitting the market and bank valuations looking increasingly stretched, one of our guests this week puts it best - the banks are running on Wile E. Coyote physics. Off the cliff, still running - just haven't looked down yet. S...

Inflation, shifting rates, and volatile oil prices have served up a "vicious cocktail" for investors. While many of 2025’s high-flyers have come back to earth, the dynamic small and mid-cap market remains a breeding ground for opportunity. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Chris Prunty (QVG Capital) and Chris Stott (1851 Capital) go head-to-head on five stocks from the growth engine of the ASX.  T...

For years, the ASX healthcare sector was the picture of health itself - a compounding growth story that investors treated as a set-and-forget holding. Then came a brutal twelve months. The sector has shed nearly 40%, with former darlings and long-standing heavyweights hitting lows not seen in a decade. The causes aren't simple, and perhaps most disorienting is the ‘defensiveness’ that investors pa...

This episode was filmed Wednesday 22nd April, 2026. Human nature pulls us toward the bargain, the beaten-up, the overlooked. Who doesn't love a sale? Buying a stock that's already doubled feels wrong. Dangerous, even. But some of the best money made has come from backing winners that just kept winning. The first half of 2026 has been a wild ride. The broader market has been middling at best. But b...

When Archimedes had that famous bath and watched the water rise, he didn't just solve a problem - he had one of history's great moments of innovation. A completely new way of seeing something that had always been there. Investors are on a similar hunt. Figuring out the pure gold in the market, the companies that are genuinely reimagining their industries, the true innovators that have the potentia...

In the first two episodes of this commodities-focused Buy Hold Sell series, we zeroed in on the obvious plays – gold, and oil and gas – the parts of the market dominating headlines and investor attention. But as is often the case in commodities, the real opportunity set runs much deeper. Lithium has staged a sharp comeback, tin and manganese prices have surged over the past year, and key industria...

The world is meant to be moving away from oil and gas, yet we are consuming more of it than ever. Global oil demand is now running at more than 102 million barrels per day, above pre-pandemic levels, and expected to continue growing according to the International Energy Agency. At the same time, oil and gas still account for roughly 55% of global energy consumption, underscoring just how far the t...

Gold has had a remarkable 12 months.  From the low in May-June last year, around US$ 3,500 an ounce, to the high of the January 2026 spike, around US$5,400 an ounce, the precious metals rallied almost 70%.  It was during this period that lines formed in Martin Place outside ABC Bullion.  Then, gold got the wobbles - particularly as war broke out in the Middle East. Whilst it didn't fall in a strai...

Sometimes, you get tired of the chicken parmy and start looking for a truffle pasta instead - you know that feeling? While there are plenty of advantages to investing on home turf, and many Australians do exactly that, for investors chasing genuine long-term growth, the local menu can feel increasingly narrow.  With the ASX still heavily anchored to ex-growth banks and miners, and a tech sector th...

AI, energy, infrastructure and defence might look like separate mega trends, but like a giant flywheel, they’re increasingly feeding into one another, creating a feedback loop that is reshaping industries, investment opportunities and the global economy. The AI boom isn’t just driving demand for semiconductors and cloud computing, it's also triggering a surge in electricity demand, forcing utiliti...

The Magnificent 7 are starting to look a bit like a boy band past its peak. (Think the Beatles, NSYNC, BTS...pick your era.) At their height, the hype is intoxicating. The name up in lights, the style, the choreography of the market moving to their beat. For a while, everyone agrees -  they’re untouchable. But nothing stays loved in the limelight forever, and sentiment can turn quickly. Doubts aro...

There are two things you want out of a good income stock - a solid yield and the ability to grow that yield over time.  In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Livewire's  Chris Conway  hosts  Peter Gardner  from Plato Asset Management and  Sean Roger  from Perpetual to run the ruler over five dividend stocks with better-than-market yields and expected dividend growth. We ran a screen that filtered comp...

The yield on the ASX has now been below 4% for quite some time, but that doesn't mean there's no income opportunities for Australian investors ready to do the work. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Livewire's Chris Conway hosts  Peter Gardner  from Plato Asset Management and  Sean Roger  from Perpetual to discuss whether we're in a structurally-lower income environment or whether it's just a lull...