October Investment Committee Meeting

The Investment Committee met on 24th October. This was timely as the previous period had been volatile and the main share markets had suffered large losses. We focussed on the risks and again doing our best to protect capital as much as we can. We decided to implement a number of strategies. These were;

1.    If the Australian Share market falls from peak to trough by more than 10%, the committee would hold a special meeting to determine if any further action was needed. Ironically, this took around 24 hours to be triggered and we met the next day after the US markets had closed. Our view was that despite the falls, there was nothing fundamentally that had changed by this we mean that economically everything was still behaving quite well. As we know this can change quickly, so we are continuing to monitor the markets.

2. To move a portion of our cash holdings to the JCB Active Bond Fund, which invests in Government Bonds. This was done to provide further protection and even positive returns, in the event of large and sustained share market falls.

We feel comfortable with our allocation of assets and the holdings. We have confidence that a strong level of protection, but not immunity, will be provided as the market challenges continue to arise. You can be assured that Bart and Gary are monitoring this daily and sometimes nightly, as events transpire overseas. We are well positioned and ready to respond as we see appropriate.