The past six months have been golden for investors, with everything from equities to gold and even Bitcoin enjoying stellar runs. And if risk assets are not your bag, then there have been juicy yields on offer across a range of cash and fixed-income asset classes.

Animal spirits woke from their slumber in late October 2023 when the Fed effectively claimed victory in the fight against inflation. Markets have been led to believe that rate cuts are a forgone conclusion in the year ahead, and participants have been piling into risk assets accordingly.

Christopher Joye, portfolio manager and chief investment officer at Coolabah Capital Investments, says that markets have become so complacent that they appear to be completely ignoring a growing set of data suggesting that the path forward might not be smooth.

Most notably, the resurgent inflation data coming out of the US is causing interest rate cut expectations to be dialled back and kicked down the road. When asked what he thought investors were getting wrong about markets today, Joye was quick to call the dichotomy between what the economy is suggesting needs to happen with interest rates and market expectations.

“If this strong data keeps coming through then hold onto your hats because the world is not priced for this risk. Make no mistake, there is no margin for error in listed equities. There is no margin for error in venture capital, private equity, zero in crypto, in commercial real estate, nothing,” Joye argued.

Tune in to the latest episode of the Rules of Investing, where Livewire’s James Marlay ask Joye about his views on the outlook for both the US and Australian economies, the three risks he is watching and where he sees value in Australian residential real estate.

Quality growth stocks, those with fortress balance sheets, impressive moats, structural tailwinds and top-notch management teams, have had a stellar run recently. Take Goodman Group (ASX: GMG) for example, which has risen 66% over the past year. Or Megaport (ASX: MP1), up over 252% in 12 months alone.

If you're like this anonymous writer, you've probably started to ponder whether it's time to trim some of your winning positions and take some profits.

And according to TMS Capital's Ben Clark, we may have just reached that point.

In this episode of The Rules of Investing, Clark sits down with Livewire's Ally Selby for a conversation on all things artificial intelligence, growth investing and holy grail stocks.

He shares where he is putting some of the firm's dry powder to work, a few reasons why investors should feel optimistic about the outlook for markets, and whether he would be buying the AI behemoths both globally and locally today despite their stellar runs over the last six months.

Plus, Clark shares why the tables may be turning once again for out-of-love growth darling CSL (ASX: CSL).

Note: This episode was recorded on Tuesday 9 April 2024.

Timecodes:

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:54 - Ben Clark's outlook for the remainder of 2024
• 4:17 - Record cash holdings in the US and what this means for markets
• 6:51 - Why Aussie investors are also holding a lot of cash
• 7:39 - The most common question Ben Clark is hearing from clients
• 10:01 - The takeaways from Ben's trip to SXSW in the US
• 12:13 - Learnings from a private meeting with a Google executive
• 15:11 - The outlook for Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL)
• 16:25 - Can the momentum continue for global AI winners like Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA)
• 19:17 - The ASX-listed stocks that directly benefit from AI
• 23:17 - Why some of these stocks' share prices may have gotten ahead of themselves
• 24:30 - Holy grail stocks - and why Brickworks (ASX: BKW), WiseTech (ASX: WTC), REA Group (ASX: REA) and CSL (ASX: CSL) make the cut
• 29:32 - Where Ben Clark has started to take profits
• 31:28 - And where he is putting that cash to work
• 36:11 - One thing the market is getting wrong today
• 38:03 - Lessons for growth investors from the 2022 bear market
• 42:59 - A stock to buy and hold for the next five years

If there is one theme that has taken the world by storm in 2024, it's Artificial Intelligence or AI.

Until very recently, this week's guest was a bit of a sceptic, but a recent trip to the US has seen him come back a changed man.

In this episode, we'll be sitting down with investment adviser Ben Clark of TMS Capital. We'll be learning about the wonderful world of growth investments, the key technological innovations that have him excited and his top holy grail stocks.

Here's a sneak peek of what you can expect...