Tony's Takeaway: Raiz-ing the investment roof
Tony Locantro has been a client advisor/investment manager in the stockbroking industry since 1998. He's focused on the small cap and emerging companies with a strong interest in identifying those in the mining, biotech and industrial sectors that offer growth potential.
He also delves into the psychology of speculation and provides regular insights on a number of social media and finance related outlets.
In this edition, Tony remembers some savvy investments that were lying out for all to see before turning to one he thinks could be looked back on similarly in Raiz Invest (ASX:RZI) and a customer base which is growing in more ways than one.
The views, information, or opinions expressed in this video are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of Stockhead.
Stockhead has not provided, endorsed or otherwise assumed responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this video. Viewers should obtain independent advice based on their own circumstances before making any financial decisions.
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News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
‘Shock': Traveller reveals everything wrong with Australia
If you're like me and you've returned from Ho Chi Minh City after weeks of seeing 'Open 24 hours' signs plastered on every establishment and you're now wondering why you can't get a late-night feed that's not a McDonald's burger – you're not alone. After spending a year soaking up the fast-paced, late-night energy of some of Asia's busiest cities, Sydney woman Fiona Wang thought she'd feel comforted coming home. Instead, she found herself wandering empty footpaths after 5.30pm and not being able to get in to see the doctor on a weekend. 'How do Australians do this?' she said in a social media clip. The 29-year-old business owner and self-proclaimed 'travel-addict' recently returned to Australia after living in Bali, and says the adjustment back to Aussie life has been a culture shock in ways she didn't expect. 'If you're working 9-5, everything is closed by 5.30pm and doctors aren't open on Sundays. 'In Asia you can still contact the banks after 5pm, you can go to the mall 'till 10pm – you can do anything you need to,' she said. Like Fiona, I too had grown used to the 24-hour pharmacies, late-night bar spots and restaurants buzzing well into the early hours. But even mundane errands have now become a mission. 'Back here, I can't even send things by post unless I go during lunchtime,' she added. Amen, Fiona. Though she still loves to call Australia home, the 29-year-old admits she 'needs half-half.' A quick Google search returns results of like-minded night-owls all in pursuit of the answer to this very same question. 'Why does everything in Australia close so early?' In a very brutal Reddit take, one user questioned: 'Does no one like making money in Australia? Or do they just close early to go home and complain about the cost of living? Trying to get food after 9pm is impossible, and don't even get me started on AusPost opening hours.' 'Cafes closing at 1pm needs to be studied,' replied one user. Tim Bennett, insurance expert at Finder told 'We need to be more than a nation of coffee shops at 2pm to deserve the label of a top cultural destination.' 'There's a clear tension between the desire for a vibrant, attractive night-life that draws tourists and boosts local economies, and concerns about public safety and noise,' he said. 'Australian cities absolutely can have both safe and peaceful, while vibrant and world famous entertainment districts, but it requires genuine financial support for venues to make accommodations, protections from noise complaints, and good city planning to get people home safely. 'It also requires an acceptance from residents, especially in existing entertainment districts, that this is part and parcel of living in the inner cities.' Whether Australia is a nation with a rumbling night-life underbelly that's waiting to emerge or one that's permanently transfixed by early morning run clubs and matcha is yet to be seen – but until then, Ho Chi Minh is always ready for a good time.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Australia resisted America's gun culture — but couldn't help importing its obsession with oversized cars - ABC Religion & Ethics
Australia is rightly proud of having stood firm against one of America's deadliest exports — gun culture. After the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, our leaders acted with moral clarity and urgency. It was a bipartisan moment that has saved countless lives. While the United States doubled down on its right to bear arms, we said no. But there's another American export which we couldn't resist. In fact, we embraced it. It didn't come with bullets. It came with torque. Today, the vehicles dominating Australian roads are those dreamed up in Detroit and built to American scale. America has long held individual freedom as its highest virtue — often, it's placed above collective safety and social cohesion. Their idea of freedom is shaped less by care for others, and more by the logic of competition: survival of the fittest, the richest, and now, the biggest. Why Australia? The rise of oversized SUVs and utes in Australia is no accident. It's the result of a decades-long campaign by American car manufacturers to sell not just vehicles, but a story and a culture: that bigger is better; that personal dominance matters more than collective comfort; and that power is something to display. American car makers have exported more than vehicles — they've exported a value system. They've invested heavily in the Australian market and spent billions on advertising over the past decade to reshape what it means to 'drive'. They're turning it from an act of mobility into an assertion of identity. Their ads drip with masculinity, entitlement and conquest. Cars are no longer tools; they're statements. This American culture is embedded in the physical form of these cars: long, unapologetically flat hoods; lifted bodies; oversized ground clearance. And we bought it — not just the vehicles, but the idea behind them too. Australia resisted the guns; but we bought the trucks. When resistance to US-style excess emerged in Europe or Japan where space is tight and fuel expensive, car makers adapted. In Australia, with its car-loving culture and softer emissions rules, the American model found fertile ground. The marketing blitz followed — touting their 'utility' or 'sport' appeal (whatever that means), even though most people never tow a trailer or leave the suburbs. Ford spends over USD $2.5 billion annually on global advertising. RAM has flooded YouTube and sports broadcasts with testosterone-drenched imagery. Their campaigns lean heavily on rural imagery, regardless of whether the vehicle is driven by a tradie or an urban dad doing the school drop-off. Who bears the cost? The rise of massive vehicles on Australian roads is often framed as consumer preference. But that framing ignores the external costs borne not by the driver, but by everyone else, especially vulnerable road users: pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists. The evidence is unambiguous: large SUVs and utes are more likely to kill vulnerable road users. The pedestrian fatality crisis in the United States is the biggest testament to this. Pedestrian deaths were steadily declining for over two decades until 2009, when large vehicles began to dominate US roads. By 2022, annual pedestrian deaths had surged from around 4,100 to over 7,500 — a jump of nearly 80 per cent. This surge in pedestrian deaths has been directly linked to the growing popularity of these giant cars. And Australia is now on a similar path. We're trailing this trend. Pedestrians and motorcyclists are the only road users in Australia showing a consistent rise in fatalities for four years straight. No such pattern exists for drivers or passengers. And most vulnerable of all are children. In the United States, around 110 children are hit by vehicles each week in parking lots and driveways. The numbers have been climbing for years. Car hoods were once designed to slope downwards, giving drivers a clearer field of view. But today's boxy SUVs jut straight out before dropping off, creating large blind zones where small children simply disappear. You could line up a dozen children sitting in front of some of these vehicles, and the driver wouldn't see the first eight or nine. With certain models, you'd need more than twelve children in a row before one even appears in your view. Why car size is a moral issue We barely talk about car size as a moral issue. But maybe we should. The thing is, for many of us this is a subconscious choice. Nobody walks into a dealership and says, 'I'd like to endanger others.' But when you see enough of the same vehicle on the road it stops feeling like a choice. It starts feeling like self-defence. Especially when you're told that you need one of these to protect your family from all the other giant cars already out there. This imposes real — if marginal — risk on those who can't, or choose not to, participate in the vehicle size race: children walking to school or pedestrians crossing the road. And let's not forget all of us are pedestrians, at least some of the time. Driving tank-sized vehicles through residential streets, with bonnets at eye-level for most adults and towering above children, is a cultural export. And it's unmistakably American in posture — in-your-face, unapologetic, and indifferent to who gets left out. And this means, we're caught in a cycle of reactive consumerism: we buy big because others are big. We tell ourselves it's a personal choice, but how much of it was ever really ours to begin with? Milad Haghani is an Associate Professor of Urban Mobility at the University of Melbourne.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Retired publican lists $12m luxury apartment
A retired publican has listed his luxury $12m apartment in a luxury Elizabeth Bay block full of big hitters. Ken Thompson, who sold his Blues Point Hotel to former Qantas chief Geoff Dixon for $6m more than a decade ago, has owned the three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment with double parking and harbour views in the exclusive 'One Onslow' building since paying $5.05m off-the-plan in 2007. He's now listed it with BresicWhitney's Romany Brooks, hot on the heels of her selling a luxury penthouse to fashion icon Collette Dinnigan for about $7.2m in the nearby Tradewinds block alongside principal Shannan Whitney. Brooks says Thompson's apartment is well-priced, compared with other newer buildings nearby that have recently sold for as much as $60,000 per sq m. 'I feel that around $40,000 per sq m, this delivers the scale downsizers are seeking and delivers on value,' Brooks says. She has deliberately chosen to market the apartment for sale without styling it. 'It has 3m ceilings and is 302sqm, I want buyers to feel the scale,' she said. 'If you look at the old shots with furniture it just reduces the scale and doesn't showcase the finishes.' Thompson moved out of the second-floor apartment, which sits directly above the one Aussie Home Loans founder John Symond bought for $4.1m in 2011, after the death of his beloved wife, Elizabeth, and it's recently been rented out to the Canadian embassy at $5000 per week Other famous owners in the nine-unit boutique block include Joanna McNiven, widow of businessman John McNiven, who bought in for $9.7m in 2011 and mining entrepreneur Nick Curtis and his wife, Angela. Symond initially owned three units in the block, but sold two of them in 2018, including the sub-penthouse to the Curtises for $7.25m. Rosanna Hindmarsh, the wife of Canberra's construction industry boss John Hindmarsh, sold the penthouse for $20m in 2021 to businessman and philanthropist Thomas Yim and his wife, Denise. It had been Hindmarsh's construction firm that built the block.
