Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

A few good years can make a business look like a long-term winner. But what gives it the staying power to keep delivering over the next five or 10? It’s an appealing prospect for investors: find a handful of businesses that can keep growing their earnings, hold on, and give compounding time to work. The challenge is recognising which companies have that endurance – and how much you should pay to own them. With the Spring Racing Carnival upon us, we’re turning our attention to the ASX’s ‘stayers’ - businesses that can keep delivering for shareholders over the long haul. Joining us to assess the contenders are Nick Pashias from Antares Elite Opportunities Fund and Luke Laretive from Seneca Australian Small Companies Fund. We explore what separates a genuine long-term compounder from a business that’s simply enjoyed favourable conditions, and what could convince them to sell a company they once intended to keep. We put five stocks to the buy, hold or sell test. Which would the fundies back from here? This episode was filmed Wednesday 28th October 2026.

A recent survey of 1,400 Livewire readers revealed that 57% plan to increase their exposure to high-dividend stocks this year. Yet Australian income investors face a persistent concentration trap: just seven stocks across two industries generate half of the entire ASX 200 dividend pool. Shifting focus from last week's consistent dividend growers, we look at companies offering yields above the broader market benchmark. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Dr Peter Gardner from Plato Investment Management and Dr Michael O'Neill from IML preview the upcoming bank reporting season and deliver their verdicts on a cross section of stocks where the dividends look enticing.

Dividend Aristocrats are US stocks that have increased their dividend for 25 consecutive years. The ASX has just one: Soul Patts, on a 28-year streak. But Australia’s dividend royalty might need to make room in the court as a cluster of aspiring Aristocrats deliver metronomic-like distributions to their investors.​ But Australia’s dividend royalty may soon need to make room. Take AUB Group, which has delivered 20 consecutive years of dividend growth at over +10% annually. While the starting yield on some of the companies discussed below might not blow your hair back, consistent earnings growth supports those growing dividends. That combination, as we know, can lead to powerful compounding and total returns for patient investors. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell , we’ve recruited the expertise of IML’s actuarial guru Dr Michael O'Neill and Dr Peter Gardner, from the house of dividends, Plato Investment Management. Our guests rate five consistent dividend growers, plus two potential future Aristocrats. This episode was filmed Wednesday 21st October, 2026.

I’ve always been fond of the phrase "wide economic moats." Beyond the jargon, it calls to mind heroic battles, impenetrable fortresses, and all manner of defence tactics and strategies. While modern companies may not be dodging a rain of arrows or pouring hot oil from the parapets, they are defending their turf against an onslaught of AI disruption, geopolitical shockwaves, sticky inflation and market volatility. To survive in today's market, a moat is made from three core pillars. Consistent High Return on Invested Capital (ROIC), strong pricing power, and a rock solid balance sheet. For this episode of Buy Hold Sell , I'm joined once again by Henry Jennings of Marcus Today and Rudi Filapek-Vandyck of FNArena to examine four quality growth companies (plus two picks from our guests) that embody these traits, and test whether their economic moats are holding strong or beginning to crumble. There are even props involved. This episode was filmed Wednesday 7th October, 2026.

Quantitative data vs. qualitative insights — why not both? In this episode, we cut through the market noise using Market Index’s new stock screening tool, Stock Scores, to uncover top ASX stocks scoring highest across Quality and Growth metrics. Rudi Filapek-Vandyck (FNArena) and Henry Jennings (Marcus Today) join us to break down these high-scoring stocks and share whether they’re a buy, hold or sell. More about Stock Scores here!: https://www.marketindex.com.au/stock-scores Please note this episode was filmed Wednesday 7th October, 2026.

The key to any great institution is the management team behind the scenes. Take the example of Justin Holbrook, who has guided the Newcastle Knights from wooden spooners to NRL grand finalists in the space of a year. And the ASX has long been home to stellar management teams who have turned their companies into global winners. In this episode of Livewire's Buy Hold Sell , I'm joined by Sean Roger from Perpetual Asset Management Australia and Joseph Koh from Blackwattle Investment Partners to deliver the calls on five ASX stocks with respected management teams, and share their pick for the ASX management team to beat.

Finding the right balance between attack and defence can be the difference between winning and losing. That will be the case when the Dockers meet the Lions at the MCG tomorrow, and it's also the case for ASX investors looking to build a winning portfolio. In this edition of Buy Hold Sell , I'm joined by Sean Roger from Perpetual Asset Management and Joseph Koh from Blackwattle Investment Partners.

After weeks of news about volatile bond markets, stubborn inflation, interest rate hikes, falling house prices, and the AI regulatory divide, that heavy feeling of doom and gloom can be hard to shake. But amidst all of this the world keeps showing us that success stories are still everywhere. Great companies are still thriving and investing in quality companies still works. So, let's put the macro anxiety aside for a moment, take a collective breath and focus on what's working. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Matthew Nicholas of 1851 Capital and Nick Sladen of LSN Capital Partners reveal their best performers over the last year, recent hot additions to the portfolio and the long standing small caps in their portfolios that continue to deliver.

Right now, bond markets are front of mind for investors everywhere. Sticky inflation and ballooning budget deficits are pushing yields higher, and with the RBA looking likely to hike rates once again and the domestic economy under pressure, the question isn't just which stocks look cheap, it's which ones can actually hold up when the cost of capital keeps rising. Small caps are particularly exposed in this environment and get hit harder when sentiment turns. But within this universe, there are always names with the earnings quality, balance sheet strength, or structural tailwinds to hold their ground. To find which ones can weather the storm, Matthew Nicholas from 1851 Capital and Nick Sladen from LSN Capital Partners are running the ruler over four small caps, and sharing a high-conviction pick each of their own.

No, that's not a typo in the headline. We're currently running our Commodities in Focus series, so this episode of Buy Hold Sell is a commodities takeover. We're also departing slightly from our traditional format, with our guests pitching stocks that they like across five different commodities segments. That's right, it's wall-to-wall buys for this episode - because who wants holds and sells when it comes to commodities stocks. Sharing their best and brightest picks across the precious metal, bulk, base metal, battery/energy transition metal, and energy segments are Romano Sala Tenna from Katana Asset Management and Emanuel Datt from Datt Capital. Please note, this episode was recorded Wednesday, 9 September 2026

Another reporting season is behind us and now all that's left to do is assess the fallout. In this special reporting season edition of Buy Hold Sell , I'm joined by Joe Wright from Airlie Funds Management and Charles Story from WaveStone Capital to assess the large cap winners and losers from reporting season, and some other large cap picks that the market may have missed.

Reporting season is done and dusted for another six months. And as my colleagues have pointed out in their respective wrap-ups, for all the angst heading in, Australian companies came out of it in better shape than many expected. The backdrop, however, is a different story. Bond yields have pushed higher, the consumer is weakening, inflation remains sticky, and uncertainty is the only certainty on the horizon. If you had to sum it up in one line: it's tough out there. We kick off this two-part reporting season wrap-up of Buy Hold Sell with the small caps, and in light of the doom and gloom, we asked our guests to bring a positive insight they took from the season. For Ben Richards of Seneca, it was the breadth of the market, with the Small Ordinaries rising 6% while the ASX 200 remained broadly flat. For Steve Johnson from Forager Funds, it was the return to form for software companies - reliable revenue, improving margins, and the SaaS apocalypse narrative finally creating some discipline in the space. We unpack six small-cap stocks in this episode, the ones who were solid from the ones who were sold off, and sort out the winners form the losers (plus a few bonus picks). Keep an eye out for our next episode with Tom Stelzer covering the large caps.

Since 1926, 17 of the top 20 US companies by annualised returns were founder-led at at least one point in their history, and many remain so today. Investors willing to back the right founders over time have been richly-rewarded, and a quick look at the list of the world's most valuable companies suggests that has never been more true than it is today. But what makes founder-led businesses so successful, and which founder-led or formerly-founder led companies are worth a look right now? In this episode of Buy Hold Sell , I'm joined by Alan Pullen from Magellan Investment Partners and Joseph Ziller from Ziller Funds Management to give their calls on three distinctive founder-led businesses, and share a founder-led stock pick of their own.

It's fair to say the world's biggest stocks are quietly putting the "magnificent" back in their Mag 7 moniker. Against the backdrop of an ever-escalating AI arms race, the Mag 7 are posting record revenues and record capex, but which ones are well-placed for this brave new world, and which could fall behind? In this bumper Mag 7 special of Buy Hold Sell , I'm joined by Alan Pullen from Magellan Investment Partners and Joseph Ziller from Ziller Funds Management to give big calls on the biggest companies in the world.

Thematic ETFs offer something that broad index funds can't - a concentrated, conviction-driven vehicle built on the belief that a particular trend will define the future. Just look at the space tech ETFs that launched this year. But as we know, what's in favour today can be out of favour tomorrow. Markets follow narratives, and yesterday's hot thing can become next year's toxic ex. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell , Adam Dawes from Shaw and Partners and Andrew Wielandt from DP Wealth Advisory sort the hot from the not, the break-ups from the make-ups, across six thematic ETFs in technology, semiconductors, healthcare, cryptocurrency and property. This episode was filmed Friday 14th August, 2026.

A Livewire reader recently reached out to us to suggest now is the time for investors to be looking for those durable businesses that could offer some resistance to things like AI, rate hikes and oil prices. The ASX industrials sector seems an obvious place to look, given it's full of stable companies that have endured through the years. But many industrials stocks are also directly exposed to those same macro factors that have help make equities markets a bit of a minefield. So how do you find the stocks that can deliver resilience? In this episode of Livewire's Buy Hold Sell , Hailey Kim from Wilson Asset Management and Daniel Moore from IML join Livewire's Tom Stelzer to dive into three heavyweight industrial stocks that could offer that durability right now, as well as a pick each of their own.

The Telstra outage of a few weeks ago was a fitting bookend to FY26 the ASX communications sector. It may have fared better than tech and healthcare, but the sector ended the financial year down 12.5% as macro, structural and cyclical threats took their toll. So what does the next year offer? In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Livewire's Tom Stelzer is joined by IML's Daniel Moore and Wilson Asset Management's Hailey Kim to dissect three communication names and decide if they're worth picking up or letting go through to voicemail. They also each bring a stock pick of their own - one an entertainment business with strong assets and a beaten-down market leader with double-digit earnings growth.

Late last year, more than 2,700 Livewire readers nominated their favourite income stocks for the year ahead. We already ran the ruler over the first half of that list - you can find that episode here . Now we're back for the second half. A lot has changed in the past six months, so there's no better time to take stock, so to speak. Geopolitical tensions have rattled commodity prices, bond yields have pushed higher, and the question of what actually makes a reliable income stock has never felt more relevant. A high yield can be a gift, or it can be a trap. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Hugh Dive from Atlas Funds Management and Jason Teh from Vertium Asset Management are back to debate the remaining names on the reader-favourites list, separating the sustainable stories from those whose thesis haven't aged as well as investors might have hoped. They also share one income idea each to freshen up the list for the second half of the year. This episode was filmed Wednesday 22nd July 2026.

Every relationship has its ups and downs. And every year, misunderstandings, broken promises and poor behaviour create a special list that no company wants to end up on - the Dogs of the ASX. These are the stocks that have been punished by the market and banished to the proverbial doghouse. This list is based on the "Dogs of the Dow" strategy, popularised by Michael O'Higgins in the early 90s - a systematic bet on mean reversion. Buy the worst performers from a large-cap index and wait for them to come back. The trick is picking which ones actually will. Hugh Dive from Atlas Funds Management has been tracking the Dogs of the ASX since 2011. In his FY26 breakdown , he notes that last year's cohort returned 66%. What makes this year's list unusual is the names on it. WiseTech, Xero, CSL, Pro Medicus...stocks that not long ago would have sat at the top of every quality growth manager's portfolio. Much like a bad breakup, it's not always fair or justified, and it's not always the full story. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Hugh and Jason Teh from Vertium Asset Management debate four of the biggest dogs in the top 10 and share their turnaround picks. This episode was filmed Wednesday 22nd July 2026.

As anyone paying even cursory attention to markets would know, the ASX tech sector has had a rough trot over the past year, down 37% as AI upheaval and rising rates took their toll. But not every stock in the sector has been dragged down with it, and the upcoming August reporting season is shaping up as a key test of who's actually benefiting from AI versus who's being eaten by it. In this episode of Buy Hold Sell, Elise McKay of Pendal and Shaun Weick of Wilson Asset Management join Livewire's Tom Stelzer to analyse three of the biggest ASX tech names that each sit on different branches of the AI tree. One is a standout performer up more than 70% year-to-date, one is a software name some have already declared dead as an AI casualty, and one is a data centre name smack bang in the middle of the infrastructure boom. They also each nominate a tech stock they're backing, including one that could be the next big Australian medtech success story. This episode was filmed Wednesday 15th July 2026.