Believe it or not, the Aussie share market is up over the past 12 months

Bryce: [00:00:15] Welcome to another episode of Equity Mates, a podcast that follows our journey of investing. Whether you're an absolute beginner or approaching Warren Buffett status, our aim is to help break down your barriers from beginning to dividend. My name is Bryce and as always, I'm joined by my equity buddy, Ren. How you going? 

Alec: [00:00:30] I am very good. Bryce. I'm good. Very excited. How could I not be? Life is good. Okay. Australian inflation 6.9% down from 7.3%. Oil is where it was at the start of the year. The cost of shipping is returning to pre-COVID levels. The ASX 200 is actually up for the past 12 months. Yes, it's actually up about 0.6%. And Australia is through to the round of 16 in the World Cup. Life is good. I am long. I am dangerously long. I'm hopelessly lonely. I am courageously long. Bryce I am. 

Bryce: [00:01:10] When are you? Never long, though. 

Alec: [00:01:11] I am. Well, I'm just long. I'm long Australia. I'm long the market. It's December. Life is good. 

Bryce: [00:01:23] We had the Nasdaq rip three, four, almost 4% overnight, as well as Jerome Powell, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve, came out to say that he might be taking it a little easy on the speed at which he increases interest rates in December. So time will only tell. But the big episode today will start with what we have learnt over the last week. The ASX sharemarket game has finished and we've had some amazing results come in. So we're going to go through some of the portfolios of the winners to get a sense of what they were buying and my goodness, is there an Australian theme? I bet you can guess which one it is. And then we're going to close out with a book Bonanza, as always, probably one of the last book Bonanzas for the Year. As we approach December and our summer series, we've got bold predictions to review, Ren. We've got Stock of the Year to review. We've got a crypto update. We've got Andrew Brown. 

Alec: [00:02:13] Yes, yes. 

Bryce: [00:02:14] Oh, my goodness. We've got some content to get through before the end of the year. 

Alec: [00:02:16] And then we have been working on our summer series, 12 company Deep Dives, and we've got 12 experts also joining us to talk about those companies. It's going to be epic. 

Bryce: [00:02:26] What what is what a slate of content we have coming up. But let's start with what we've learnt this week. Ren, shall I kick off? Well, I've had it. You know, me and Mr. Philip Lowe has had a bit of a thing. 

Alec: [00:02:39] Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:02:41] The Governor of the Reserve, the Reserve Bank of Australia, Philip Lowe. I'd say about when we're still at work. So it would have been before August, maybe June or July came out to say we weren't happy with it. 

Alec: [00:02:55] You came. 

Bryce: [00:02:56] Out. I came out and said I wasn't happy with the performance of the RBA, particularly the guidance that they'd given and how wrong they were when it came to the long term view on interest rates. Well, did we have a change? A bit of a not a U-turn, but he came out during the week, Philip Lowe and apologised to all those people that had made a decision to take out a home loan based on his comments that interest rates wouldn't rise until 2024th, which I thought was a pretty interesting thing to do. 

Alec: [00:03:28] No, he didn't actually apologise to people. He said. 

Bryce: [00:03:32] Regrets?

Alec: [00:03:32] No, he said I'm sorry if people listened.

Bryce: [00:03:35] Well, same thing. 

Alec: [00:03:36] No, that's kind of like I'm sorry you're offended. 

Bryce: [00:03:39] He says I'm sorry if people listened to what we'd said and then acted on it, what we said, and now regret what they have done. So that's regrettable. I'm sorry that that happened. I'm certainly sorry if people listened to what we'd said and then acted on it. It's like. Right. Yeah. What do you think people are going to do? 

Alec: [00:03:55] So I think I think there's a number of things here because I posted a meme about this on our Instagram earlier this week and it got hot. 

Speaker 1: [00:04:03] Okay. 

Alec: [00:04:05] There were people commenting like, you guys should get out of this topic. You're losing whatever credibility you have left, stuff like that. And then on the other side, people were like criticising Philip Lowe and two things can be true at the same time. It can be true that you shouldn't make your home loan or your home purchasing decisions purely on what the governor of the RBA is forecasting. And it can also be true that Philip Lowe did a terrible job of communicating to the public. Those two things can both be true. 

Bryce: [00:04:35] Yeah. 

Alec: [00:04:35] And it's like people got so hot under the collar either criticising Philip Lowe or saying people shouldn't have borrowed based on what he said. But for me, it's like you can walk and chew gum at the same time here, people. 

Bryce: [00:04:48] Yeah, yeah. No, I agree.

Alec: [00:04:50] I'm obviously just a bit defensive because people will say vicious in the main.

Bryce: [00:04:54] Don't really consider it hurts. I just thought. It was an interesting and interesting thing for him to say. It's like umpires coming out and saying they got something wrong. It's a very soft way of him saying that we've got something wrong and not really going the full way. Some data was pulled by Alan Collar to actually look at how many people. Take out home loans between the moment, he said, interest rates won't rise until 2024 and the moment that he actually raised rates, 1.2 million home loans were taken out during that period. The unknown question is how many of those 1.2 were taken out? Was the. 

Alec: [00:05:33] Alternative? 

Bryce: [00:05:33] Yes. So what would it have been? Who knows? But 1.2 million home loans during that period. 

Alec: [00:05:41] There's a really. Speaking of home loans, there's a really interesting dynamic there. Yes. We're starting to notice play out and it puts Australia, I guess, in contrast to some other parts of the world. In Australia variable rate home loans is the norm and in the US and I think in New Zealand fixed rate home loans are the norm, but definitely in the US. And so Australians are getting, you know, feeling this mortgage pain. But what we're seeing in the US is the housing market dry up because no one wants to sell and have to, you know, trade in their 2% mortgage for a 6% mortgage. And so it'll be really interesting to see how these interest rate rises affect the two housing markets differently. 

Bryce: [00:06:21] Yeah. TIME Speaking of and I know we're talking about housing a lot, but I also thought another interesting start to put it all in perspective as well is NAB came out during the week and said that they expect that housing is likely to drop a further 18% on the bear case on the on. 

Alec: [00:06:39] The back housing. 

Bryce: [00:06:40] Which would take it to be one of the most aggressive falls in house prices from its peak last November or whatever it was, whenever it was this year. Most aggressive fall in house prices in Australian history, not the most, but one of that. If that happened, it would bring house prices back to the long term average. 

Alec: [00:07:06] Oh my God. 

Bryce: [00:07:08] Yeah. So just puts into perspective the heights from which it was falling and that that's, that, that's saying if it falls another. 

Alec: [00:07:16] Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:07:17] Sort of back bearish 18% or so. So anyway big week in housing as always, big week in interest rates. We started with inflation but what have you learnt?

Alec: [00:07:27] Bryce, our good friend Jeremy Grantham has come across my radar again, so I want to bring him to your attention. For people not familiar with Jeremy Grantham, he's a co-founder of GMO, a massive asset manager over in the US, maybe hundreds of hundred and.

Bryce: [00:07:44] 18 billion in 2015. Yeah. 

Alec: [00:07:47] Yeah. GMO has released their forecast for seven year returns. Here we go. Oh, priceless. What do you think? Jeremy Grantham's forecast for us large caps is over the next seven years? 

Bryce: [00:08:02] Well, if there is ever one person to be called upon to bear, it is Jeremy Grantham. This guy has the most negative outlook on markets, so the outlook for the next seven years on US large caps.

Alec: [00:08:15] In the US. 

Bryce: [00:08:15] Has got to be negative. It's got to be negative. 

Alec: [00:08:18] Well, I mean, keep in mind that we were down 20%. I don't think we've ever had a bad seven year period after being down 20%. 

Bryce: [00:08:28] Yeah. Okay. I reckon in seven years he reckons then we're going to be flat. 

Alec: [00:08:31] He reckons it will be so. This is real. So adjusted for inflation, down 1% a year over the next seven years, which would be his history breaking. But this guy can be a bear where no one else can be a Bit. 

Bryce: [00:08:49] Unbelievable. 

Alec: [00:08:50] Anyway. So I just want to. I feel it every time. Jeremy Grantham is negative. Yeah. If Jeremy Grantham's ever positive, we have to do a full episode on it. Sure. Celebrate, try and. 

Bryce: [00:08:59] Get him on. 

Alec: [00:09:00] Just see we have us. 

Bryce: [00:09:01] He said no, not so. 

Alec: [00:09:02] I wonder. Why? Yeah. But no. Look, the main thing that I wanted to talk about, what I learnt this week is something that has been an eternal bit of frustration for us and I'm going to look down the camera when I say this ASX, I am talking to you, this has to change. So take full credit to them on the Australian shares platform. They allow you to choose the way that you receive communications by post or by email. So may being the paperwork hating, environmentally conscious investor that I am. I chose by email, hit, confirm and then look at what has come in the mail and I've done the redacting so I can hold them up to the camera. One. 

Speaker 1: [00:09:51] Two, three, four.

Alec: [00:09:54] Five, six, seven letters confirming that I would rather receive communications by email rather than by post seven less. 

Bryce: [00:10:05] It's ridiculous. 

Alec: [00:10:07] What the hell? And they all say the same thing. They just say you've. Told us you would like to receive communications by email. 

Bryce: [00:10:16] So here's the paperwork to prove it. So the petition, So the Equity Mates petition for no paperwork starts now. 

Alec: [00:10:25] Change that all. 

Bryce: [00:10:26] change that all. 

Alec: [00:10:26] Got to put it in the show notes. I suspect the chess replacement may have failed. Prioritise just stopping paperwork. [00:10:33][7.3]

Bryce: [00:10:34] Yes. Maybe that's what we put in the form is a comment here for a petition for no paperwork. [00:10:41][6.7]

Alec: [00:10:42] But it did really make me think. And the thing that I am getting really stuck on is that the ASX thinks about information security differently to the way that every other major institution does the government. Your bank, for some reason the ASX are tied to this idea that sending stuff to your home is more secure than your email. But no one else thinks like that. The government doesn't think like that. They're happy to send stuff to your email. Banks are happy to send stuff to your email, but at its core, the logic is wrong as well because you change house more than you change email emails move with you whether you're renting, even if you own a house, the likelihood of you selling your house and moving is higher than the likelihood of you deciding to get a new email address. Email address stays with you for life, at least when you move from the teenage hotmail surfer dude 100 at hotmail dot com to the you know the outlook round ahead of time icon your email address will not change. Yeah. And why is it that ASX is the only institution that thinks they have to send seven letters to confirm that you'd rather save things by now? 

Bryce: [00:11:50] It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. But let's start around 2023 is the year we can make it happen because this is a frustration that everyone in the Equity Mates community shares every time you buy a stock. Well, at least if it is off your chest sponsored, you're going to get that's another positive for not being just sponsored. You know, a couple of the emails, a couple of emails, but.

Alec: [00:12:09] It just blows my mind. The stake literally gave you an option. I would rather say things by email and it's like it's from the ASX, it's from different registries, from different ETF providers. The weird thing was and then some individual stocks that I hold, but not all, just some. So maybe I've got more mail coming or different registries or different. 

Bryce: [00:12:28] US as well.

Alec: [00:12:28] Well. Not only Australian because it's only chess. Yeah, yeah. But some eighth providers and some companies have sent me mail and the ASX themselves have sent me mail. But not all ETFs that I own and not all companies that. [00:12:42][13.3]

Bryce: [00:12:42] I am becoming. 

Alec: [00:12:44] Or maybe some registries do it better. And if that's the case, the registries that do it better, we want to celebrate you. So reach out because this has to change. This is just ridiculous.

Bryce: [00:12:55] All right. Well, let's keep moving about. I do agree. Let's get it going. If we can petition for no paperwork. 2023 Equity Mates let's make it happen.

Alec: [00:13:04] But I want the ASX in the sustainability report you know, publicly listed companies that do a sustainability report. I want you to report on how many unnecessary letters you forced registries to send to the unsuspecting and unwilling public. 

Bryce: [00:13:19] Nice. Well a great segway into the ASX sharemarket got here. So we've got a segment. The next segment is that the ASX share market gain has closed and finished for the year now. We didn't play it in the second half of this year, but we have been following along and tracking some of the star performers and the results are in and boy, were there some amazing results coming in, not only from the winners, those that came second and third and some of the big winners, but ran overall. So 9500 participants. Wow. You start with 50,000. The average participant value at the end of it was 50,557, meaning that 56% of people who played finished in profit. 

Alec: [00:14:07] Wow. Yeah.

Bryce: [00:14:08] So full credit to the Aussie investors out there who in a period of volatility and well we did say at the top that the ASX is up 1% year to date. It has ripped 12% in the. 

Alec: [00:14:19] Last not year to date.

Bryce: [00:14:20] I'm sorry, over. 

Alec: [00:14:21] The loss over the. 

Bryce: [00:14:22] It's also ripped 12% since the start of October. 

Alec: [00:14:25] It's been a good 25. 

Bryce: [00:14:27] Well played. But nonetheless I thought that was a great stat to say that over 50% of people playing the game did finish in profit. Now a massive congratulations to the winner. Alan Kay, whose player name was Kahuna from South Australia, finished with 73,854 points, so a profit of $23,000 over the space of 15 weeks. Second place was Danielle s Dumb Blonde was her pseudonym from Queensland 71,532 and then third place Emily H with 69,617. So about a $20,000 profit or more for the top three in the space of 15 weeks. Pretty amazing photo. 

Alec: [00:15:10] Credit. Full credit. Are you about to tell us what they. That's true. 

Bryce: [00:15:13] I am. But before we do that, we're going to take a very quick break to hear from our sponsors. And then we'll be back to deep dive into some of the holdings of these winners to see if there are any common threads.

Alec: [00:15:25] Yeah, great. Okay.

Bryce: [00:15:29] Alright Ren, so we know the winners. We have Alan Kay, Danielle S and Emily H. All did incredibly well in the ASX sharemarket game, but the big question is what did they invest in over those 15 weeks to get a $20,000 profit or more? What do you think they invested in? It's a very Australian thing called resources. So Kahuna was fully invested by the time the game finished. 

Alec: [00:15:55] So surely. All of them. 

Bryce: [00:15:56] zero cash? No. So third place, which was Emil. Emil. Emil. Emil apologised for pronouncing that wrong. At the time they finished they had 29 K in cash. But I'm assuming that it looked like looking at trade history that I've obviously sold out a bunch of their positions. 

Alec: [00:16:12] Really? 

Bryce: [00:16:12] Yes. So they were only invested into the position. 

Alec: [00:16:15] That's kind of you. You had a chance to win. Don't go to cash. 

Bryce: [00:16:20] Go. 

Alec: [00:16:20] You got to spend. 

Bryce: [00:16:22] And go in. But Kahuna ran first place, had seven positions, beach energy, chalice mining evolution mining were the only three resources and all of those were the ones that did incredibly well.

Alec: [00:16:37] What were the other positions? 

Bryce: [00:16:38] So the other Costa Group made a profit of 600 on Costa net wealth. Qantas made a $3,000 profit on Qantas. 

Alec: [00:16:46] Oh yeah, yeah.

Bryce: [00:16:47] And ResMed made a tiny profit on ResMed. So almost 50% of the portfolio was in hot resources. 

Alec: [00:16:55] But 50% of the portfolio was in resources. But from what you just said there, they made like four grand profits from the other four positions. 

Bryce: [00:17:02] So evolution mining 3600 profit chalice mining $3,000 profit and beach energy $1,000 profit.

Alec: [00:17:09] So they must have had some other positions throughout the game. 

Bryce: [00:17:11] Yeah, yeah, few other positions throughout the game. Then we had Danielle who was fully invested at the end of the game, Chalice Mining again, Capricorn Metals, Northern Star Resources, Perseus Mining and Sandfire Resources. That was it in the portfolio at the end of the game, made a $7,000 profit on Perseus Mining and made a six and a half thousand dollar profit on Capricorn and made a $4,000 profit on Chalice. 

Alec: [00:17:41] I hope they put real money into stocks as well. 

Bryce: [00:17:45] So full credit to those that have their eye on the mining market in resources. Just absolutely ripping evolution. Mining was in the portfolio of the player that came third and mill and throughout the game they also had exposure to Pilbara, New Hope and Whitehaven. Couldn't be any more Aussie. 

Alec: [00:18:02] Yeah, probably not. Maybe somewhat coal. 

Bryce: [00:18:07] Rio Yeah, yeah. Fortescue But look Farm is and we picked this up about three weeks ago when we looked at the portfolios as well. And this reminds me when I play the game, I always, I never go in mining. It's just not in my circle of competence, it's obviously in the circle of competence of these guys. 

Alec: [00:18:23] I mean, it could be in your circle. 

Bryce: [00:18:25] Could be interested in. 

Alec: [00:18:27] It, but that's different to a circle of competence. That's true. You could analyse a mining company, you could do a discounted cash flow on, you know, how much resource they think they have, what they think they'll be able to sell it out, what their costs will be, and then what their cash flow will be like. Mining companies, once you have that information, are very model able. 

Bryce: [00:18:44] Yeah. 

Alec: [00:18:44] That's you could do it. 

Bryce: [00:18:46] While 2023 maybe I'm going to get back it and can get into it. [00:18:49][3.2]

Alec: [00:18:50] Sure. Do you not own any mining. 

Bryce: [00:18:52] Companies iron Fortescue.

Alec: [00:18:54] Okay. 

Bryce: [00:18:55] And that's it. Yeah. Yeah, I don't, I don't own, I don't own BHP, I don't well I mean through super I don't own Rio direct actually. Yeah. No my wife owns BHP, I'm in Fortescue. Yeah. 

Alec: [00:19:10] You guys own it together now.

Bryce: [00:19:11] We do, what hers is mine. Anyway, Key takeaways I think. Just a massive congrats to those guys.

Alec: [00:19:19] Yeah, well done. Yeah. I guess the question is, I mean, the mining has had a really good year because resource prices have been really high. There's been constraints in the system and manufacturers, producers have been willing to overpay to get their hands on what they need. Yeah, well, that continues.

Bryce: [00:19:37] I don't know.

Alec: [00:19:40] But that's the million dollar question. The million dollar question, you know, like iron ore, its outlook is probably looking a little weaker as China looks a little wake up. But we've been saying that for 12 months and it's going to be lithium. We spoke about that for the summer series. So we do a bit on that. But, you know, the prices that they're getting are just crazy at the moment. 

Bryce: [00:20:00] And it is phenomenal what's going on in the lithium market. 

Alec: [00:20:03] Coal is strong, natural gas is strong. Oil's come off a bit. You know, oil is back to where it was at the start of the year. 

Bryce: [00:20:09] Yeah. I said at the. 

Alec: [00:20:10] Time are true. Yeah. I don't find that crazy. West Texas Intermediate was in the seventies. It's now at 80. Yeah.

Bryce: [00:20:15] They go. 

Alec: [00:20:16] Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:20:16] Is that perhaps why Qantas did so well for, for our winner. 

Alec: [00:20:21] So Qantas came out with a profit forecast and, and then like four weeks later they were like, oh we're upping it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. So oil prices probably have a bit to do with it, but I think it's more to do with rebound in travel.

Bryce: [00:20:36] Great management of market expectations. 

Alec: [00:20:39] Yeah, well, some would say. How did you get your forecasts so wrong? You had to update it four weeks later. Like if a company had to update it on the downside, four weeks later, people would be like, Come on, guys. What are you doing? You're trying to whirlpool. True. But on the upside, people get excited. I reckon it's just that although they've been hoarding all those lost bags and they're allegedly selling the stuff inside. 

Bryce: [00:21:06] Anyway, if you haven't played the game before, you're not sure what it is. It happens twice a year. It'll kick off early next year. It's a great opportunity for you to test some strategies and get a feel for investing. If you aren't invested and you want to start your investing journey, you get $50,000 in cash and you can trade the ASX 300 including ETFs. So yeah, well done to that one. And then let's keep moving. We'll hit up book bonanza potentially last one, I don't want to call it, but. 

Alec: [00:21:34] This is the second time you said it would be you getting sick of this. 

Bryce: [00:21:37] Segment. No, but I got the Gusius. We've got Gus joining us, who is so I haven't won any of this. 

Alec: [00:21:44] You know, you want the.

Bryce: [00:21:45] First one, the first one, and then it's been dubious ever since, because you don't let me ask the same question. So. 

Alec: [00:21:50] Well, I've actually got a five question quiz. We better get into it to get on with that.

Bryce: [00:21:55] Let's let's get Gus on the line. 

Alec: [00:21:58] Okay. So we're joined by Gus. Gus, thanks for joining us today. 

Gus: [00:22:02] Thanks, guys. How are you going? 

Alec: [00:22:03] Very good. Very excited for this episode of Ryan's book Bonanza. Bryce has actually called it the last one of the year. So lucky that we got you on before Bryce killed the segment, but because he's called it the last one of the year, I actually have five questions rather than three this week. And they're all related to Australia's casinos because if it weren't one thing in 2022, it's that our casino operators haven't been doing too good a job. 

Gus: [00:22:33] I thought they were really good. I thought they were making lots of. 

Alec: [00:22:35] Money, they were making lots of money. The Australian Government would say the way that they made that money perhaps needs to be looked at, but we will get to that before then. Gus are the three books that you have to choose from today. The first one is Share Felicity to a Guide to Investing in the US Stock Market by Danielle Acquire. I'm holding out to the camera if people are watching on YouTube. The second one is good arguments about what the art of debating can teach us about listening better and disagreeing well by both. So he's over at Harvard, a very smart guy not investing related per say but a good read and then finally a self-indulgent lady get started investing. It's easier than you think to invest in shares by Bryce Leske and Alec Renehan. 

Bryce: [00:23:24] That looks good also available on Amazon and book topia only $19 on Amazon right now. 

Alec: [00:23:29] So Gus there are the three books that you're playing for, any of it you've got your eye on? 

Gus: [00:23:34] Well, probably I'll give you one.

Bryce: [00:23:36] Yes, I.

Gus: [00:23:36] Have read the Equity Mates book and can attest. It's fantastic. 

Alec: [00:23:42] That's nice. I appreciate that. 

Gus: [00:23:44] We should put it on anyone's wishlist. 

Alec: [00:23:46] Perfect Christmas present. Give the gifts. Gift of financial literacy. Only $19 on Amazon. But we're not here to spruik our book. We're here to play book Bonanza. So let's go. Crown and Star have both had very tough years. They've been raked over the coals in multiple government enquiries. Let's start with Star this year. How many state governments found Star unfit to run casinos?

Gus: [00:24:15] Oh, it would have been two Bryce. 

Bryce: [00:24:20] Yeah, I'm going to say Victoria, New South Wales. And for the sake of being different, I'm going to throw in Queensland. 

Alec: [00:24:30] Well, you know what, Gus has absolutely nailed it. The New South Wales Belle Review and Queensland got it in review. Both found the star unfit. So the gas is on the board? 

Gus: [00:24:42] No, thank you. 

Alec: [00:24:43] Let's turn to Crown and same question about Crown. How many state government enquiry's found Crown unfit to run casinos? Gus, we'll start with you again. 

Gus: [00:24:53] I think it's going to be one because I don't think was found anything wrong. 

Bryce: [00:25:00] three. 

Alec: [00:25:02] I do have three, but Gus has made me question my my inclusion. So let's let's just pause for a second as we look at Gus. 

Bryce: [00:25:13] Nice. 

Gus: [00:25:14] Because I know that Crown only operates in Victorian. 

Alec: [00:25:19] Gus, I am sorry I've done the googling. The Crown Royal Commission over in WA found that they were unsuitable to hold a gaming licence in WA. So it is three vic, new South Wales and WA. So Bryce, you're on the board. 

Gus: [00:25:35] At that time. 

Alec: [00:25:37] All right. So this week AUSTRAC filed a statement of claim against Star in the federal court outlining a number of alleged failings. This is going to be a closest to the PIN question. How many pages of allegations does AUSTRAC file this week?

Gus: [00:25:58] 317. 

Alec: [00:26:00] 317. All right, Bryce, what are you going to say? 

Bryce: [00:26:03] I'm going to say 3900. 

Gus: [00:26:09] 3900 or who's close to the pin? 

Alec: [00:26:12] The correct answer is 2026, but I think Gus is actually close To the pin.

Bryce: [00:26:20] 300 to 2000. And yeah.

Alec: [00:26:22] That's 1700 difference. And you said 3900, that's 1900 difference.

Bryce: [00:26:26] How many pieces of paper was it? 2026 oh 2000. Although I said 2200 times. 

Alec: [00:26:32] Yeah. So he does. 2026 pages. That is. Multiple books. 

Gus: [00:26:39] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow. 

Alec: [00:26:42] Yeah, yeah. I can't say I've read it, but I have read the IFR article about it. All right. Question four Crown. After some of those State Government enquiries was sold to a private equity giant. Which of the following did it sell to? KKR Stock Ticker? KKR Carlyle Group. SG Apollo Global Apollo or Blackstone x Gus, we'll start with you. 

Gus: [00:27:12] I want to say Apollo, because it sounds the dirtiest. 

Alec: [00:27:16] All right, Bryce, what are you, Blackstone? Blackstone. Blackstone is correct. You've nailed the tool. And it gets us to our final question. This one was tough. I'm going to be honest. I didn't know the answer to this. So I'm going to put you guys on the spot.

Bryce: [00:27:31] Right.

Alec: [00:27:32] Outside of Crown and Star. Well, Crown's no longer listed, but Crown was listed outside of those two. There are four other casino stocks that I could find on the ASX, lot like aristocrats and like poker machines and stuff like that. But casino stocks, can you name one of them. 

Bryce: [00:27:50] Outside of Crown. 

Alec: [00:27:52] And Star.

Bryce: [00:27:52] And Star? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 

Gus: [00:27:55] Being big, I mean Tasmania has to be something to do with a risk point casino resort, but I'm not sure whether that's listed or not. 

Bryce: [00:28:04] Golden oldie down there isn't it. One is Australian. 

Gus: [00:28:07] The originals first because of the OG Casino. 

Alec: [00:28:10] Is it actually? Yeah. Well I didn't know. 

Bryce: [00:28:12] This casino is down in Tassie. 

Gus: [00:28:14] Yeah. 

Bryce: [00:28:15] I feel like it's something about it. Queensland, Queensland casino. 

Alec: [00:28:21] So.

Bryce: [00:28:22] But I couldn't tell you.

Alec: [00:28:24] There is one in Queensland because I'm just doing some research on the owner of Rest Points. It looks like they're owned by a not a federal group. Yeah. Federal group but it doesn't look like they're listed. 

Gus: [00:28:37] No they're private. 

Alec: [00:28:38] Yeah. So unfortunately not. Bryce has said there's a casino in Queensland. He is right but I'm actually going to name the names. 

Bryce: [00:28:46] Yeah, I know. It's like some, it's like a tropical name I think. 

Alec: [00:28:51] Look, you know Capricorn. No, not that I know. 

Bryce: [00:28:55] I remember doing this in an industry deep dive that we did. 

Alec: [00:28:59] Look, if neither. You have an.

Bryce: [00:29:01] Accent and what was. 

Alec: [00:29:02] It? If neither of you have an answer, I'm going to give the point to Gus, which may stay with wins, but just for people listening and playing along at home, there were four answers. So Bryce was right. There is one in north Queensland, in Cairns Reef Casino, it's just ASX 280. There's SkyCity Entertainment Group. Ticket holders say they own a casino in Adelaide. And I think for more in New Zealand then there is Aquis Entertainment Ltd, ASX ticker IQ is now. The name might be confusing, but I'm certain Bryce knows this company they own and operate Canberra casino. 

Bryce: [00:29:47] Oh, I know. 

Alec: [00:29:48] Gus, have. You. Have you ever been to Canberra Casino? 

Gus: [00:29:50] No, nor do I plan to. 

Alec: [00:29:52] It's on the bucket list. It is a glorious day out there. And then the final, the fourth ASX listed casino stock outside of the big two was Nacco International Ltd ASX tic a day and they are in two casinos, one in Vietnam, one in Cambodia. So there you go. Gus you have one al casino themed episode of Book Bonanza. Which book would you like to take home? 

Gus: [00:30:19] I'd love to take home the one and argue. Great. 

Alec: [00:30:22] We'll give you that. We'll also send you a book. Get started investing. Feel free to write Gift to someone for Christmas. 

Gus: [00:30:28] Thank you very. Much. 

Alec: [00:30:29] But we appreciate you coming on and thanks for playing. 

Gus: [00:30:32] Nice to give it. 

Bryce: [00:30:33] Up or any go, potentially the last. 

Gus: [00:30:36] Book for that. I know I keep. 

Bryce: [00:30:37] Saying it, but a great way to finish five questions did enjoy that and a great episode. We will be back next week with plenty going on. Next week signals the start of the wind up for equity markets. We've got. Getting a horizontal season. Yes, it's December.

Bryce: [00:30:56] We've got yes, it's December and we have won our Stock of the Year for 2022. I actually haven't looked. I honestly don't think I can remember what I picked. 

Alec: [00:31:06] I know what I picked. But let's.

Bryce: [00:31:08] Okay, so. Let's see, let's have. 

Alec: [00:31:11] Some context for people. We've done this, what, three previous years. Yeah. And you've won every time. Yes. And not just one won convincingly. 

Bryce: [00:31:18] Yes. Nice. Well, okay. All right. To say I like to say who wins next week. And then on Thursday, we're joined by our friends at Fidelity to talk about the big trends happening in demographics and how that translates to investment opportunities. And then, of course, you've got bold predictions review Andrew Brown to come in for his and a crypto year in review plenty happening so. [

Alec: [00:31:39] Abruptly when Bryce says all we're winding down and we're getting towards the end of the year. What he means is we're going to be pumping out of content. Stay tuned. And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure you subscribe or follow wherever you are listening so you don't miss an episode because this is going to be a lot of fun. 

Bryce: [00:31:54] Love it. Well, we'll leave it there and pick it up next week. 

Alec: [00:31:57] Sounds good.