Colonial First State chief investment officer Jonathan Armitage believes the defining change of his 34-year career is speed – and that portfolios now have to be built for markets that can fall as far in days as they once did in months.

Speaking on the Investment Magazine CIO Series, Armitage noted that where the S&P 500 took a couple of months to fall 20 per cent during the GFC, COVID did it in a week, and Japanese equities managed it in two and a half days. Add an AI ecosystem bound together by cross-shareholdings and capital injections at a scale markets have never tested, and resilience, not prediction, becomes the central discipline of CIOs.

Armitage discussed why CFS has parted ways with managers even when their performance was strong, the two-year-old emerging markets call that is now driving returns, and the death of the “hero fund manager”. 

In partnership with T. Rowe Price, the Investment Magazine CIO Series is dedicated to in-depth conversations with the chief investment officers from Australia’s leading asset owners.