Latest news with #BlackRock
Independent Singapore
an hour ago
- Business
- Independent Singapore
Singapore family offices pivot investment amid global volatility
SINGAPORE: Family offices (FOs) worldwide, including those based in Singapore, are set to diversify their investment portfolios. This is according to the 2025 Global Family Office Survey by US multinational investment firm BlackRock, which responds to rising tariff tensions and a potential US economic slowdown. This will drive further investment in non-US developed market stocks. The survey, which included FOs that oversee Singapore's estimated S$5.4 trillion in assets under management (AUM), indicates a clear shift away from traditional US-focused investments. The spectre of US tariffs on the horizon, plus indications of a possible economic downturn, have led 62% of FOs to focus their attention on European and Japanese equities and away from the traditional focus on US equities, bonds, and cash assets. They are seen as a strong hedge, due to generating stable returns amid uncertainties and US market volatility. The move by FOs worldwide comes amid growth in Singapore's FO sector. The city-state saw over 2,000 single-family offices (SFOs) operating there at end-2024, up from 400 SFOs in 2020. Singapore's central bank is promoting a diversification push. Incentives like the Section 13O and 13U tax schemes are meant to foster an environment where FOs can explore alternative assets. Beyond equities, FOs surveyed are also looking to channel investments into fixed-income securities and private markets, such as private equity and real estate. 51% of FOs are optimistic about private credit — non-banking debt that is privately traded, while 75% are bullish on infrastructure. Lili Forouraghi, Head of Family Office, Healthcare, Endowment and Foundations for BlackRock in the US, commented: 'The sustained demand and interest in private credit and infrastructure from family offices is a testament to the illiquidity premia and differentiated return opportunity in the current investment landscape.' 'Access to opportunities and the right strategies continue to rise in importance as these asset classes evolve from niche strategies to the cornerstone of client portfolios,' he added. However, analysts caution there are risks ahead. Europe has to contend with energy price volatility and geopolitical tensions, which 84% of FOs consider critical. Meanwhile, the long-term growth prospects for Japan are limited by ageing demographics. Overall, the trend benefits Singapore due to its safe-haven status. The US-China trade tensions and their impact mean Singapore's neutrality, stability and governance framework position it as a destination for reallocating capital.
Forbes
12 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Case Against Gamified Prop Trading
The trading industry stands at a crossroads. One road leads to more gamification, more extraction, more disillusionment. The other leads to professionalism, purpose, and shared upside. In a recent op-ed for the Financial Times, BlackRock Chair and CEO Larry Fink called for the second draft of globalisation. 'The first step,' he said, is in 'helping more people become investors.' Fink outlined how 'the Trump administration's tariffs are the symptom of a backlash to the era of what might be called 'globalism without guardrails.' Global GDP grew more since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 than in all recorded history before it. But the benefits weren't evenly shared. S&P 500 investors saw a return of more than 3,800 per cent. Rustbelt workers did not.' He goes on to argue that 'at the heart of this new model are the capital markets: exchanges where people invest in stocks, bonds, infrastructure, everything. Why? Because markets are uniquely suited to transforming global growth into local wealth.' I couldn't agree more. While Fink was primarily referring to people's ability to invest in markets long-term, it's equally important to make the case for the power of markets in the context of trading. It has never been easier to provide people with a real understanding of stock markets and opportunities to harness their power. But it needs to be done properly. In the post-pandemic world, trading is popular and perilous. From Reddit-fueled meme stocks to Instagram ads promising six-figure incomes in weeks, trading has become a cultural phenomenon. But beneath the glossy surface of fast payouts, slick dashboards, and instant accounts lies a more uncomfortable truth: in the new age of gamified proprietary trading, the trader is no longer the protagonist; they're the product. This is the reality ushered in by platforms like Hola Prime and the explosion of 'funded trader programs.' What began as a promising movement to democratize market access has mutated into a profit-extraction engine dressed up in UX and buzzwords. If the GameStop saga exposed the dangers of payment for order flow, the current state of prop trading is a sequel where the script is even more cynical. The premise of these new platforms is seductive: we'll give you capital to trade without risking your own money. Just pass a simple evaluation, click through a few disclaimers, and you're off to the races. Some now even offer instant accounts: skip the test, trade now, get paid in under an hour. But here's the rub: the business model isn't about helping you succeed. It's about getting you through the door, extracting fees, and quietly setting conditions that ensure most participants fail. The real revenue engine isn't trading profits, it's the fees traders pay for the privilege of chasing them. Most funded trader platforms charge upfront fees for evaluations, with limited transparency and minimal incentive alignment. If you fail (as most do), the firm keeps your money. If you succeed, you're handed capital under highly artificial constraints: inflated spreads, punitive commissions, and execution speeds that are just slow enough to give the house the edge. It's a system rigged for churn. The faster you burn out, the sooner the next aspiring trader can be onboarded and monetized. This isn't proprietary trading; it's proprietary entertainment, where every trader is both contestant and consumer. Gamified dashboards, explosive payout headlines, are engineered to hook you like a Vegas slot machine. All wrapped in a language of empowerment that masks a deeply extractive core. Take Hola Prime's headline-grabbing '1-Hour Payouts.' On paper, it's a breakthrough. In practice, it's table stakes masquerading as a revolution. Speedy payouts are nice, but they're a distraction from the real question: what are you actually building for traders? Are you training them in institutional-grade discipline? Are you teaching risk management? Are you offering a career ladder or a casino floor? Real proprietary trading firms do all of the above. They invest in their traders, not just their branding. They build loyalty through long-term alignment, not short-term gimmicks. At firms like Real Trading, when traders win, the firm wins. There's no fee treadmill, no asymmetry. The incentives are clear, and the traders are treated like the talent they are, not just throughput on a spreadsheet. 'Instant Accounts' skip the evaluation process entirely. That's not innovation, it's abdication. For serious traders, the evaluation is the beginning of the journey. It's where you demonstrate discipline, consistency, and judgment under pressure. It's where a firm learns who you are and whether it can entrust you with capital. By removing it, you lower the barrier, but you also flatten the profession. What's left isn't trading; it's speculation, dressed up in startup lingo. There is real talent in this new generation of retail traders, particularly in emerging markets. These are individuals hungry to learn, to grow, to become professionals. But instead of nurturing them, the current wave of gamified prop firms exploits them. Imagine what could happen if this energy were redirected toward institutional discipline rather than dopamine-fueled churn. If platforms invested in career-building, not just customer acquisition. Real proprietary trading should be a path, not a pit stop. The markets have become faster, more automated, and more unequal. The edge now often lies with those who can deploy algorithms and AI at scale. But amid this high-frequency arms race, something fundamental is being lost: the human trader. Human judgment. Emotional intelligence. Pattern recognition that no bot can replicate. These are the qualities that, when nurtured, complement, if not beat, the work of the machines; especially in moments of market chaos where instinct and experience trump code. Real prop firms recognize this. They treat traders as long-term partners. They offer structured training, risk coaching, and capital scaling that mirrors performance. They don't hand you a lottery ticket; they hand you a roadmap. The trading industry stands at a crossroads. One road leads to more gamification, more extraction, more disillusionment. The other leads to professionalism, purpose, and shared upside. The question isn't whether fast payouts or sleek apps are bad. It's whether they come instead of meaningful development, or in support of it. The next generation of traders deserves more than gimmicks. They deserve mentorship, meritocracy, and the tools to build a future, not just flip a trade. Let's stop turning traders into products and start turning them into professionals.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'It's not taxed at all': Warren Buffett shared the 'best investment' you can make to fight inflation
Moneywise and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue through links in the content below. With an estimated net worth of $161.8 billion, Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has built a tremendous financial empire. Now, At 94 years old, Warren Buffett has finally decided to retire from his longtime post, having announced the decision at the company's annual shareholder meeting in early May. Vice-chair Greg Abel will take over the top job as of Jan. 1, 2026, and Buffett will remain as chairman. With a net worth like his, you might anticipate Buffett living a lavish retirement. But unlike the high-roller lifestyles of other extremely rich celebrities and business people, Warren Buffett lives by smart — and surprisingly simple — investment philosophies that have positively influenced millions of investors around the world. One of his most famous rules is to buy and hold for as long as possible. 'You've got to be prepared when you buy a stock to have it go down 50% or more, and be comfortable with it… but some people are not really careful. Some people are more subject to fear than others.' Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has an important message for the next wave of American retirees — here's how he says you can best weather the US retirement crisis Nervous about the stock market in 2025? Find out how you can access this $1B private real estate fund (with as little as $10) At the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder's meeting, Buffet said 'Whatever abilities you have can't be taken away from you. They can't be inflated away from you,' he said. 'The best investment by far is anything that develops yourself, and it's not taxed at all.' While this isn't a traditional investment tip, Buffett firmly believes that by regularly investing in knowledge and self-improvement, you yourself become an asset and can more easily access opportunities for growing your wealth. Even now, Buffett has wise investment advice for investors seeking to shield their wealth and even grow it while keeping their tax obligations low. Here are some of his top investing strategies. Real estate is generally a 'good investment' during times of inflation, according to Buffett. 'They're the businesses that you buy once and then you don't have to keep making capital investments subsequently. So, you do not face the problem of continuous reinvestments involving greater and greater dollars because of inflation,' he said during the 2015 Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. But, while real estate might be a good investment, its barrier to entry can be difficult to cross. Luckily, there are plenty of platforms out there that allow you to invest in real estate with ease. First National Realty Partners makes it easy for accredited investors to diversify through opportunities in grocery-anchored, necessity-based retail space. Through FNRP's online platform, accredited investors can potentially collect quarterly cash flow through a diverse real estate portfolio. New investing platforms are making it easier than ever to tap into the real estate market. For accredited investors, Homeshares gives access to the $36 trillion U.S. home equity market, which has historically been the exclusive playground of institutional investors. With a minimum investment of $25,000, investors can gain direct exposure to hundreds of owner-occupied homes in top U.S. cities through their U.S. Home Equity Fund — without the headaches of buying, owning or managing property. With risk-adjusted internal returns ranging from 14% to 17%, this approach provides an effective, hands-off way to invest in owner-occupied residential properties across regional markets. Read more: Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — Buffett has been around the block a few times, experiencing many highs and lows in the U.S. economy. He has managed a stock portfolio through periods of double-digit inflation rates in the 1970s and has plenty of insight on what to own when consumer prices spike. Buffett likes high-quality businesses with low capital needs, such as Apple. The technology company boasts some impressive financial metrics — a testament to the company's efficiency, strength and negotiating power — which have enabled it to thrive during this period of inflation. While Buffett is known for being uninterested in gold investing — describing it in a 2011 letter to shareholders as an asset 'that will never produce anything' — other money mavens consider it to be a solid hedge against inflation because its purchasing power has remained relatively stable over time. Opting for a gold IRA gives you the opportunity to hedge against market volatility by allowing you to invest directly in physical precious metals rather than stocks and bonds. If you'd like to convert an existing IRA into a gold IRA, companies typically offer 100% free rollover. Priority Gold is an industry leader in precious metals, offering physical delivery of gold and silver. Plus, they have an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and a 5-star rating from Trust Link. If you'd like to convert an existing IRA into a gold IRA, Priority Gold offers 100% free rollover, as well as free shipping, and free storage for up to five years. Qualifying purchases will also receive up to $10,000 in free silver. To learn more about how Priority Gold can help you reduce inflation's impact on your nest egg, download their free 2025 gold investor bundle. JPMorgan sees gold soaring to $6,000/ounce — use this 1 simple IRA trick to lock in those potential shiny gains (before it's too late) This tiny hot Costco item has skyrocketed 74% in price in under 2 years — but now the retail giant is restricting purchases. Here's how to buy the coveted asset in bulk This is how American car dealers use the '4-square method' to make big profits off you — and how you can ensure you pay a fair price for all your vehicle costs Millions of Americans now sit on a stunning $35 trillion in home equity — here's 1 new way to invest in responsible US homeowners This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
ABC News
a day ago
- Business
- ABC News
US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell leaves interest rates on hold
BlackRock chief investment strategist for the Middle East and APAC, Ben Powell, says the US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell will be steadfast and only move on interest rates when the data warrants a move. #ABCBusiness
Crypto Insight
a day ago
- Business
- Crypto Insight
Deribit, Crypto.com integrate BlackRock's BUIDL as trading collateral
Crypto derivatives exchange Deribit and spot exchange are accepting BlackRock's tokenized US Treasury fund as trading collateral for institutional and experienced clients. The move will allow institutional traders to use a low-volatility, yield-bearing digital instrument as collateral for their accounts, lowering the margin requirements for leveraged trading, according to Forbes. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest exchanges by trading volume, announced a $2.9 billion deal to acquire Deribit in May 2025. The deal can expand the utility of BlackRock's Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). The fund holds nearly 40% of the tokenized Treasurys market share, or roughly $2.9 billion in value locked, according to data from Tokenized US Treasury products are slowly emerging as an alternative to traditional stablecoins, thanks to their yield-bearing properties. The growth of these products reflects the broader merger of cryptocurrencies with the legacy financial system. Tokenized yield-bearing government securities proliferate as centralization risks grow BlackRock tipped plans to integrate BUIDL as a collateral asset across crypto derivatives platforms and centralized crypto exchanges, including OKX and Binance, in October 2024. In January 2025, the community governing Frax Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, voted to add support for BUIDL as backing collateral for the Frax-USD stablecoin (frxUSD). Proponents of the integration characterized BUIDL as beneficial, providing deeper liquidity, transfer options and lower counterparty risk from using a collateral asset created and backed by the world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, with around $11.5 trillion in assets under management. Despite the positive outlook from the Frax Finance community and other digital asset platforms, centralization concerns and the possibility of structural financial risk persist among industry executives and market participants. Six firms, including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Ondo Finance, Superstate, Centrifuge and Circle account for over 88% of the tokenized US treasury market. Most of the US Treasurys currently onchain were tokenized on the Ethereum network, which continues to be the leading blockchain for real-world tokenized assets. Ethereum holds $5.7 billion of the total $7.3 billion in tokenized government securities. Source:
