Hi QAVVERS,
Well… fare-thee-well, Winter, we hardly knew ya. It’s 29 ° in Brizvegas at the moment, 11:20am, and 32 ° in my office. So yeah. Hello El Nino. I’m still reading “Pale Fire” by Nabokov and a couple of books about the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi which ties nicely into my personal philosophy of non-dualism, which has a lot of overlaps with Zen. Currently listening to Genesis’ 1983 album “MAMA” after I promoted it to TK on one of the shows this week. Just to see if it stands up as well as I remembered. Not bad, sounds like one of Phil Collins’ solo albums from around that time. If you like that kind of thing. Also been listening to a lot of Ryuichi Sakamoto this week.
Anyway… stocks. Nothing to report really. Our portfolios are generally doing very well. Reporting season is officially over didn’t present many issues for our portfolios. The American portfolio saw a huge drop this month, mostly due to two stocks: FG, which we had to sell, and WFLC, which is a big chunk of our portfolio value (nearly 40%) since it’s up 252% since we bought it, even after dropping 10% in the last month. Nothing to worry about.
AUSTRALIAN MARKET UPDATE
The All Ordinaries shed around 1.9% over the five-day period to sit near 9,230 points:
- Australia’s Q2 2026 GDP came in at 0.4% quarter-on-quarter, beating the 0.3% consensus, with annual growth of 2.1%, ahead of the 1.8% forecast, keeping the prospect of a further RBA rate hike firmly on the table.
- Major bank economists are split on timing, with NAB and Deutsche Bank expecting a September RBA hike and ANZ and CBA favouring November.
- Sentiment was weighed down by renewed Middle East tensions that pushed oil prices higher and triggered a global bond sell-off, compounded by hawkish signals from US Fed Chair Warsh’s speech at Jackson Hole the previous week.
- Australian bond yields pulled back modestly from multi-year highs by Thursday, with the 10-year down 4 basis points to 5.16% and the 3-year down 5 basis points to 4.77%, though both remain elevated.
- A record current account deficit of AUD 27.2 billion for Q2 was also released, though the figure came in below market forecasts.
US MARKET UPDATE
The S&P 500 is tracking a down week through Wednesday September 3, with the index sitting around 7,667 after closing at 7,666.60 on Wednesday (markets remain open Thursday at the time of writing this):
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Stocks fell Monday as US-Iran hostilities escalated, spiking oil prices, with WTI crude settling at $91.01 per barrel and Brent at $95.63.
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The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note hit 4.818% this week, its highest level since November 2023, as rising oil prices stoked inflation concerns.
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Fed funds futures pricing showed a 68% chance the Fed raises rates at its next meeting, according to the CME FedWatch tool.
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The US trade deficit surged 24.4% in July to $88.6 billion, the highest since March 2025, driven by rising imports of technology-related goods linked to the AI buildout.
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On the individual stock front, Nvidia jumped 3.2% on reports of a potential $14 billion acquisition of AI startup Hugging Face, Dell soared 15.8% after beating earnings expectations, while Palo Alto sank 9.3% despite posting better-than-expected results.
So, let’s get into my weekly updates and see where we are at.
All the Best,
Cam
QAV MYTH KILLERS
Success is about willpower
This week’s myth: Investing success is about willpower.
STOCK ANALYSIS OF THE WEEK
Australian Members can check out the stocks we traded in QAV Australian Light portfolios this week.
American Members can check out the stocks we traded in QAV American Light portfolios this week.
Tony did a Pulled Pork on Healius (HLS) this week, the pathology giant he described as quietly turning the corner after a battering. Find the full deep dive in the podcast link below.
On the American podcast this week, I did a pulled pork on SND, the company that puts sand in the frac crack. The podcast link is down below if you want the full analysis.
BUY LIST
Each week, we produce a buy list based on our value investing system that we share with our QAV Club members. The intended primary purpose of this buy list is for club members to use as a reference for comparing their own buy list. In theory, all of our buy lists should look pretty similar each week.
AUSTRALIAN BUY LIST
QAV Value Investing Buy List (AU) 2026-08-30
U.S. BUY LIST
QAV Value Investing Buy List 2026-08-31
PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE
We compare our performance to what we think is the most relevant benchmark (SPDR 200 in Australia, S&P500 in the USA), but if you’re new to investing, these comparisons might not mean much. Instead, you can compare our performance to the top-performing Super Funds in Australia and see why an amateur active investor (who has a system to follow) can out-perform most of the “professionals”.
We publish a fresh performance snapshot once a month. Weekly noise doesn’t tell you much in a value-investing system — what matters is the trend.
September 2026 performance snapshot.
Australian Model Portfolio: No trades this week.
American Model Portfolio: No trades this week.
Become a QAV Light Member today and start your investing on the right track
If you want to find out what we’re trading in QAV Light each week, sign up to become a member. You’ll get an email from me every Monday letting you know what we’re buying and selling in that portfolio. You can choose to copy our trades or not. It’s the easiest way to start your rules-based investing career… and you don’t even need to know the rules. I’ll follow the rules for you. It’s a good first step to eventually becoming a QAV Club member and learning how to run the system by yourself.
QAV LIGHT: Same destination. You choose where you sit.
(Note: Americans interested in joining QAV Light or Club please go here instead.)
Add QAV America — US stocks, the same QAV method
Already a QAV member? You can add QAV America as your second membership at 50% off — US-listed stocks, the same QAV approach, billed in AUD through this site (just one payment to keep an eye on). Add QAV America →
Not a QAV member yet? Join QAV first, then you can add QAV America at the 50% member rate.
THIS WEEK’S EPISODES
The Speed of Light: Why Double Market Is as Good as It Gets: QAV AU #945
Sand Up Your Crack: The Last Frac Sand Company Standing: QAV America #68
STOCK NEWS AND UPDATES
COMMODITIES
This week the big changes to commodities were the following:
| Commodity | Status |
|---|---|
| Iron Ore | JOSEPHINE |
| Coal (thermal) | BUY |
| Crude Oil | BUY |
DISCLOSURE
Please review our trading and disclosure policy.
SIGNING OFF
SSDD!
- Cam
That’s it for the week!
QAV A GOOD SHAREMARKET!
Got a question? info@qavamerica.com