Morningstar's month in review
Our monthly wrap of investing news and analysis published on Morningstar.com.au.
Mentioned: Cochlear Ltd (COH), Myer Holdings Ltd (MYR), Wesfarmers Ltd (WES), Woolworths Group Ltd (WOW)
To begin, I’d like to wish everyone a happy New Year, and thank our subscribers for their continued loyalty to Morningstar.
Never before have individuals had more opportunity, and responsibility, to improve their lives through saving and investing. Doing these activities well means children go to university, families move into the homes of their dreams and people are able to have income in retirement that allows them to live with dignity and freedom.
Morningstar was founded to change the lives of individual investors. Across Australia, individuals trust us with their time, attention and money in order to make their futures brighter. It is a privilege to have this responsibility and we take it seriously. We have a number of enhancements that we will be introducing to our subscribers in 2018.
It will be an exciting year ahead and I am looking forward to sharing more details about our plans as they continue to progress.
As the product owner for Morningstar.com.au, I provide a monthly overview of things you may have missed at Morningstar over the previous month. Some of the December highlights are outlined below.
Forecast 2018
In mid-December, we released our annual forecast issue of 
 Your Money Weekly. The 28-page guide includes an extended overview by Peter Warnes, outlining his forecast for the year and detailed sector reports from each of our equity analysts.
There is a wealth of information available throughout the report and I found the sector analysis a nice compliment to the detailed company specific research reports that our analysts produce throughout the year. Premium subscribers and those taking part in a premium trial can  download Forecast 2018.
Equity research special reports
Our local equity research team released two special reports in December:  Australian Department Stores Are Going Out of Fashion and  Cochlear Turns up the Volume as Competitors Quietly Expand.
The first, a detailed report on department stores, is particularly timely given the launch of Amazon in Australia. It outlines the key challenges facing department stores including Myer (ASX: MYR), Woolworths (ASX: WOW) and Wesfarmers (ASX: WES).
Our senior equity analyst covering the sector, Johannes Faul, makes a compelling case that department stores will see a continued decline in their relevance to consumers as spending patterns shift. The in-depth analysis of Cochlear (ASX: COH) outlines the rationale behind Chris Kallos’ (our equity analyst covering healthcare) recent decision to upgrade the economic moat rating on this stock's economic moat rating .
The report demonstrates the unique perspective that Chris brings to his analysis of the industry, as a former pharmacist. Both reports are available to premium subscribers and can be found on our Special Reports page.
New resources to learn about investing
One of the most popular new year’s resolutions is to save more for the future. To help support people getting started with investing, and also experienced investors looking for a refresher, we have added articles to our Learn To Invest section.
These cover foundational topics such as summaries of security types as well as philosophical ideas including why to invest, the investing edge of individual investors, and when to start investing.
Please feel free to share these articles with anyone who is looking to start their own investing journey in 2018. The new educational resources can be found here.Â
Book recommendations for investors
For those looking to become better investors in 2018, I would suggest reading Glenn Freeman’s article on inspiring and entertaining investment related books that have been recommended by Morningstar’s leadership.
As always, I would love to hear any feedback you may have and can be reached via email at [email protected].
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Mark Lamonica is a product manager, Individual Investor, Australia.
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