What's new on Morningstar Investor

Check out this guide by the Morningstar team on investing in shares for beginners

Morningstar Investor’s vision has always been to empower your success. Over the last two years, we have had a dedicated team working on improving your experience.

Here’s some of the new features on the site that are here to help you on your investing journey.

Investment Policy Statement (IPS)

We have released a new Investment Policy Statement (IPS) tool to support investors like you in achieving your investment goals. An IPS brings structure and accountability to your decision-making process and ensures you are being thoughtful and deliberate with your investing decisions.

The IPS feature serves as the connection between where you are and what you want to accomplish. The tool allows you to compare your current asset allocation to our suggested asset allocation mixes along with our projected returns for each asset class. Based on your goal you can establish a target asset allocation and define your investment strategy.

Save your target asset allocation using our guidance and compare your portfolio to your target

As an investor, when you are trying to accomplish a goal, you construct a portfolio made up of different types of asset classes such as cash, bonds and stocks. The question at the heart of portfolio construction is the decision on what asset classes to include and how much of each to include. This process is informed by comparing the risk and return requirements to accomplish your goal, and the risk and return expectations of each asset class.

For investors starting out, compare your asset allocation with our target asset allocations through our new tool. Understand whether your exposure to growth and defensive assets is expected to help you reach your goal.

For seasoned investors, over time, the growth or shrinking of asset classes will adjust your original allocations. Use this tool to check if your portfolio has your expected risk/return profile, and whether your exposure is in line with our target allocations.

This tool works as an extension of our portfolio, goal setting and asset allocation tools, and therefore is to be exclusively used alongside a setup portfolio on Sharesight, Australia’s leading portfolio tracker, and gives you invaluable access to our forward projections of returns by asset class.

Find it in Investment policy statements under the My investments section of the Track Investments dropdown tab.

To learn more about developing an Investment Policy Statement, review our Guide to Selecting Investments, listen to our Investing Compass Podcast episode or watch our webinars. For help with setting up your portfolio on Sharesight, review our Frequently Asked Questions.

Alerts

At Morningstar, we understand the importance of staying up to date on what matters most to you.

Our alerts feature allows you to be notified of Morningstar rating changes, new analyst research and price targets for your chosen securities. Simply select the bell icon next to any security you wish to be alerted on to add to your alerts list. You are also able to customise and select the alerts you wish to receive for each security, with new alerts signified by a red dot next to the bell icon at the top right-hand corner of Morningstar Investor.

Save your target asset allocation using our guidance and compare your portfolio to your target

As an investor, when you are trying to accomplish a goal, you construct a portfolio made up of different types of asset classes such as cash, bonds and stocks. The question at the heart of portfolio construction is the decision on what asset classes to include and how much of each to include. This process is informed by comparing the risk and return requirements to accomplish your goal, and the risk and return expectations of each asset class.

For investors starting out, compare your asset allocation with our target asset allocations through our new tool. Understand whether your exposure to growth and defensive assets is expected to help you reach your goal.

For seasoned investors, over time, the growth or shrinking of asset classes will adjust your original allocations. Use this tool to check if your portfolio has your expected risk/return profile, and whether your exposure is in line with our target allocations.

To try it out, go to Track Investments, view a Portfolio, then click the IPS tab.

Monitor markets

Our new Monitor Markets page makes it easier for you to spot opportunities and see beyond the present market price. The market valuation tool displays the Morningstar Fair Value estimate over time, showing investors the bottom-up long term intrinsic value of a market.

Investment filter

Search for Morningstar rated investment ideas that will help you achieve your goals by selecting the investment vehicle, strategy and security type best suited for your objectives.

Find the new investment filter in the Discover Investments section of Morningstar Investor.

Investment Compare feature

All opportunity, no cost—try our new investment compare feature that allows you to see side-by-side comparisons of investments of the same security type.

You can compare stock, fund and ETF investments with each other, helping you to size up key facts about your next investment.

Find the Investment Compare feature in the ‘Discover Investments’ section of Morningstar Investor.

Keep on top of opportunities

Our Discover Investments page allows you to monitor the latest ratings changes, filtered by domestic and global equities. See what’s recently moved into five-star territory, with the ability to filter by star rating, moat and discount to fair value.

See a rising star? You’re able to instantly add stocks to your watchlist or compare with other opportunities by clicking on the icon in the ‘Actions’ column.

View the latest analyst reports on Australian and New Zealand stocks in the same section.

Make sure your portfolio is on track

A required rate of return is a variation of the Time Value of Money formula—it answers the fundamental question of how much an investment will be worth in the future given a certain rate of return and time frame. This calculator is a simple re-arrangement of this formula, allowing you to input your circumstances—and it helps you to understand the rate of return you need to get there, and whether it may be achievable.

Your goals and required rate of return can be saved, allowing you to periodically assess whether your portfolio is on track.

Find your required rate of return through the goal calculator, which you can find in the ‘Track Investments’ section of Morningstar Investor.

Already got an investment strategy?

Morningstar Investor’s Portfolio Projection tool will allow you to see whether you’re on track with the strategy you have now, and where your portfolio will end up within a chosen time frame. It allows you to see values in today’s dollars, and take inflation into consideration.

Find the Portfolio Projection tool in the ‘Track Investments’ section of Morningstar Investor.

I know the return I need. Now what?

Morningstar’s Asset Allocation models will help you decide what asset classes to include, and how much to include of each in your portfolio.

When you’re trying to accomplish a goal, an investor constructs a portfolio made up of different types of asset classes such as cash, bonds and stocks. The question at the heart of portfolio construction is the decision on what asset classes to include and how much of each to include. This process is informed by comparing the risk and return requirements to accomplish the investor’s goal and the risk and return expectations of each asset class. Investors can choose between growth assets and defensive assets.

Growth assets such as Australian shares, international shares, property and infrastructure which tend to carry high levels of risk, but also carry the potential for higher returns over time. Defensive assets such as government bonds, corporate credit and cash carry lower levels of risk, but typically earn lower returns. To assist with this process, Morningstar has created five different defensive/growth asset class combinations related to five different levels of risk: Conservative, Cautious, Balanced, Growth and Aggressive.

Understand what’s needed to reach your goals. Find our asset allocation models in the ‘Track Investments’ section of Morningstar Investor.

Keep on top of opportunities—Watchlists and Follow Authors

Watchlists

Found something you love but it’s not at the right price? Our watchlists allow you to keep a close eye on investments that you are interested in. Click on the ‘heart’ icon next to the investment in search, or on the research page.

Find your watchlists in Discover Investments, under the ‘My Watchlists’ tab.

Follow an Author

Love the insights of a member on our team? You’re able to ‘follow’ their content to be notified whenever a new article is released. Click ‘follow’ next to their name on an article.