Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

Every year, markets have a habit of humbling consensus. Industries written off as “uninvestable” can quickly turn into the best-performing trades on the board, while last year’s darlings quietly fall out of favour. And 2025 was a textbook example. Few investors began the year expecting gold, defence, critical minerals or uranium to deliver such standout returns – yet all surged as shifting geopolitics, energy security and supply-chain realities reshaped capital flows. Even more surprising was hydrogen’s sudden resurgence, catapulting the long-maligned sector onto the global leaderboard after years in the wilderness. At the same time, traditionally reliable areas like ASX technology and healthcare struggled to gain traction, reminding investors just how quickly market narratives can flip. With 2026 now firmly in sight, the obvious question is: where will the next breakout come from? To find out, we asked 10 experts to look ahead and identify the sector or industry they believe is poised for a breakout year in 2026 – and, crucially, the stocks they think best capture that opportunity. These interviews were filmed on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.

For most investors, the biggest determinant of long-term outcomes isn’t finding the next multi-bagger – it’s avoiding the handful of stocks that permanently destroy capital.  The data is unambiguous. In his landmark study Do Stocks Outperform Treasury Bills?, Professor Hendrik Bessembinder found that just 4% of listed US stocks accounted for all net wealth creation above Treasury bills since 1926, while the majority failed to outperform cash at all.  For investors, that means the damage done by owning the wrong stocks can outweigh the benefit of trying to pick the next big winner. In other words, losses are concentrated, and so are mistakes. That asymmetry matters even more for sophisticated portfolios, where capital preservation and compounding matter as much as upside capture. Avoiding the wrong stocks can quietly do more for returns than chasing the right ones. With that in mind, we asked ten of Australia’s sharpest investment minds, spanning ASX and global equities, to nominate their stocks to avoid for 2026 and beyond. These interviews were filmed on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.

In a year as frantic and fluid as 2025, it can be hard to know what is a valuable learning experience and what is just noise. But it goes without saying that eventful times in markets will always throw up the opportunity for some new lessons and some old lessons best relearned.  As part of our 2026 Outlook Series, we asked 10 leading fund managers to share the key lesson they learnt in 2025 and how that's informing their approach going into 2026. From trimming winners too early to working out how to play the big market shifts, these lessons from 2025 should help you become a better investor in the year ahead. These interviews were filmed on 9 December 2025.

Jensen Huang founded Nvidia in 1993. For much of its life, it was a good company, not a great one. A specialist chipmaker, a few near-death moments, and long stretches where the stock went nowhere. Over the past decade, however, Nvidia has become the poster child for modern growth investing. What looks like an overnight success was, in reality, a 20-year build, powered by reinvestment, innovation, and patience. It is now one of the largest companies on the planet, and a reminder that the best growth stories often take far longer to reveal themselves than markets expect. That lesson extends well beyond a single stock. Over the past 15 years, growth has been the dominant equity style.  Since the post-GFC reset, global growth stocks have outperformed value by around four-and-a-half percentage points per year, when they really had no right in doing so. Growth was meant to fail. Instead, it adapted, overcoming inflation shocks, aggressive rate hikes, and repeated predictions of its demise.  The winners of this era were not blue-sky ideas, but businesses that could reinvest capital at scale, defend margins, and compound earnings through wildly different market regimes. The growth decade did not end with cheap money. It evolved. And if the past 15 years have taught us anything, it’s this: great growth stories are rarely obvious at the start. With that in mind, we asked nine of Australia’s sharpest investment minds, spanning ASX and global equities, to nominate their top growth pick for 2026. These interviews were filmed on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.  

Buy Hold Sell has wrapped up for 2025 and will be back in 2025. Keep your eyes out for some bonus episodes dropping in early January. Thanks for listening!