Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

Despite the noise, 2025 has quietly thrown up plenty of opportunities for investors.

Anyone switched on enough to play the Resources rebound, the generational gold trade, the small cap surge or even the CBA rally (before things cooled off) has probably done pretty well for themselves this year. 

While many investors sat on their hands over AI and bubble fears, or licked their wounds following the Liberation Day correction, others took the chance to act and reaped the benefits. 

Fortune favours the bold, or at least those willing to think outside the box. So as we prepare for the clocks to tick over to 2026, what are the big opportunities out there for investors looking to outperform over the next 12 months? 

As part of our 2026 Outlook Series, we asked nine leading fund managers to share the biggest investment opportunity they've identified for next year.

Markets love a good story. And for most of 2025, it’s been the same story everywhere.

A handful of mega-cap stocks have driven the majority of equity market returns in the US, and a similar pattern has been evident here in Australia, where blue-chip heavyweights have dominated the spotlight.  

In both jurisdictions, hundreds of profitable companies have been ignored, and that’s how overlooked stocks are born. These are not broken businesses, just forgotten ones.

Later in the year, investors started to move down the market-cap spectrum - particularly in Australia, where small-caps have caught a bid. 

As leadership continues to broaden and fundamentals regain the spotlight, those ignored names can re-rate fast.

With 2026 now underway, we asked 10 leading fund managers to look beyond the obvious and share the overlooked stock they believe could surprise on the upside.

These interviews were filmed on Tuesday, 9 December 2025.

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.