Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

Buy Hold Sell: You tipped them, we tested them (plus 2 from the experts)

Welcome back to a new year of Buy Hold Sell.

At the end of last year, we asked you, our Livewire readers, to tell us what your most-tipped growth stock will be for 2026. It was our 10th year running the survey, with nearly 5,000 responses, and we crunched the numbers to see which names emerged as clear favourites.

So for our first episode of the year, we asked our guests, Anna Milne from Wilson Asset Management and Blake Henricks of Firetrail Investments, to run the ruler over five of your most popular stocks from the results.

We also asked our guests to bring the stocks they think should have made the list and you should most certainly add to your watchlist.

 

The biggest opportunities in markets in 2026

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. 

The overlooked stocks that could shine in 2026

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.

 

The industries poised to break out in 2026 and 16 stocks to play them

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.

Stocks to avoid in 2026, according to 10 top fundies

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.

What top fundies learned in 2025, and how they'll act on it 2026

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.

The #1 growth stocks for 2026

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 will be back in 2026 (plus some bonus episodes)

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!

Buy Hold Sell: Ride or rotate? The themes shaping portfolios in 2026

If 2025 showed investors anything, it’s that the best money wasn’t made by sitting still; it was made by catching the right waves.

While broader markets delivered solid returns, the lion's share of profits went to investors willing to back the big themes: uranium, defence stocks, gold miners, Bitcoin, the Nasdaq, and Australian small caps. Get the wave right, and returns arrive fast.

But as any surfer knows, timing matters. Not every wave kept rolling, and some themes lost momentum just as quickly as they emerged.

So as we head into the New Year, the key question is which of these themes still have legs - and where is the next swell forming?

To find out, we sat down with Michael Wayne from Medallion Financial Group and Adam Dawes from Shaw and Partners to unpack which 2025 themes can continue, and nominate their one hotspot for 2026 and how to play it.

Note: This episode was recorded on Wednesday, 17 December 2025.

Buy Hold Sell: How the pros are setting their portfolios for 2026

Looking back at 2023, 2024 and 2025, it’s hard not to think: wasn’t it easy to make money?

As the table below shows, almost everything went up. With around 95% of asset classes delivering positive returns, avoiding losses wasn’t the challenge - owning enough of the winners was.

But periods of easy money don’t last forever. Eventually, the macro backdrop shifts, leadership changes, and returns begin to diverge sharply across assets, as investors saw in years like 2018 and 2022.

With that in mind, we invited two market pros - Michael Wayne from Medallion Financial Group and Adam Dawes from Shaw and Partners - to discuss where investors should be positioning, and where trimming exposure may make sense heading into the new year.

Note: This episode was recorded on Wednesday, 17 December 2025.