How this small companies fund manager invests your money

July 2025

Matthew Fist
Firetrail Investments

What is your daily work routine?

I’m a portfolio manager for the Firetrail Australian Small Companies Fund, which is used in the Cornerstone portfolios. 

I spend probably at least 90% plus of my time just looking at stocks, doing on the ground stock research. That can be anything from interviewing company CEOs to going a kilometre down a mineshaft to check out a resources operation. Or it might involve travelling to the US or China to tour retail outlets. 

What is your investment strategy? 

The whole aim of our portfolio is not to have any sort of macroeconomic or thematic bets.

That is very hard, if not impossible, to get right. No one's got a crystal ball. Instead, we aim to manage risk and pick the best stocks.

Our objective is to make sure that everything's very well balanced and we’re not taking outlandish bets. 

What’s your favourite part of the job? 

The sheer diversity of my role means no one day is the same. You never stop learning. I also get to look at what’s happening in the world and come up with investment ideas. 

We're so privileged that we get to speak to CEOs of the biggest companies and some of the smartest consultants in their respective fields.

And we hopefully generate a lot of value for clients. It's a massive responsibility and a privilege, managing money on behalf of other people.

How did you get into the investment industry?

I invested in my first stock when I was seven years old. I did my times tables and my dad bought me $5,000 worth of BHP shares. 

I later studied economic geology and mechanical engineering at university and got a scholarship at BHP. I worked for one of its underground silver lead zinc mines in North Queensland for three years.

I was then fortunate to get a job with Macquarie Bank as an equity analyst for the mining sector and had an awesome mentor. I later switched to funds management at Macquarie after getting a call from guys a couple of floors above me. 

I’m still working with the same team but we left Macquarie about seven years ago to start Firetrail Investments.  

What’s your outlook for Australian small companies – a lot of experts say the local market is overpriced? ¹

We're not “asset allocators” – we don’t decide how much to invest in shares versus cash.

Our fund is fully invested in small caps. That’s important because we do what we say on the label.

I do agree the market is expensive – particularly in the U.S. and Aussie large companies. The S&P/ASX 50 is the most expensive index in the world in terms of what you're paying for - benign growth.

But there are great opportunities in Aussie small companies. This part of the market remains incredibly cheap for the growth.

One big opportunity is the Australian defence industry. There’s a lot of negative talk about it but Australia is currently spending 2.1% of GDP on defence and that has to climb to 5% if we follow NATO’s lead. 

Any interesting hobbies or pastimes? 

I've got a young family so that that keeps me busy. I’m also a Carlton supporter, so there’s not too much joy for me at the moment. 

Otherwise, I’m into hiking. A mate and I are trying to climb Federation Peak in Tasmania. I've had two cracks at it so far but we hope this year will be the one.

¹ True at the time of writing, July 2025

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