Buy Hold Sell, by Livewire Markets

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
That might be the best way to sum up the February reporting season at the headline level. Of course, there is more nuance to it than that. 

The top end of town - the banks and miners in particular - enjoyed solid results and, often, spectacular share price moves; Woolworths up 14%, anyone? Throw into the mix a record high for BHP and a resurgent Commonwealth Bank, as the strong got stronger - 'twas the best of times.

At the other end of the spectrum, if you disappointed the market - even by a smidge in the case of a company like ZIP - you got hammered. This is not a new theme, given recent season history, but certainly a more pronounced one. 'Twas the worst of times. 

If that wasn't enough to navigate, casting a pall over the entire season was the chaos agent that is change. More specifically, AI-disruption, which apparently is threatening most small and mid-cap business models, while the top 20 are somehow immune. 

To help unpack one of the most colourful and important reporting seasons in the last decade, guest host, CommSec's James Gruber, was joined by David Lloyd from Ausbil Investment Management, and Dushko Bajic from First Sentier Investors. 

They discuss the big themes, key takeouts and, of course, all the big stocks - from the winners to the losers, and everything in between. If you're an investor in ASX stocks, you cannot miss this episode of Buy Hold Sell. 

This episode was recorded on Thursday, 26 February 2026.

As part of our 2026 Outlook Series, we asked you for your picks of the top ETFs for the year ahead, and in a recent episode of Buy Hold Sell, we ran the ruler over five of the most-picked ETFs.

But we like to keep our guests on their toes, which is why we're back with a bonus round of Buy Hold Sell to run through nine more of the ETFs that made the list. 

Back in the BHS hot seats are Daniel Kelly of Viola Private Wealth and Adam Dawes of Shaw and Partners to give the quick fire calls on ETFs covering everything from gold miners to Asian tech.

2 guests. 9 ETFs. 4 minutes. Hear how they got on. 

This episode was filmed on Wednesday, 11 February 2026.

AI. It's all anyone is talking about, and whether you love it or loathe it, you're probably going to have to hear about it for a while yet (i.e. forever).

But whether you choose to invest in it? That's another story. 

Let's be real. Investors of all stripes - from retail punters to institutional shops with trillion-dollar balance sheets - have lost their minds over AI. Yes, there will be winners. But there will also be body bags. That’s how every tech revolution works.

So what is the play?

Do you ram as much AI into your portfolio as you can and back the builders of the future? Or do you position in themes tied to timeless human needs like eating, building and moving?

In this episode, Daniel Kelly from Viola Private Wealth and Adam Dawes from Shaw and Partners run the ruler over three ETFs offering direct AI exposure and three designed to be resilient, whether the robots deliver or disappoint.
 

This episode was filmed on Wednesday, 11 February 2026.

With so much choice on the ASX for building an ETF portfolio, the challenge is in construction. How do you combine ETFs in a way that makes sense for where you are in your investing journey? And how should that mix evolve as your knowledge, confidence and capital grows?

In this episode, Tom Stelzer is joined by Daniel Kelly of Viola Private Wealth and Adam Dawes of Shaw and Partners to build three ETF portfolios from the ground up: one for beginners, one for intermediate investors and one for those ready to step into more advanced territory.

Starting with low-cost, broad-market exposure ETF options, our panel explores how investors can begin layering in more targeted sector and thematic exposures as their portfolios mature, before heading into sophisticated territory, unpacking geared strategies and listed alternatives, where risk, correlation and portfolio construction become even more critical. 

This episode was filmed Wednesday 11th February 2026.

ETFs have become the building blocks of modern portfolios, offering instant diversification, liquidity and low-cost access to everything from global blue chips to niche thematics. But with a veritable supermarket of options now available on the ASX, choosing the right ETF is no easy task.

In this episode, Livewire’s Tom Stelzer is joined by Daniel Kelly of Viola Private Wealth and Adam Dawes of Shaw and Partners to give us their verdicts on some of the ETFs most tipped by Livewire readers for 2026.

We cover ETFs from global quality and cybersecurity, to Australian high yield, copper miners and the world’s largest listed companies.

As always, each guest also brings one ETF idea of their own for the year ahead offering two very different ways to position for 2026 - one taking advantage of the beaten-down ASX tech sector and another set to benefit from a geopolitically charged environment.   

This episode was filmed Wednesday 11th Febraury 2026