Grace Lagan
Grace Lagan connects interest rate moves, budget decisions and trading culture, showing how policy and technology flow through markets and younger investors. She is a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review covering finance with a focus on interest rates, generational wealth and the tools retail traders use.
Interest rates and market reaction
Lagan’s core coverage tracks how expectations for rate rises and cuts shape equity markets and investor sentiment. In her reporting on the prospect of no rate cuts until 2027 and the likelihood of a fourth rise, she works closely with economists to set out the implications for borrowers, savers and listed companies in clear terms. She links central bank guidance to movements in major indices, and explains how rate expectations drive rallies and pullbacks in sectors such as technology.
Her stories on Wall Street’s record levels underpinned by rate cut hopes and tech gains highlight the connection between macro signals and day-to-day trading decisions.
Across these pieces, she writes in straightforward language, focusing on what rate paths mean for households and for investors watching benchmarks. She highlights the way policy commentary, futures pricing and data releases feed into market moves, rather than treating rates as an abstract macro topic.
This gives her work a practical edge for readers who follow both economic commentary and live markets.
Budgets, tax changes and generational wealth
Lagan’s finance beat extends into budget and tax settings, with a recurring emphasis on generational impacts. Her coverage of federal budget measures and changes to tax discounts on equities draws on voices from the ETF sector and financial influencers to spell out who gains and who loses.
In pieces such as her work on “Gen Z the winners in anti-Boomer budget”, she frames policy shifts through the lens of younger investors and older asset holders, showing how rules aimed at one group can have unintended effects on another.
She breaks down complex tax adjustments into concrete examples of how they affect investment returns, superannuation balances and portfolio choices.
Rather than treating budget stories as political theatre, she focuses on the mechanics of new settings and the cash-flow impact on different age cohorts. This pattern of work marks her out as a reporter who treats budgets as part of the wealth-building environment, not just a one-off news event.
Retail traders, AI tools and prediction markets
A distinctive strand of Lagan’s reporting looks at the culture and tools of modern trading, especially at the retail end of the market. In her story about building a “vibe-coded, market-crushing AI hedge fund manager”, she describes spending months immersed in investor “vibe coding”, using AI tools to help design share-trading software. She speaks with retail and institutional investors who use these tools and tests them herself by constructing an AI-run hedge fund portfolio, then reports on how it performs against the wider market.
She also covers the acronyms and themes traders use to navigate shifting global opportunities, as in her work on TACO and TUNA as shorthand for evolving regional focuses. Her reporting on Polymarket and its “inside traders” during wartime extends this interest into prediction markets, examining how speculative platforms reflect and influence views on conflict and risk. Across these stories, she treats AI, social platforms and prediction markets as part of mainstream finance, not curiosities, and explains how they shape behaviour among traders who sit outside traditional institutional desks.
ASX companies and investor events
Lagan regularly follows listed company activity and the rhythms of investor events. Her piece on ASX heavyweights dodging the Macquarie conference as confession season looms looks at who attends and who stays away, and what that says about forthcoming earnings updates. She connects conference participation with guidance risk, investor expectations and the timing of trading “confessions” from major names.
In this strand of her work, she focuses on the interaction between corporate communication strategies and market response. She reports on how absence from key events is interpreted by fund managers and traders and links that to share price performance and sector sentiment.
This sits alongside her broader markets coverage, giving a full view of how companies, events and investors interact across the local exchange.
4 more finance journalists.
Aaron Bell
Aaron Bell stands out for turning broker research and complex market commentary into clear stories for everyday investors. He writes about the Australian share market as a journalist for The Motley Fool Australia and also works as a freelance journalist and editor focused on financial topics and the Australian economy. His beat covers ASX-listed companies and exchange-traded funds. He writes on broker recommendations, valuation changes, price targets, upside forecasts, earnings results, guidance, and share price reactions. He also covers thematic and emerging markets ETFs, NASDAQ-focused funds, and sectors such as space-related industries. In his reporting, he uses numbers, rating changes, and target prices to explain risk, reward, and what has changed in the business.
Adam McCleery
Adam McCleery tracks the money and deals shaping advertising and media agencies. He is a journalist at AdNews, covering agency pitches, account moves, media buying decisions, budgets, contracts and settlements. His beat sits between finance, media and marketing, with a focus on advertiser confidence, commercial outcomes and the pressures facing agencies, brands and media owners. He reports on television, streaming, subscription models and platform strategies, as well as artificial intelligence, data, privacy and ad technology. His past work spans print, digital and business-to-business titles. He writes in a straightforward, deal-driven style. He follows how brands review, consolidate or shift agency relationships, and how pricing, measurement, fragmentation, policy and economic conditions affect spending, investment, risk and the value of agency services.
Adelaide Miller
Adelaide Miller is an award-winning national business reporter at the ABC who stands out for linking markets coverage with accountability reporting on how finance, regulation and corporate decisions affect workers, consumers and small businesses. She covers superannuation, small business obligations, the ASX, global indices, inflation, government debt, investor sentiment, cryptocurrency, corporate conduct, mortgage stress, and consumer impact. She reports on the gap between legislative intent and on-the-ground practice, and she often uses data, live markets context, and direct reporting from affected people. Her background includes ABC Investigations, Background Briefing, and Four Corners. She also has reported on AI-driven political campaigning, Telstra’s Senate inquiry scrutiny, family law, and a personal essay on her grandmother’s dementia. She works across TV, radio, online, and podcast formats.
Adeshola Ore
Adeshola Ore reports on finance and public policy through their effects on everyday life. They are a reporter at the Guardian, covering tax debates, public spending, institutional policy and the communities shaped by them. Their beat also includes politics, rights, social equity, climate, migration, Indigenous policy, agriculture, food safety and public health. Notable reporting has covered bird flu and egg supplies, catastrophic floods, death cap mushroom poisonings, refugee communities, university misconduct and place-naming rules in Tasmania. Earlier work included global climate conferences, international affairs and social policy. Ore reports through live political coverage, ground-level interviews, documents and hearings. They write news features and explainers that clarify complex rules, risks and rights. They also contribute to the Guardian’s daily news podcast, bringing field reporting and interviews with affected communities into wider discussions of politics and policy.