Australian fund managers will, for the most part, tell you that they are stock pickers and that macro doesn’t matter – performance is about finding the right company at the right price. But that’s not quite right. Macro always matters, sometimes more and sometimes less.Most active Australian fund managers don’t take macro bets, leaving bottom-up stock selection to drive positioning and letting fundamentals determine return. Nothing to argue against that here, except that when key macro and market drivers have no trend, or little consistency, fundamentals become even less relevant for near-term performance. Let me explain.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles