Sohn Hearts & Minds 2017: Why Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes would short Facebook

Former prime minister Paul Keating's prediction that the bull market can be pierced by a "Minsky moment"-style collapse has an element of truth, economists agree, but will be almost impossible to avert.

Investors of today were “investing in the age of longevity,” UK entrepreneur and philanthropist, Jim Mellon, told the Sohn Hearts & Minds conference yesterday.

At the Sohn Hearts & Minds conference held in Sydney on Friday leading fund managers from Australia and around the world share their best investment ideas to raise millions of dollars for medical research. Here are a selection of the top tips:

Australia must diversify its economy away from coal exports to thrive in a modern economy as renewable energy costs plummet and investment in new coal-fired plants falls to zero, inventor and former Microsoft executive Ramez Naam, warned yesterday.

It costs $3000 to attend, but few along at Sydney’s second Sohn Hearts & Minds Investment Leaders Conference would say it was anything but a bargain. The event moves the market.

If you had to short one of the FANG four – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google (now Alphabet) – which one would it be? And if you could only own one for the next five to 10 years, which company would you pick?

The AFR shares some of the best ideas from the 2017 Sohn Hearts & Minds Conference

The rising importance of technology was the key theme of the second annual Sohn Hearts & Minds conference yesterday with Google a clear favourite because of its leadership role in artificial intelligence.

Heart surgeon Nikki Stamp cut straight to the point when she opened the 2017 Sohn Hearts & Minds investment conference in Sydney with the blunt declaration "we're all here to make money".

It costs $3000 to attend, but few along at Sydney’s second Sohn Hearts & Minds Investment Leaders Conference would say it was anything but a bargain.

Some of the market's top experts claim that investors are underestimating how the accelerated pace of technological disruption will affect investment returns.

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has slammed the Turnbull Government’s foreign policy as “barren” with no new ideas except to fall in line with US policy, while China was well on the way to becoming the world’s largest economy.

Philanthropic donations will play an increasing role in funding medical research in Australia, ­according to Bob Graham, executive director of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.

Anticipation is positively febrile ahead of the second Sohn Hearts & Minds conference at Sydney's Opera House on Friday.

A day after ride-sharing company Uber agreed to sell $US10 billion in shares as the precursor to a stockmarket listing, one of Silicon Valley's rising stars claimed the Uber investors were about 10 years too late.

The architect of compulsory superannuation, former prime minister Paul Keating, has warned against the government wresting control of default contributions from the private sector, saying it would probably be a temporary move before a monopoly was sold back to the public.

The Paul Ramsay Foundation is tipping the first $10 million into a new "fund" that will track the top picks to come out of next week's Sohn Hearts & Minds conference.

The charitable foundation of the late billionaire healthcare entrepreneur Paul Ramsay is set to back a novel investment product launched to capitalise on interest in the ideas of the top stock pickers presenting at the Sohn Hearts & Minds conference next week.

Auscap Asset Management founder Tim Carleton was overseas on holidays last year when he heard of Britain’s vote to leave the EU.

Jim Mellon describes himself as an "opportunistic, competent, plagiarist" investor. "I'll take anyone's ideas," says the man that has often been described as Britain's version of Warren Buffet.

Melbourne-based fund manager Peter Cooper has a simple formula for picking stocks — a pathway of value options with people he trusts — and he applies the same formula around the world.

On 30 September, 2008, the US National Debt clock installed at New York's Times Square ran out of numbers as it ticked over $US10 trillion. In the midst of the worst financial crisis of a generation, that moment came to symbolise the alarming lack of control over public finances that would lead the Western world to doom.

One of Asia's leading hedge fund investors says institutions will only embrace cryptocurrencies once they can get comfort their holdings can't be stolen by hackers.

The Capital Group is one of the oldest and most successful asset managers in the world. Founded in 1931, it has accumulated $1.5 trillion of assets by beating the market with an intense devotion to rigorous research.

To be successful at picking Australian stocks, Greencape Capital's Matt Ryland says you have to travel with the world.

Richard Goyder, who heads one of the nation’s most generous corporates, Wesfarmers, says that working with the community is more important than it has ever been. But he says the challenge is to “make the (philanthropy) money more efficient”.

Jim Mellon is on his balcony in Ibiza, talking about the joys of a long and healthy life. At 60, he’s only halfway through what he expects will be commonplace pretty soon – an average lifespan of 110 or 120 years.

Facebook and Google are the most “over-owned” stock on the planet but could easily halve in value, British billionaire Jim Mellon believes.

The next wave of successful tech start-ups will be those that can modernise lumbering corporate giants, governments and the healthcare sector, according to prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.

Kerr Neilson has cemented his reputation as one of Australia's top investors, triumphing in the Sohn Hearts & Minds charity stock picking competition.

Watch Professor Bob Graham, Executive Director at Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute chat live on Sky News about Sohn Hearts & Minds.

Macquarie Investment Management's head of equities Patrick Hodgens says his most successful stock pick was buying Macquarie Group almost 25 years ago but last year he identified another big winner: New Zealand telco Chorus.

Sydney businessman Gary Weiss admits to being uncertain last year about whether New York’s Sohn conference, where fund managers give their investment tips to raise money for medical charities, would work in Australia.