Investor sentiment turns sour Investors’ initial vote on the government’s Budget was positive with the rand firming and bond yields declining. But sentiment soon turned negative once the details and ramifications of National Treasury’s decisions were fully digested. Initially the rand strengthened to R18.825 against the dollar, gaining almost half a percent on the perception…
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a gambler is “a person who risks losing money in the hope of winning a lot more money.” An investor, on the other hand, is defined as “a person who puts money into something in order to make a profit.” Several pots on the boil One of the biggest differences…
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” (Thomas Edison) According to the most recent Forbes 400 list, which names the richest people in America, hedge fund manager Ken Griffin is worth $35 billion. That makes him the 22nd richest person in the US. He is also far…
RAs: The big one Retirement Annuities (RAs) offer significant tax breaks as contributions to the investments are tax-deductible, and the growth within the funds is tax-free. (No income, dividends or capital gains tax applies.) You can contribute a maximum of 27.5% of your taxable income to retirement funding each year, up to a maximum of…
A tale of two economies US stock markets continued to gain momentum as January progressed, reaching successive new record highs in the second half of the month as investor confidence in the central bank’s ability to engineer a soft economic landing and reduce interest rates increased. That contrasted with South Africa, where the Reserve Bank’s…
“We cannot reason ourselves out of our basic irrationality. All we can do is learn the art of being irrational in a reasonable way.” (Aldous Huxley). The madness of crowds None of us are rational investors. We’re humans – fuelled by fear, overconfidence, and sometimes greed – to survive. Psychologists have long argued that we…
“What we believe is heavily influenced by what we think others believe.” (Thomas Gilovich) Do you remember 2017? It wasn’t that long ago, but few of us can probably recall what markets did that year. For the record, it was a great year for stock markets. The JSE All Share Index was up 21%. The…
Chances are you think you make rational decisions – about investments and about life. But science has shown that this is not the case. Accepting that you are not a rational investor is one of the first steps to achieving investment success. B is for bias Broadly speaking, there are two types of bias. Cognitive…
2023 will be defined as the year where predominantly negative global economic expectations never materialised and most stock market analysts and economist forecasters were proved wrong. All eyes were on the impact the steep rise in interest rates would have on the global economy, with recession seen as an inevitable outcome. With equity markets already…