SPACs, or ‘Special-Purpose Acquisition Company’, are the latest investment frenzy as investors ranging from hedge funds to everyday investors, rush to access these speculative assets in the hope that they might be investing in the next Tesla or Amazon. SPACs are essentially publicly traded companies that have no operations and hold nothing but cash. They…
Listed property was the top performing local asset class over a period of 15 years from 2002 through to the end of 2017, outperforming the broader equity market by 5% per year over that period. The outperformance was driven by a range of factors: the listed property businesses being managed more professionally, the benefits of…
This is a story about what the frenzy of crowds can do when sufficiently organized and have little to lose. In January 2021, GameStop shares soared almost 2500%, or 25x your initial investment. Share prices rarely make headline news, but this time was different. The apparent driver being a group of trash-talking, meme busting millennials…
South African businesses have a strong history of successfully expanding their operations offshore and becoming well renowned global businesses. This has been done to access growth opportunities in offshore markets and to diversify away from a lower growth and higher risk domestic environment. While some companies have achieved success in their offshore pursuits, there are…
For many investors keeping track of their portfolios is an anxious pursuit. Markets seem to behave in a non-sensical way at times, with any manner of factors causing anguish. Inflation expectations, GDP growth, sentiment, the oil price, central bank policy, debt levels, company mergers and acquisitions, cases of fraud and market disruption. These are all…
There has been a lot of fear mongering by the media and by those with agendas around the matter of policy reforms regarding Retirement Funds. Below we are sharing an article and response from Allan Gray’s team which provide a lot of clarity. Will prescribed assets be used as a policy tool? Sandy McGregor, Allan…
An interesting trend has emerged out of the depths of the current crisis: Gold has made a stunning comeback. Recently it surpassed $2000 for the first time in history[1] after languishing for much of the past decade. Right now, gold is the consensus trade in portfolios. This trend goes hand in hand with another phrase…
Dear Clients, While you may not already know, we are hoping that this letter will take a giant leap forward in emphasising our core WHY, or purpose, which is FINANCIAL WELLNESS. And what better way to show our commitment to Your, and Your Family’s, Financial Wellness, than by writing this High-Alert Message on Covid-19’s raising…
In this post we wish to share some of our favourite financial product solutions and strategies. 1. The Power of Rand-Cost Averaging – Drip-feeding money into an investment to get a better average price and smoother return Basically, instead of braving the virtually impossible task of perfectly timing an entry into the markets, an investor…
With Coronavirus causing turmoil in investment markets globally we have seen significant market moves across asset classes over the past week. With such an event it is extremely difficult to estimate investment outcomes, however one trait is reasonably certain: our human bias for loss aversion, which is heightened when fear like this spreads. This fear…