Investment update – June 2020 Nervousness and negativity abound at present. Our conversations are filled with the virus; the effect on the economy; corruption; politics; prescribed assets; racism; expropriation without compensation; rating agency downgrades; Rand weakness; etc., not to mention the impact all this is having on our investments. Yet our portfolios are at or […]
We are frequently asked: what does “long term” mean? Our response is often met with: “but I don’t have long term”. We focus on the longer term because it is more predictable. In the short term, anything can happen, things are more speculative and driven by unpredictable events. This is the realm of gamblers. Simon
Long term investing Read More »
We live in interesting times. Change is the only constant. Shaun le Roux from PSG Asset Management says “Investors should, …, be very careful not to panic and take steps that could be detrimental to their portfolios in the long run. The political situation is very fluid and if the current political direction is reversed
SA Cabinet Reshuffle, S&P Downgrade, what now? Read More »
I recently finished Mark Blyth’s book – Austerity: The history of a dangerous idea. Blyth is professor of International Political Economy at Brown University. It concerned me that I didn’t understand how the world was going to get itself out of the overindebted state we are in. It seems economists don’t have any particularly clever
Global Macro-Economic Commentary Read More »
I am quoting and borrowing some thoughts from Robin Angus – author of the November 2016 Personal Assets Trust PLC newsletter: “A sea-change in politics? ‘There are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a
A sea-change in politics? Read More »
Exchange Traded Funds have taken the investment world by storm over the last decade and are even proposed by Warren Buffet as the low-cost investment of choice for retail investors. The development of ETFs arose on the back of index tracker funds (which they are not). They are sold as a simple, safe, low cost
Beginning in the Summer of 1999, every two months, Britain auctioned off 25 tonnes (804,400troy ounces) of its long-held gold reserve at prices below $300 an ounce (remember goldpeaked at $800 an ounce in 1980). Its stated goal was to gradually replace 415 tonnes of goldwith more fashionable monetary reserves, such as euros, yen, and
