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Cool heads needed now more than ever

01 March 2018

The fragility of the economic landscape that plagued local investors throughout 2017– peaking in December with the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as leader of the African National Congress (ANC) – was all but forgotten following Jacob Zuma’s resignation.

Unsettling times but hold tight … we have been here before

28 February 2018

Somewhat ironically, each new year launches into the same old news cycle: the WEF meetings at Davos, the State of the Nation (Sona) speech, presentation of the national Budget to Parliament. Those a bit longer in the tooth may feel that it’s all over-hyped – “sound and fury, signifying nothing” – because invariably these events don’t become watershed moments, just brief intermissions that change little, if anything.

The balanced solution that’s far from passive

28 February 2018

As investors, we’re all looking for the same thing: a certain outcome and a smooth ride to that destination. On top of that, we also want maximum returns with minimum risk. Sounds impossible? Over the short-term perhaps. But over the medium to long term it’s not that far-fetched. The key remains: sufficient equity exposure, diversification, low fees and low correlation between funds in a multi-managed solution.

An investor-friendly Budget against a favourable global backdrop

27 February 2018

There were more jitters on global markets last week as investors tried to price in the pace of interest rate increases, but most indices ended the week in positive territory. Minutes from the Federal Reserve’s January monetary policy meeting – released with a three-week lag – show that the participants are currently comfortable with the US inflation outlook, but increasingly think US growth will surprise on the upside. The fear of many investors is that this would lead to interest rates rising faster than currently expected. The yield on the US 10-year Treasury, the global benchmark, has almost doubled from 1.6% in mid-2016 to close to 3% last week. Rising yields do not just imply higher borrowing costs for companies and governments, but also potentially make shares relatively less attractive, hence the renewed volatility on equity markets.

quick poll

Question

Do you think short-term insurance broking will survive the AI plus humanoid robotics age?

Answer

Human first always Not a chance Possibly maybe Yes, but reimagined

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