Explore the Category

Imara launches Balanced Fund to expand unit trust range

28 August 2014 | General

Imara Asset Management South Africa has expanded its boutique unit trust range with the launch of the Imara MET Balanced Fund.

How to protect yourself in uncertain times

28 August 2014 | General

Wealthy individuals have a lot more in common than their wealth. Ambition, skill, patience, consistency, and a strategic game plan are vital to ensure success. Keeping their eye on the end goal and never giving up have been key to reaching greater heights.

An Unconstrained View of Corporate Credit amid the Rate Debate

26 August 2014 | General

During times of volatility like we’ve seen recently in the corporate credit market, I think it’s important to separate out the technical from the fundamental trends. In terms of the former, we have seen some outflows from some high-yield bond funds recently as well as from bank-loan funds. However, I think the longer-term fundamentals largely remain in place, and it is encouraging to us that the US second-quarter corporate earnings season has been very good, in our view. US economic growth in the second quarter posted a relatively strong rebound after a soft first quarter, and default rates remain near historical lows. I think a little volatility like we’ve seen in the bond market recently is not necessarily a bad thing; people seem to be reassessing whether market valuations make sense. A bit of a pullback is not necessarily unhealthy.

The benefits of using protected equity in your portfolio

26 August 2014 | Equities

The investment market is a dynamic environment in its own right, but taking into consideration picking the right adviser for your needs, the constant development of new products on offer, various solutions and platforms for these products (and emotions playing a much bigger part in the decision-making process than we care to admit) and you end up with a very confusing mix of available alternatives. Believe it or not, life would actually be simpler if the before-mentioned “how?” questions were the only ones to consider… they are merely one side of the coin. A far tougher set of questions are in store with the “what?” or the “when?” with investments. Specifically, “what is the risk profile and how much risk can the investor take on board?” followed by “what asset class do I use to satisfy this need at a stated risk?” Only then do we get to “at what price or valuation?”… Surely a question this late in the chain of events cannot really be that important, right? This is where most investors would miss the bus completely!

quick poll

Question

The strongest deterrent against FSP compliance missteps is or should be:

Answer

A criminal conviction Debarment Fine or penalty Any of the above can work

View the Results