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Why to leave your investment decisions to the professionals

25 March 2014 | General

The past five years have been marked by abnormal investment markets. To promote economic stimulus in the wake of the financial crisis, central banks in developed countries have made significant monetary injections into their economies. Globally, interest rates hit record lows. At the same time, South African equities – sheltered from the brunt of the crisis – hit all-time highs.

Pockets of Opportunity in Europe, Emerging Markets

24 March 2014 | General

In early 2014, there seemed to be a few more areas of concern than we saw in late 2013. There has been some questioning of the stability of the US economic recovery, and of course, worries about prospects for emerging markets. That said, we are still finding plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the global equity outlook this year, and we are still finding values. We feel confident enough in the story of the US economic recovery from the 2007–2009 financial crisis that it almost sounds strange to us to still call it “recovery.” It feels pretty stable, considering the revival we’ve seen in the housing market, the improvement in household incomes, the deleveraging on the private sector side, and the impressive amounts of cash US corporations have on their balance sheets. That being the case, US valuations have come up, and while we still like the United States, as value investors we feel more strongly about European equities. European equity markets also performed well in 2013, but according to our analysis, Europe appears generally more compelling than the United States in terms of where earnings are, where margins are, and the amount of catch-up European companies continue to do in relation to the United States.

Predictably: a highly-sought-after commodity for investors

24 March 2014 | General

Many factors in recent years have culminated in a shift from active to passive investment management, most notably the inability of active managers to generate significant and consistent alpha over the longer term (whilst continuing to charge high fees).

Absa confirms listing of NewPalladium, its third commodity ETF

24 March 2014 | ETF's (Exchange Traded Funds)

The corporate and investment banking division of Absa Bank Limited (Absa), member of Barclays, today confirmed that it will list its palladium-backed Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), NewPalladium, on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, on 27 March 2014.

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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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