As investors we hate ambiguity, we want certainty, which is why we dislike the idea of randomness. We want our advisors / managers to know exactly what is going on. Financial experts must speak confidently and explain what is driving
Financial advisors also act, speak like preachers
At gym, the other day a local minister mentioned that he regularly read my article. He questioned me on the difficulty of selecting a new topic each week. His passing words were, “at least you know how we ministers feel
Proper Investor’s input is best
Harry Markowitz developed Modern Portfolio Theory, which theorized that investors could design a portfolio to maximize returns by accepting a quantifiable amount of risk. In other words, investors could reduce risk by diversifying their assets and asset allocation of their investments using
Here’s looking forward to the mirror image of 2020 for 2021
Driving to Cape Town on the N2 last week I witnessed a young lady come to near standstill as she turned her head around to look-in her back window in order to check on approaching traffic before changing lanes. This
The end of value investing?
Value style managers have struggled on a relative basis to keep up with broad market indices, which have been driven higher by a handful of mega-cap quality / growth companies mainly listed in the US. Value managers have been underweighting
Investor behaviour risky
“Smart money” is used to describe institutional or professional investors, by default that makes the rest of us the “not so smart money”. What seems to distinguish the “smart” from the “not so smart” is the degree of emotional influence
Look for long-term investors
The debate on active vs. passive investment strategies is never ending. If you google active vs. passive there are tens and thousands of articles on the topic. For less informed readers, passive investment strategies refer to tracker or index funds,
Don’t quit now, rather crawl; there will always be an upside
As a child I grew up thinking that I would one day run the Comrades marathon. I read somewhere older athletes were better suited to the long distance, which was the excuse a clung to until the dream faded into
Retirement is a ticking bomb
I fear the average South African is facing a ticking time bomb iro underfunded retirement as we continue to kick the proverbial can down the road until we are forced to deal with the reality of the situation and then
Do you trust robots for advice?
In a world of accelerating disruption where technology as enabler allows a person to build a billion-dollar business from their parent’s basement even the most established business models are no longer secure. The disruptors quickly become the incumbents at risk