Tag: Ashburton Investments

Investment and financial fraud is on the rise across the world. Each day thousands of people are conned out of their hard-earned money by scams that have increasingly become sophisticated. There are dozens of ways scammers use to gain access to people’s accounts, often masquerading as being from financial institutions.

2020 will be remembered as the year where the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world taking the lives of many. This human tragedy was accompanied by an economic crisis as global economies shut down in an attempt to slow down the spread of the disease.

Global equities rallied close to 40% from March lows to post one of the strongest quarters in a decade. The rally was led by the United States (US), perversely the country with the most COVID-19 cases globally, with healthcare and tech stocks up a combined 23%.

Active and passive investing are simply different methods of gaining access to financial markets, and there are benefits and drawbacks to each. Our view is that one does not have to choose between active and passive, but that the two work very well together in an investor’s portfolio.

Amongst the global elites attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, financial companies represent the biggest single industry attendance, which makes it clear that it’s all about the political power of money. Power, politics and finance in today’s economic systems go hand in hand. 

South African listed retailers have been going through a difficult period of late. Not only have the retailers been faced with extremely tough economic conditions, but many retailers have also meaningfully slowed down their space expansion (especially within urban areas), which has been a significant driver of growth in the past.

There are many concerns swirling around South African investors at the moment, making it a particularly tricky time to establish a level of strategy conviction. Major geopolitical events could have any number of outcomes and in South Africa (SA), pervasive uncertainty seems to be the watchword as we inch towards elections in May. 

It’s that time of year again where more than 3,000 of the world’s top leaders including heads of state, central bankers and representatives from many of the world’s top companies converge on the little town of Davos, Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF).

A new paradigm of fear and uncertainty was unleashed on the world with the demise of Lehmans on the 15 September 2008. And while markets have recovered, spectacularly in some cases, a lingering symptom of the crisis could be one of today’s biggest risks to buoyant stock markets. 

A new word has entered the South African vocabulary - Ramaphoria. The warm fuzzy feeling that permeates the fabric of the new 'New South Africa'. It is really amazing how (effectively) changing one person can make such a difference. The future looks much brighter.