Tag: loss aversion

Investing for the first time can be daunting – particularly when you are building your own portfolio by buying (and selling) company shares. Investing in the stock market is a “zero-sum” game, meaning that for every winner there is a loser. While picking the wrong stock(s) at some point is inevitable, we round out our top tips for ensuring that you end up with more winners than losers and that you can expertly navigate the sometimes wild and always unpredictable ride.

When we think of gender inequality in the realm of money, the perennial pay gap springs to mind. It remains a problem. The 2020 Momentum/UNISA Household Financial Wellness Insights report estimates that, on average, women earn around 30% less than men in similar jobs in South Africa. 

In his previous budget speech, Minister Mboweni mentioned a host of different taxes that the revenue man would soon be collecting from us. From personal income tax, to fuel taxes, corporate and carbon taxes – the list was long. But one tax he didn’t mention – and to his credit it is not an official tax (but I would argue it should be) – is behaviour tax.

In order to survive as a species, people have evolved to be both risk averse and loss averse, to be fearful of such possibilities. But these attributes serve us poorly as investors. To be a successful investor, one needs to overcome that fear and to take calculated risks.

It’s been over a year since the pandemic-induced stock market meltdown and since South Africa entered hard lockdown. It is time to look back and examine what this period has taught us as an industry.

The last quarter of 2018 can be described as the worst period that investors have experienced since the global meltdown of the financial markets in 2008/9. When these moments of market correction occur, astute investors sit tight while others panic and make irrational decisions.