The first quarter of 2015 is well under way and what an exciting start to the year it has been. The Swiss National Bank decided to unpeg the Swiss Franc from the Euro, causing a 20% move in the currency cross and unprecedented volatility. Syriza, an extreme left – anti-austerity political party, had a landslide victory
When thinking about markets in the New Year, perhaps we should not just read the multitudes of 2015 forecasts by every expert under the sun, but rather reflect on bulls, bears and the Moa (the New Zealand equivalent to the Dodo). Our aversion to risk comes from deep biological imperatives that have allowed humans to avoid
The term ‘Smart Beta’ is being heard more and more in investment discussions these days. It’s not clear, however, what this actually means. One famous financial economist – Bill Sharpe (the winner of the Nobel prize for his work on the Capital Asset Pricing Model, or CAPM) – actually called it a complete misnomer. As
The recent decline in the NYMEX oil price over the last six months, from $107 to less than $63 a barrel, has been covered extensively by the world’s media and even though many are already trying to call a “bottom”, I personally believe it has a very high probability of being a global, long-term (if not permanent) game
Last week I talked about two profound challenges that our industry will face in 2015: firstly, to collaborate with the FSB in reviewing and implementing the 55 proposals introduced by the FSB’s framework for South Africa’s Retail Distribution Review (“RDR”) by 2016. At the same time, we potentially face a large divergence in the performance
