Wednesday, 30 January 2019


As an investor, the least of my concerns is how much a Gigabyte of data costs. I can't believe how much stock exchange operators and data providers are able to charge for share price and stock exchange data.

My small brain can't comprehend how the JSE "owns" the closing price of AVI or any other listed company. Why do I have to pay them a fee for these prices. As shareholder, it is my right to use the share price of my own company as I see fit (I also don't understand how someone can own a sports fixture list... but that is for another day). The price of a company is the price of company. It is a fact. Imagine if I couldn't publish that the sky is blue.

Yes, I know the JSE infrastructure is expensive but they charge hefty listing fees. The model needs to change. Models changed in other industries. Just ask Multichoice about streaming.

In my opinion, it is the private investor who suffers. I can't afford a Bloomberg terminal (or any of the less expensive options). I propose data should be free. At least, delayed data should be free. Heck, give me end of day data free!

At the very minimum:

  • End of day closing price data
  • SENS data (this the JSE news service - companies are compelled to use this service to communicate with their shareholders and yet you have to pay for it... ok, I am not being fair. You can get something like the last 7 days free on a financial news website. Archives? Fat chance.)
Without price data, it is very difficult to calculate the performance of a portfolio. I already have to manually record all dividends! 

So this post is actually a plea... if anyone out there has a relatively inexpensive I am all ears. I am not looking for those funny overpriced Sharemagic-like trading systems. I just want to be able to access this data in a csv or excel file that is automatically sent to me daily. 

PS: forgive me for the moan :)

Image result for share price data images

Monday, 28 January 2019

Certainty is for the mediocre

"Think about the most meaningful thing you have ever done. I would wager that it took a measure of risk, uncertainty and hard work to achieve. In this, as with all risk, comes a valuable lesson: to strive for certainty is to doom oneself to mediocrity."

This applies to many areas of life but especially investing. When we invest we crave certainty. We want to know the whichever shares we buy will definitely without shadow of a doubt "go up". And they must go up in a straight line. So when this doesn't happen and share prices jump around, we panic and do stupid things (like liquidating and holding on to cash... just waiting to catch the bottom of the market). We must embrace uncertainty... even celebrate it.

I am trying not to be a groupie but the Behavioural Investor sure has some wise words in it!

Here is the rest of Daniel Crosby's favourite paragraph in his book:

Here is the original tweet.

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

How Dan Manages His Cash Flow

It took me a while to realise that psychology is most important when it comes to wealth creation. So much for fancy excel spreadsheets, complicated models with discounted cash flows and, dare I say it, forecasts.

Dan Egan is a behavioural scientist. He is darn good one too as he is the Managing Director of Behavioral Finance & Investing at Betterment. He wrote a cool blog post on how he manages his monthly cash flow.

Personally, I use 22seven but it can get quite tedious. You have to be disciplined to ensure all your expenses go into the right categories. I am lucky that I don't mind doing but most people find it a pain. Dan doesn't use categories and he spends anything that he hasn't earmarked for saving. He is kind enough to share his method in the following blog post:

In case time is short. Dan sums his method as follows:

- Spend what you don't save
- Earmark and automate
- Minimize overhead
- Vaccinate against lifestyle creep

Sunday, 20 January 2019

Doing the reps

One of my favourite bloggers is Ben Carlson from Ritholtz Wealth. I really enjoyed his post about doing the hard yards. He sums it up best:

There’s no singular path to success in any endeavor so my advice to anyone looking to further themselves is to put in the reps, even when they seem meaningless.
If you want to become a writer, start writing every single day, even if it’s terrible.
If you want to become a better investor, start reading about the markets, and put some actual money to work.
If you want to work in a specific company, start out as an unpaid intern or figure out how to provide value to someone who already works there.
If you want to become an entrepreneur, quit reading hashtags on Instagram and actually try to start a business or sell a product.
If you want to become something or someone you have to put in the reps.
There are no shortcuts.

It made me think about investing and business. How many people do you know talk about how they need to start investing or tell you about their big idea but do nothing about it. If they do anything it usually involves getting a logo designed and renting office space. They forget about the hard work that needs to be done (i.e. selling a product or service).

So if you still don't have an investment portfolio. Get off your ass, open a trading account (EasyEquities is a good one), start reading and put some money to work. Time to make it happen.

Image result for putting in the hard yards

Tuesday, 15 January 2019

Wild man and markets

I recently finished Daniel Crosby's Behavioral Investor. It was a great read. I especially enjoyed the first half which talked more about us humans and our brains than anything to do with stocks and bonds.

The first chapter is titled Sociology. According to Google, sociology is defined as the study of the development, structure, and functioning of human society. I haven't come across to many investment books that talk about sociology.

Our ability to create social narratives distinguish us from the rest of the animal kingdom. What on earth does that mean? In short, humans like stories. As Crosby puts it, "To put it bluntly, we make up stories about the world and then act as if they are real:" This has enabled us to create many things such as money, laws, country borders, the stock market and so on. None of this stuff is "real". Crosby sums it up well, "our shared belief in them and behaving as though they are real brings about orderly civilizations steeped in mutual trust."

It is this unique ability that causes us to make very poor investing decisions. Because of our "complex" thoughts we are victim to self-deception and irrationality. We follow popular opinion and belief. We want to fit and/or boost our egos. Think about it... You have argument with someone and you are in possession of facts that completely destroy their hypothesis. Often this will not change that someone's mind. We remark in jest that "facts are obviously optional". Your opponent either doesn't want to look bad by conceding the argument or they simply ignore the facts as they contradict a widely held belief (even if that belief is obviously false!).

So to sum it up in easy to understand terms. We suck at investing. Why? Our brains are wired to reason in social rather objective terms (see paragraph above). Therefore, before we even think about investing we need to understand human nature.

In the chapters that follow, Crosby shows us how to go about this but those ideas will be for another blog post. I have also included a link to the book below. It is worth buying. (It is not some silly affiliate link or anything like that).

(As an aside, after reading this book I think I was able to explain how Donald Trump made it to the White House...)

Wednesday, 9 January 2019


Drama. Plenty of it. Woolworths (or "Woolworse") has cribbed someone's product design. Ouch. The evidence is damning and Woolworths have pulled the product from its shelves. They will then wait it out until people get over it. Life will go on.

As a Woolworths shareholder and SME owner, I am pretty disappointed. I expect better. Woolworths lives behind this squeaky clean ethical image. Of course, people make mistakes and in this case, there was no doubt a couple of individuals who decided to rip off a product. I am sure there were some nice corporate bonuses involved too.

There is a point to all this. If we look at the investment universe that is available to us, we have two choices we either invest in companies that we don't always agree with or we invest in nothing and put our money under a mattress. We sacrifice some of our beliefs to ensure we don't end up on the street one day. People who view the world in black and white have a hard time living with this. There are many shades of grey in this world.

So yes, we own companies such as Anheuser-Busch, Imperial Tobacco, British American Tobacco... heck some would even argue Facebook is one of these "evil companies" now.

The way I deal with the "guilt" is by supporting causes that are close to my heart. For example, we have just launched a reusable coffee cup exchange in South Africa. In short, I believe that you should focus on sorting out your retirement etc at a macro level then make a difference in the world at a micro level. I believe that over time as more and more of us make small changes in our lifes, over the long term companies would need to adapt. And since I am an investor, I love the long term.

What about you? Has this ever crossed your mind?

Monday, 7 January 2019

Talking Coffee

I have an interest in a coffee roasting company. Long story short, the team there found out that I blog about investing and have made a writing comeback. They then asked me if I ever wrote about them and I must admit I had never thought about it before. The reality is the business is part of my investment portfolio. Tonight, I thought I could do two things:

  1. Finally acknowledge the coffee team
  2. Relate a few quick lessons about non-listed investments I have learn't
I remember my varsity days. We were all going to have our businesses. We were going to do what we wanted and work on our own terms- conquer the world. We all graduated and reality set in. We got jobs. 

Ironically, having your own business is anything but getting to do what you want or working on your own terms. It is not for everyone but it can still be fun. I am fortunate enough to have exposure to consulting, small private company investments and listed investments. So what's different?

In my experience:
  • Private companies trade on much lower multiples than listed companies (basically, R1 income in a small private company is usually worth less than R1 in a large listed company)
  • I was used to working with degree'ed individuals and a lot of CA/CFA types (who are great too :) ). It has been a breath of fresh air working with people from diverse backgrounds. We have really colourful characters that include a trainee pilot, a musician and an actor to name a few
  • Small private companies are much more management intensive. Even though I have a non-operational role in the business, I find that I spend more time on my private investments than looking at MTN or AVI shares. On the coffee side, I have a passion for coffee so often it doesn't even feel like work.
  • Being involved in running a small business means you need to consider everything. You are the lawyer, the accountant, the strategist and so on. Everything is just on a smaller scale. I feel like I have picked up some great general business skills that are applicable to listed investing.
Should you rush out and start/buy a private company? Only you can answer that. The same rules apply, though. You need to ask:
  • Will a private investment add value to my portfolio?
  • Will it diversity my income stream?
  • Do I have enough time to run/monitor it?
  • Do I have/need good business partners I can trust?
For me, I have been able to get involved in some great businesses and work with some awesome people. It is a welcome challenge. In particular, the coffee roasting business is in an industry that I love. 

Wednesday, 2 January 2019

The One Stock to Buy in 2019

Looking for the best share to buy in 2019? Look no further...

Nah, only kidding (Sorry for the clickbait :) ). Who would write such rubbish... ahem, nearly every financial publication in the world. Look, they need to sell news somehow and we love shortcuts. Wouldn't it be awesome, if we could just buy one company and make a ton of money? Be my guest. You may get lucky but don't count on it.

I have no idea what 2019 will hold. If I had my way, there would be a new president in the White House and there would be no Brexit. So instead creating a "Top 3 Companies to Invest in 2019" list, I have created a list of financial affairs things to do this year. Here are some ideas:

  • Start a tax free savings account using low-cost products (You can do so at EasyEquities)
  • Review the fees you are paying your financial adviser
  • Make a list of books to read (investment and other)
  • Set up monthly debit orders for discretionary savings and investments
  • Cut unnecessary subscriptions (unused gym contracts, DSTV etc)
  • Don't buy a new car if it is "paid off" in 2019
  • Plan a holiday with your family (do it now so you can save and budget)
  • And most importantly, learn to live a little below your means... don't be one financial crisis from ruin
Some of you may already have done some of the above. Well done if you have. Can you think of any others?