The Preamble
For the background to this series of posts: here, here and here. And the summary:
- Small investors have some investing options.
- You can invest occasionally in lump sums (the once-off investors) or monthly through debit orders (the monthly investors).
- As for things to invest in, I’m a general fan of low-cost equity-index-tracker ETFs (as is Warren Buffett). But there are other possibilities as well.
- This series of posts is there to see which would work out well.
- Then there are some indicators at the end. Because why not.
A look at the week everyone had:
Once-Off Investors
In pictures:
Gold? Goodness gracious. Consistently beaten by a fixed deposit rate for 33 weeks. Shameful.
On the upside – the market correction is still re-correcting itself.
In numbers:
Monthly Investors
In pictures:
In numbers:
The Indicators
Two things:
- Unemployment dropped slightly.
- The balance of trade position improved.
That, in itself, is not the most useful of information. Mainly because falling unemployment can be either:
- People getting more jobs (hurrah), or
- People deciding to no longer look for jobs, and therefore, falling out of the statistic (less hurrah)
And balance of trade positions are prone to fluctuation.
In probably more important news, the exchange rate is weakening again:
There is talk of that being caused by the surprise stimulus announcement from the Bank of Japan – which, ironically enough, can also be used to justify a strengthening of the Rand on the back of the market going a bit more Risk On. What that’s really saying: the market for exchange rates is a curious and fickle thing. In South Africa, it’s driven by foreign speculation and local imports/exports. But the market is so small that there’s no telling which flows might affect it more strongly and/or when.
The Stock Market continues to recover:
And despite the weakening of the Rand, that recovery is still taking place in real terms:
All in all, I’m feeling a bit vindicated.
The 10 year government bond has remained quite flat:
Gold and Platinum are dipping back (especially Gold – geezlike):
…but in ZAR terms, it looks less bad on the Platinum front (which is some good news for the Platinum producers):
The Oil Price is busily reaching four year lows:
…also in ZAR terms:
Until next week!
Rolling Alpha posts opinions on finance, economics, and the corporate life in general. Follow me on Twitter @RollingAlpha, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/rollingalpha.
